Saturday and Sunday mornings, Texas Honey Ham is the place to be for a hearty breakfast and a bit of relaxation. Some say the restaurant offers the best breakfast tacos and sandwiches in town.

Any weekend morning will find the place filled with Westbank early risers, as well as a few folks who drove all the way across town. It’s a good bet that Cassandra Usener will be there, wearing a huge smile and a blond ponytail poking out of her green Texas Honey Ham hat. They call her their customer service savant.

Usener has become the friendly face of Texas Honey Ham. She calls everybody “sweetie” and makes even the most unrepentant night person glad to be out and about on a weekend morning, basking in the glow of her happiness. Even people stumbling to the counter searching for coffee and a good reason to live naturally perk up despite themselves when Usener tosses a “sweetie” their way.

She’s been a part of the Texas Honey Ham charm for most of the five years the place has been serving sandwiches and selling ham and turkey by the pound.

“A customer once told me that this restaurant is like the Cheers of Westlake,” she said. “I think that’s a good way to put it. It’s a real neighborhood place. I like being a part of that. I get to eat good food and talk to good people. Truth be known, I get paid to play with my friends.”

Usener grew up in Dripping Springs and graduated from Lake Travis High School. She loves the Austin area – the trees, sports and the lake. Her contentment with her life spills over into her work.

Barton Creek residents Travis White and his wife, Sharon, have been coming to Texas Honey Ham regularly since the place opened. They like the good food, and they like seeing Usener’s face light up when she sees them.

“She always smiles,” he said. “No matter how bad things are, she makes us feel happy.”

Everyone who dons a Texas Honey Ham apron is noticeably friendly. Owners Trent Hunt, Kelley Weiss and Robert Siller say that’s the way they like it.

“When we started the place, we wanted it to be a happy, fun place,” Hunt said. “We’ve been careful. We don’t have a grumpy, mean person on staff.”

Hunt said the thing that makes Usener unique is that she really is as friendly and open as she seems.

“She’s just a rare, genuinely nice person who doesn’t put on a front,” he said.

“That sort of thing just kind of spills out on everyone else,” Weiss said.

The friendly nature of the staff seems to be drawing fans for Texas Honey Ham, along with the restaurant’s firm dedication to the perfection of the American sandwich and breakfast taco.

Mary Mignatti and her family have been driving to the restaurant from out of the area for two years now. That’s how good they think the breakfast is.

“And it’s quick, the kids can all find something they like, and we can make as big a mess as we like and it doesn’t even matter,” she said. “Everybody still is nice to us.”

Rachel Luu brought a foreign exchange student from Korea, Jieun Seung, who is living with her family for three weeks, for Sunday breakfast.

“The food is so good here,” Luu said. “We wanted Jieun to get the real Texas breakfast experience.”

Usener started working for Hunt straight out of high school when he was general manager of Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q on Loop 360.

She came with him when Hunt and Weiss opened the sandwich shop five years ago. She said Hunt, Weiss and Siller have become like family to her. So have her customers. She’s watched their children grow and listened to the things going on in their lives.

“They all have such interesting stories,” she said. “They always ask me how I’m doing, and they really want to know.”

Monday afternoon at 2:30, the shop is still busy. Usener takes the time to help Jane Chenevert, who dropped in to nervously scope out plans for a Tuesday luncheon. After 10 minutes of conversation with Usener, Chenevert relaxes. She beams as she heads out the door.

“I like her exuberance,” she whispered. “She reminds me of a close friend I have in Clear Lake.”

Usener looks a little sheepish.

“Everybody here is friendly,” she said. “It’s not just me.”

Clearly, her bosses think she’s special.

“She changes people’s day,” Weiss said. “Besides, we can never fire her. She knows too many secrets.”