Rouses Magazine - The 60th Anniversary Issue by Rouses Markets

MARCH | APRIL 2020

family owned since 1960

60 FOODS WE LOVE TO EAT 60 THINGS WE LOVE TO MAKE 60 INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE US LOCAL

plus

WE GREW UP BOILING ON THE BAYOU Our Rouses recipe has been perfected over three generations, so our seafood always comes out seasoned to perfection. Get it hot from the pot in our seafood department.

Family Owned Since 1960

EVERYDAY LOW PRICE YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT

FOR A SALE

Best Quality & Best Price Since 1960 by Donny Rouse, CEO, 3rd Generation

Give the customer two things: the best quality at the best price. I learned that from my father, who learned it from his. It’s been our motto since we opened our very first store in 1960. We’re celebrating our 60th anniversary, which has all of us thinking, not just about our history, which you will read about in this issue, but also our future. We’ve built close relationships with our vendor partners over the past 60 years, some who are featured in this issue. It has always been our policy that when these vendors get us special deals, we pass these deals along to you. Those are the extra savings you see in our weekly ads that we put in newspapers or deliver to you in special mailings. But the way you get your news, and your ads, is changing every day. That got us thinking: What if you don’t read the newspaper? What if you’re out of town and miss one of our ads? Say you don’t need the items we’re advertising that week…but you might need the ones next week. For the past few months, we’ve been working with those vendor partners, as well as our national vendors, to get us even lower everyday costs instead of deep discounts every once in a while, so we can keep our everyday low prices steady. By taking our already low everyday prices even lower, and then locking them in, we guarantee you get the best value every time you shop. ROUSES

Together, we’ve been able to reduce prices on nearly 1,000 grocery items, including bread, dairy, household items, meat, seafood, produce and frozen foods. Every item will be priced consistently low for at least 60 days. And we’re investing in lowering everyday prices on new products throughout the year. Of course, we’re always looking to save you even more money, while still bringing you the quality you trust. We’re continuing to expand our list of private brand products, including organics and unique products developed in partnership with local producers. These are always our best value. And when those same vendor partners, and new vendor partners, bring us hot buys — additional quality options at even further discounts — we will pass those savings along to you as special sale items, for a day, a week, sometimes even for a month. Look for them in our ads, in-store flyers and exclusive emails. Or the coupons we have in this issue, which start on page 71. Because, while plenty has changed over the 60 years that we’ve been in business, our commitment to the best quality at the best price never will.

Chicken Salad

Our chicken salad is one of our most requested recipes, but it’s one of a handful we don’t give out. It’s a family recipe, created by my grandfather, made with fresh ingredients and seasoned with our special blend of herbs and seasonings. But here is a similar version I know you will love. Makes 4 servings WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 4 cups poached white and dark meat chicken, finely chopped ½ cup finely chopped celery ½ cup finely chopped onion 1 cup mayonnaise 1 tablespoon lemon juice ½ tablespoon dill relish ¼ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper HOW TO PREP: Put the chicken into a mixing bowl or large work bowl of a food processor. Add the celery and onion. Blend together the mayonnaise, lemon juice and dill relish, and add to the chicken mixture. Add salt and pepper and stir or pulse to blend.

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M

Table of Contents COVER PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

IN EVERY ISSUE 1

A FEW OF OUR LOCAL PARTNERS

Essential Gulf Coast Ingredients

Community Coffee by Sarah Baird

Iconic Dishes of the Gulf Coast

Coupons

Things That Make Us Famous

Letter from Donny Rouse

Contributors

Letter from the Editor

Blue Plate Mayonnaise

Family First, Then Business

In Our Stores

Camellia Beans by David W. Brown

Guidry’s Fresh Cuts by Ken Wells

Chisesi’s Pride by Justin Nystrom

Jack Miller’s BBQ by Michael Tisserand

OUR FOUNDER 14

Mr. Anthony by David W. Brown

Remembering Mr. Anthony by Sarah Baird

OUR PAST & PRESENT by David W. Brown

Local Growth

Local Farmers

Local Flavor

Local Brands

Local Innovation

Private Label

Join us Saturday, March 14th at 11am for a free piece of cake at any

Throughout 2020, we’re celebrating our 60th anniversary with a series of gifts to you, our customers. Stay tuned to our advertising, website and social media for more to come.

