Vaucresson's Creole Cafe

Vaucresson's Creole Cafe By Poppy Tooker

Vaucresson’s Creole Café & Deli, on St. Bernard Avenue in New Orleans’ Seventh Ward, continues a family tradition that stretches back to 1899. That was the year Lovinsky Vaucresson, a French-Polish Jew, emigrated to New Orleans from Alsace-Lorraine with his wife, Odile Gaillard, a French woman of color.

Sonny took over the family business when his father passed away, but the bright, ambitious young man did not intend to be limited to the life of a butcher. Very fairskinned Sonny had sky-blue eyes and moved through New Orleans’ business world easily, never announcing that he was a person of color. The handsome, charming entrepreneur successfully expanded into liquor and cigarette machine businesses, making friends along the way with major French Quarter players, including Larry Borenstein, the “father” of Preservation Hall, who had extensive real estate holdings there.

Together, they opened Vaucresson’s Café Creole in 1965, the first black-owned business on Bourbon Street since Reconstruction. The restaurant was revolutionary in many ways, with a menu featuring the traditional dishes of New Orleans’ Creoles of color. From calas with café au lait in the morning through panéed veal and tomatotinged jambalaya, the café was the first of its kind in the Quarter.

In the fall of 1969, Sonny and Larry Borenstein lunched at the café with Alan Jaffe, who had recently moved to New Orleans to run Preservation Hall, and George Wein, founder of the Newport Jazz Festival. While discussing Newport’s success,

it was agreed the birthplace of jazz deserved its own festival. Soon, the element of food entered the conversation. “Sonny can bring food from the restaurant,” they collectively agreed, which is how Vaucresson’s hot sausage po-boy became today’s enduring Jazz Fest staple.

Vaucresson’s Café Creole closed in 1974, and Sonny turned his full attention to the sausage business. In 1970, he’d purchased a building on the corner of North Roman and St. Bernard Avenue, where he was determined to build his own USDA processing facility. He encountered many roadblocks due to the adverse racial politics that dominated Louisiana’s Department of Agriculture at the time, but Sonny prevailed, opening his facility in 1983. The USDA approval allowed him to seek our lucrative wholesale business previously unavailable to him.

When Sonny's youngest son, Vance, was in his senior year at Morehouse College in Atlanta, his father paud him a visit and convinced him to return home to family business. Together, they grew the business exponentially, successfully negotiating and fulfilling large wholesale contracts. Sonny suffered a fatal heart attack in 1998 and at the age of 67, and Vance stepped into his father's shoes as the family business continued to flourish.

Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters destroyed Vaucresson's processing planst on St. Bernard Avenue, but the indomitable Vance never missed a beat. A former competitor allowed him to use his facility to get back in business, guaranteeing that Vaucresson hot sausage po-boys would be served as usual at Jazz Fest 2006.

Through the difficult years that followed, Vance pressed on, working festivals and pop ups while exploring different flavor profiles. Crawfish, Alligator, Green Onion and Chicken Jerk joined Vaucresson’s Original Hot Sausage; all were met with great acclaim.

While keeping the business afloat, Vance was determined to reopen back in the Seventh Ward. He withstood years of rejection from lenders until Julius Kimbrough, executive director of Crescent City Community Land Trust, stepped in. “To protect and advance Black entrepreneurs and Black owned businesses for cultural preservation,” the CCCLT mission, dovetailed perfectly with Vaucresson’s goals.

By creating two affordable housing units on the building’s second floor, they qualified for long-term, low-interest loans previously unavailable for the commercial location. Additionally, National Urban League President Marc Morial welcomed Vaucresson’s Creole Café into the Black Restaurant Accelerator Program, granting dollars for entrepreneurial assistance, it was one of the first restaurants in the U.S. to receive the distinction.

In the fall of 2022, after 17 years, Vaucresson’s Creole Café & Deli opened in its original location on St. Bernard Avenue. In addition to the popular sausage po-boys, the café also serves gumbo and plate lunches. All the sausage varieties are offered by the pound in the deli.

Ask Vance and he’ll agree: His number one asset is Julie Frederick Vaucresson, his wife of over two decades. Julie really knows how to “think outside the casing” when it comes to the sausage business. These days she is known as the “Creole Sausage Queen” as she promotes easy ways to cook New Orleans food on local TV.

Most recently, Julie ventured into the mustard business. “A couple of years ago I looked at the enormous amount of mustard we purchased annually and thought we should do our own. It would be a perfect complement to our sausage and work as standalone products as well,” she said. Hiring a food scientist and recipe developer to acquire the basics, Julie tweaked the recipes until she had just what she wanted. Classic Creole Mustard, Louisiana Pecan and Mango are all popular flavors. Classic Creole Mustard is also offered in a spicy version. “For years I’d watch people douse our hot sausage po-boys with hot sauce, so I thought, ‘Why not?’ We’re in New Orleans and we like spice!” Julie hopes to have the mustards jarred for resale soon. “It’s a dream of ours, to one day have the sausages and

mustards all available for sale in Rouses Markets,” Vance smiled. Plans are in the works at Rouses Markets to make that dream a reality soon.

The couple’s two children, Vance, Jr. (V.J.) and daughter Hilary, grew up in the family business. This Vaucresson generation has created quite a social media sensation. V.J. is an aspiring rap artist who writes catchy material for the family to record. Hilary is the family filmmaker who edits the funny spots. Even Julie’s mom, Josette Frederick, hilariously gets in on the act, making a cameo appearance in every video.

The Creole culture of the Seventh Ward remains paramount in every aspect of Vaucresson’s business. Today, the café is a bustling community hub “where you can come in, see some of your people, meet new ones and immerse yourself in the neighborhood’s history,” Vance said. On Saturdays, they host “Power Girl Pop Ups,” where Black female entrepreneurs sell their products. “So many people generously allowed us to pop up in their businesses while we were getting our brick and mortar together,” Julie said. “We really want to pay it forward.”

New Orleans’ Creole culture is thriving on the corner of St. Bernard and North Roman in the Seventh Ward, with the Vaucresson family as keepers of the flame.