My turn:
by Brent Belsom
ABOUT BRENT BELSOM In every issue, EDGE of the Lake invites a local chef or Restaurateur to visit another eatery on the Northshore. Brent Belsom is a restaurateur with multiple locations on the Northshore. He started in the restaurant industry in high school where he bused tables, then worked his way to bartender. He went to Southern Miss, and got a degree in hospitality management. Even in school he kept one hand in the restaurant industry, becoming a sous chef, and then taking a management position in a local eatery almost as soon as he graduated. In 2005 he left restaurants to pursue a career in the oil and gas industry. He could not quite get away from the food industry though, and opened his first restaurant in 2009, even though he was still working in oil and gas. He admits his first restaurant did not do so good, but he flipped that into another concept that he ran successfully for eight years and sold it. He says he really began to find success in 2012 when he took over the Abita Springs Café. They renovated, refined the menu to a “made from scratch” breakfast, and it took off immediately. Along with a business partner, he opened the Abita Roasting Company in Covington in in 2015. Now he is exploring a quick service, drive through concept called Abita Coffee Works.