M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

SIXTY

Conecuh

Mickey Brown’s by Michael Tisserand

Abita Beer by Robert Simonson

Wow Wee Sauce by Sarah Baird

We Dat’s by Sarah Baird

Cotton Blues by Liz Thorpe

RECIPES 1

Chicken Salad

Royale Cookies

Pimento Cheese Dip

Red Beans & Rice

Ham & Cheese Po-Boy Root Beer Glazed Ham

Alabama Banana Pudding

Bananas Foster Browned-Butter Pecan Pie Macque Choux Red Gravy & Spaghetti Crawfish Étouffée

My great-grandfather, grandfather and father all supported their families by hunting and fishing along the fertile coast of Terrebonne Parish. In 2003, we were having a difficult time due to the flood of imports crashing our dockside prices. Rouses stepped up and offered local shrimpers a spot to sell shrimp in front of their stores; I sold my shrimp in front of their store in Covington. Then they asked if I was interested in selling shrimp directly to their stores. That day changed the course of my business. Rouses helped my business grow beyond my expectations. I’m forever grateful to them for giving me that chance. — Lance Nacio, Owner and Captain, Anna Marie Seafood

IAL

SEAL OF AP PR O

C FI

VERAGE

L •

• T HE

VA A

- TA

FA R M -T O

The Certified Louisiana logos guarantee authentic Louisiana products across parish lines and share our heart and soul with the world. Buy Certified Louisiana products today!

•

CREO

•

LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE & FORESTRY MIKE STRAIN DVM, COMMISSIONER

From one family-owned company to another, congratulations on your 60th anniversary! •

•

CommunityCoffee.com

DigiCode™ Data File ACCOUNT : 88823 COMMUN $ .00 ORDERED BY : CHRISTIAN CAM on Any ONE (1) Bag or P.O. NUMBER : 560078 Single-Serve Box INVOICE NO. : 1603315 ( EPS via EMAIL ) OFFER EXPIRES 5/15/2020

SAVE 1

MANUFACTURER’S COUPON

LIMIT ONE COUPON PER ITEM PURCHASED

NOTICE: This DigiCode™ file is co by the purchaser. Use of this file co or distortion is prohibited. See bac Encode: 81101003570056007831001101003200515 SYMBOL HEIGHT 0.8576 NBAR 0.0104 BWA -0.0020 ROUSES MAG MAR/APR $1 OFF 1

0035700-560078

C H EER S to RO U SES 6 0t h ANNI V ER SA RY!

certifiedlouisiana.org

Customer: This coupon is good for $1.00 off any ONE (1) Community® coffee bag or single-serve box. Not valid with any other coupon or offer. LIMIT ONE COUPON PER ITEM PURCHASED. Coupon will be void if altered, transferred, exchanged, sold, purchased or copied. Any other use constitutes fraud. You are responsible for any sales tax. This coupon is valid only in the U.S.A. Retailer: We will reimburse you the face value of this coupon plus 8 cents handling provided it is redeemed by a consumer at the time of purchase on the brand specified. Coupons not properly redeemed will be void and held. Reproduction

of this coupon is expressly prohibited. Any other use constitutes fraud. MAIL TO: COMMUNITY COFFEE COMPANY LLC 1587, NCH MARKETING SERVICES, P.O. BOX 880001, EL PASO, TX 88588-0001. Cash Value is $.001. Void where taxed or restricted. © 2020 COMMUNITY COFFEE COMPANY

CajunCountryRice.com

Flavor Matters. Traditions start when one generation passes down a recipe for a favorite meal. A recipe so good that it deserves an audience. A meal that gets shared in the company of friends and family. Laughter must be had, stories should be told. This meal should start new traditions and create memories. It should be made with love, and it should start with Cajun Country Rice.

Find us at a Rouses Market near you.

Boil with

MadeWithManda.com

New orleans kettle style Cajun crunch that packs all the flavor of Louisiana!

