When Lise Gustavsen opened her sweet bread and coffee cafe in downtown Buchanan, she admits to being a bit nervous.

The 35-year-old Michigan native originally planned to open Gustavsen Cafe with her father, Willard Gustavsen, who had experience operating a locally owned restaurant and was a tradesmen, working in construction and patenting a specialized pizza oven invention.

For a year, the duo worked on the 600-square-foot modest building at 125 Days Ave. when they could, renovating the space to create a Nordic aesthetic that would compliment a menu that offered the family’s Norwegian sweet bread recipes, including cinnamon rolls and buns called boller. There were also plans for sandwiches, pizza and sourdough bread as well, with Willard setting forth high expectations.

“Living up to his standards and stuff and how he did things made me nervous,” Lise Gustavsen said. "But now I see it's about a lot more than that and I'm willing to learn.”

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Willard Gustavsen died from cancer in April 2021, about a year after he initially approached his daughter about joining him in the new cafe venture and eight months before the cafe officially opened on December 5. While initially thinking he would be alive when the cafe opened, Lise knew of her father’s illness before accepting the role and views carrying on the business as a way of continuing his legacy. His influence remains ever present today, with a photo of a young Willard placed behind the countertop and his handwriting tattooed on Lise’s forearm that reads “I love you Dad.”

“As soon as I opened, right away I was like, ‘Wow, he really, he just had everything very well planned out,’” she said. “I mean, I don’t know if that word ‘legacy,’ like he wouldn't want me to use that word because he was so humble.”

The one-woman bakery operation now offers a pared down menu from what was originally planned, with cinnamon rolls and bollers made with spices such as cinnamon and cardamom. Pan-roasted Ethiopian coffee is also offered, with Lise roasting the coffee herself, using techniques her father taught her from his own childhood growing up in Ethiopia.

“Now that I've opened, it's very therapeutic for me,” she said. “I think it's definitely helping me get through things in a productive manner, and I appreciate him and all that he did.”

The cafe is currently set up for carryout only, with covered outdoor seating options constructed by the Gustavsen father-daughter duo that will likely become more popular as the weather warms. Lise said she hasn’t ruled out offering indoor seating in the next few months inside the quaint space, but she wants to be considerate of comfortability in light of the coronavirus pandemic. She also hasn’t eliminated the idea of eventually adding pizza to the menu, though, she says, that will likely be something that will be introduced in the summertime.

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So far, Lise said, she can’t complain about business, saying that the community has really been supportive. But while keeping things afloat monetarily is an ever-present consideration, her concentration isn’t just focused on money. Instead, it’s about investing in the community through her small business, something that she says her father had once prioritized and she admits to not appreciating or understanding before.

“There's all these people that he knows here and he's always helping people and doing things for the community and … he was helping them and I'm like, ‘I hope there's enough time for me,’” she said. “I was being selfish and I knew I was going to lose him, but I see why it's so important now — you're creating a place and he really impacted the community a lot. … I just want to be here and carry on a little bit of his creativity, and I want to be something really little and positive for the community.”

Gustavsen Cafe is open Sunday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Contact Mary Shown at 574-235-6244 and mshown@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @maryshownSBT and @marketbasketSBT.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Market Basket: Gustavsen Cafe in Buchanan offers Norwegian pastries