Cuz O’s Owner Opens Up About Franchise Hopes

Rocky Mount Telegram:

A long road of trials led to Marcus Herring’s eventual success as owner of Cuz O’s — a take-out grill on the corner of Thomas and Grace streets known for its turkey burgers and beef hot dogs.

The restaurant reached its one-year anniversary this month and has given Herring more hope as he looks forward to eventually franchising the business in Eastern North Carolina.

In his first four months of running the restaurant, Herring said, he wanted to quit. The refrigerator broke down and workers didn’t show, among other setbacks. In October, his mother — one member of his small family — died. But he persevered.

“Can’t nobody send you where you want to go,” Herring said. “Only you can do it.”

A Rocky Mount-native, 36-year-old Herring attended Rocky Mount City Schools until he dropped out of Rocky Mount High School when he was 17.

“I lost a close friend of mine at the time, and it was too much,” Herring said. “I didn’t feel like I needed to go (to school). I was a young man in the ’80s. The streets were crazy. So I took the wrong route.”

Herring completed his General Equivalency Diploma and began working soon after. Herring said he kept a job at QVC for eight years before deciding that he was tired of working for someone else.

“As long as you let somebody else drive your life, you’ll never get to where you want to go,” Herring said. “So I decided to take it upon myself to open my business because I like to cook.”

Cuz O’s — short for “cousin” — doesn’t sell pork because Herring doesn’t eat it, and that’s the unique angle that he pitches to restaurant customers. He won’t sell what he doesn’t eat — treating those that choose to dine with him like family.

Full story.