TRY

NEW!

Zappâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Congratulates

on their 60th Anniversary!

Contributors Sarah Baird

Sarah Baird is the author of multiple books including New Orleans Cocktails and Flask, which was released this summer. A 2019 Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, her work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Saveur, Eater, Food & Wine and The Guardian, among others. Previously, she served as restaurant critic for the New Orleans alt-weekly, Gambit Weekly, where she won Critic of the Year in 2015 for her dining reviews.

3-Ingredient Cocktails (2017), which was nominated for a 2018 James Beard Award. He was also a primary contributor to The Essential New York Times Book of Cocktails (2015). Robert won the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation’s 2019 Spirited Award for Best Cocktail and Spirits Writer, and his work, which has also appeared in Saveur, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, New York magazine, and Lucky Peach, has been nominated for a total of 11 Spirited Awards and two IACP Awards. A native of Wisconsin, he lives in Brooklyn.

David W. Brown

Liz Thorpe

David is a regular contributor to The Atlantic, The Week and Mental Floss. His work also appears in Vox, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest and Foreign Policy magazine. He is a regular commentator for television and radio.

Romney Caruso

Romney is a Mandeville resident and has been a professional photographer for over 25 years. He has styled and photographed food for hundreds of local and national publications, and for several cookbooks. His portrait series of chefs and bartenders, titled “Shakers, Knives & Irons,” was displayed in New Orleans and Los Angeles.

Justin A. Nystrom

Justin is the Peter J. Cangelosi/ BEGGARS Distinguished Professor of History at Loyola University New Orleans where he teaches American History, Foodways, and Oral History. He is the author of the James Beard nominated Creole Italian: Sicilian Immigrants and the Shaping of New Orleans Food Culture and New Orleans after the Civil War: Race, Politics, and a New Birth of Freedom.

Robert Simonson

Robert writes about cocktails, spirits, bars, and bartenders for The New York Times. He is also a contributing editor and columnist at PUNCH. His books include The Old-Fashioned (2014), A Proper Drink (2016) and

M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

Marketing & Advertising Director Tim Acosta

Creative Director & Editor Marcy Nathan

Art Director, Layout & Design Eliza Schulze

Illustrator Kacie Galtier

Production Manager McNally Sislo

Liz Thorpe is a world-class cheese expert. A Yale graduate, she left a “normal” job in 2002 to work the counter at New York’s famed Murray’s Cheese. She is the founder of The People’s Cheese, and author of The Book of Cheese: The Essential Guide to Discovering Cheeses You’ll Love and The Cheese Chronicles.

Michael Tisserand

Michael is a New Orleans-based author whose books include The Kingdom of Zydeco; Krazy: George Herriman, A Life in Black and White; and a post-Katrina memoir, Sugarcane Academy, about Tisserand and other parents persuading one of his children’s teachers, Paul Reynaud, to start a school among the sugarcane fields of New Iberia. Tisserand is a founding member of the Laissez Boys Social Aide and Leisure Club, a Mardi Gras parading organization.

Ken Wells

Ken grew up on the banks of Bayou Black deep in South Louisiana’s Cajun belt. He got his first newspaper job as a 19-year-old college dropout, covering car wrecks and gator sightings for The Courier, a Houma, Louisiana weekly, while still helping out in his family’s snake-collecting business. Wells journalism career includes positions as senior writer and features editor for The Wall Street Journal’s Page One. His latest book, Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou, is in stores now.

Corporate Chef Marc Ardoin

Photo Director Romney Caruso

Copy Editor Patti Stallard

Advertising Amanda Kennedy Harley Breaux

Marketing Stephanie Hopkins Robert Barilleaux Nancy Besson Taryn Clement

Royale Cookies People ask me all of the time if my job is as fun as it looks. I love my job. I really do. If you are one of those people who can’t stand your job, stop here. Don’t even bother reading this because you will be jealous. One of the rules of working on this magazine — really, for working at Rouses — is that you have to be a food fan (don’t be envious that I get to eat the food leftover from the photo shoots; someone’s got to do it). One day we started arguing, I mean talking, about what separates us from the competition, and that’s how the 60 Things That Make Us Rouses came about. We all have our own favorites. There’s one Rouses item that tops my personal list that didn’t make the cut — our Royale Cookies. They are one of a small handful of recipes we don’t share, but our Bakery Director, Michelle, gave me one that comes close. Makes 18-24 cookies WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1½ cups brown sugar 1 cup unsalted butter, softened ½ cup sugar 2 large eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 cup shredded coconut ¾ cup chopped macadamia nuts 1 12-ounce bag semi-sweet chocolate chips HOW TO PREP: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the brown sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in each egg one at a time. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients from the first bowl and beat on low speed until just combined, scraping the bottom of the bowl if needed. Stir in the coconut and macadamia nuts. Stir in the chocolate chips. Scoop out 1½-inch sized balls of dough and place them on the parchment paper about 2 inches apart. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until the cookies are just golden on the edges. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack. They should be chewy with crispy edges.

ROUSES

Letter from the Editor by Marcy Nathan, Creative Director

How did a small, family-run grocery store in the town of Houma, Louisiana, grow to 64 stores throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama? That’s the story my team and I set out to tell in this issue. On the following pages we’ll show you how our brand was born and bred on the bayou, and how we reached our 60-year milestone with the help of some famous friends like Community Coffee, Camellia Brand beans and Abita Beer. And how we are heading into tomorrow with new offerings from upstarts like We Dat’s and Cotton Blues (which makes the best cheesecake I’ve ever eaten). Grocery stores don't just shape the way we eat; they shape the way we live. Matt Saurage, fourth-generation owner of Community Coffee, told us his first job was in a grocery store, the summer he was 13. I wonder how many of you had your first real job at a Rouses Market? How many of you followed in your parent’s footsteps and found jobs here? How many have been with our company since our first few stores opened decades ago? Every member of the Rouses family and most of the people in our store support offices started their working life at Rouses, some as teenagers stocking shelves, pushing carts or running a cash register. My first job was restacking books and refilling disks at Tulane Law Library. My dad taught

at the Tulane School of Law, which is how I got the job. I’m afraid I spent most of my time there flirting with another law professor’s son. There are students still looking for the books we restacked…good luck. I spent most of my career on the advertising agency side helping a variety of local brands before I crossed over to Rouses full-time. I knew I wanted to work here long before I did, maybe from the first time I drove down the bayou. Back then, the Rouses corporate office was in the old “Rouse house,” where Mr. Anthony and Miss Joyce raised their kids. People worked in the kitchen and former bedrooms, and the family’s rumpus room became the conference room. We’ve come pretty far since then — we’re now 7,000 employees strong — but the same tenets that guided Mr. Anthony at our start in 1960, and drew me to join the company decades later, still guide us today: our continuing commitment to providing the best product at the best price, and our unwavering dedication to every hometown we serve. This magazine is a celebration of our first 60 years. I hope you enjoy it.

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M

Family First, Then Business

Local Seafood

Our Specialty! We can all agree that the best seafood in the world comes from right here on the Gulf Coast. We buy our Gulf fish, shrimp, crabs, crawfish and our wide range of oysters from dedicated, local fishermen with whom we have close personal and professional relationships. During crawfish season you can get our famous Louisiana crawfish hot from the pot, 11am to 7pm, every day.

by Ali Rouse Royster, 3rd Generation

The words “family business” conjure images of parents teaching their children the ins and outs of the shop they opened; a husband and wife working out of their home; or siblings teaming up to create a start-up for a crazy idea they had one night. But family businesses, much like families, come in all shapes and sizes. Ours began like most do — small. Over the past 60 years, both our family and our business have grown. On the family front, my grandparents Anthony and Joyce had six children, who gave them 17 grandchildren; our fourth generation is at a count of 23 — for now. On the business side, what my grandfather started with his cousin as one small store with a handful of employees has slowly, organically grown to 64 stores across the Gulf Coast with 7,000 team members. This growth has been surreal at times (what Pa must be thinking!) but also somehow expected, the same way we expect families to multiply with each successive generation. Our family business has become a larger player in its industry, with more people and new processes all the time. Sometimes it feels very different than it did just a few short years ago, but the conundrum is that it also feels like we’re just doing what we’ve always done. And I believe that’s part of the magic of what we’re doing here, and why we can continue to grow brick-and-mortar retail stores in this age of “everything internet.” We can take that mystery of “same yet different” and deploy it in our business model. We can provide cool, up-and-coming technologies when they make sense for our business and guests, while remaining true to our roots of providing unsurpassed customer service inside all our stores. I am “only” 37 (no snide remarks!), and as a working mom of three young children I’m a bigger utilizer of our pickup service, but I still really like to browse the store sometimes, picking out my own produce and meat and just seeing what’s new. I hope you like doing that at Rouses too; if so, I’ll see you there.

Authentic Italian

Italy has a cultural heritage that is felt everywhere in the country, but nowhere more than here on the Gulf Coast. We traveled to Italy in search of some of the best and most authentic Italian products, including Italian-made pastas, olive oils, cheeses and preserves. We also partnered with the Italian Trade Agency to add hundreds of Italian imports to our shelves. Look for the Delizioso logo on our Authentic Italian items.

Wine, Spirits & Beer

We have the Gulf Coast’s premier wine department, with wines at every price point, for both everyday and special occasions. We offer a range of bottle sizes of popular spirits, and an impressive selection of high-end and small-batch spirits and liqueurs, including gift-worthy bottles. And we get top honors for our craft beer selection, which includes cans, bottles and kegs from all over the Gulf Coast and the nation, plus import labels from around the world.

Helping the Gulf Coast Grow

Our local produce roots run more than 90 years deep. J.P. Rouse founded the City Produce Company in 1923, bringing fruits and vegetables from local, independent farms to the rest of the state and eventually to stores around the country. When his son, Anthony J. Rouse, Sr., opened his first grocery store in 1960, he made supporting his farmer neighbors a priority. Generations later, we are more committed than ever to our local farmers and to bringing you the very best this region has to offer.

An Old-Fashioned Butcher Shop

We have full-service butcher shops in our stores, and trusted butchers available to answer your questions about cuts, grades and cooking techniques. Every steak is still cut by hand. Choose from steakhouse-quality USDA Prime beef and USDA Choice beef, or more affordable options. Most of our stores also have a dry-aged beef locker, in which the beef is aged at least 25 days.

Authentic Cajun Specialties

We’re proud to continue the South Louisiana tradition of crafting our own Cajun specialties and real Cajun food. Our authentic boudin, spicy andouille, sausages, hogshead cheese and stuffed meats are made with Rouse Family Recipes that go back three generations. Cooking and heating instructions are available at www.rouses.com.

Prepared Foods

You’ll always find something hot and delicious on our line. Depending on your location, you might find barbecue, pizzas or a Mongolian grill. All of our stores feature grab-and-go meals, including $5 daily deals, fresh sandwiches and salads, and heat-andeat dinners.

Soup & Salad Bars

Our make-your-own salad bars feature an ever-changing selection of prepared salads and fresh-cut vegetables and fruits. Our hot soup menu changes daily, though you’ll always find our famous gumbo — it’s a favorite year-round. PHOTOS BY ROMNEY CARUSO

M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

In Our Stores Everyday Low Prices

We’ve locked in everyday low prices on thousands of items, including bread, dairy, grocery, meat, seafood, produce and frozen foods, for at least 60 days. By locking these low prices in, we can guarantee you get the best value on these items every time you shop. And we’re investing in lowering everyday prices on new products throughout the year.

Fresh Flower Shop

Our licensed floral directors are as picky about the flowers we sell as our chefs are about the ingredients that go into the foods we make. Visit www.rouses.com to order flowers for delivery within specified areas.

Fresh Sushi

You’ve probably seen our professional in-store sushi chefs handcrafting sashimi and sushi rolls. We also offer a variety of sampler platters, and sides like edamame and seaweed salad. Special orders and sushi platters are also available.

Grocery Delivery & Pickup

Order online at www.rouses.com for sameday delivery to your home or office, or for curbside pickup.

ROUSES

Eat Right with Rouses

Imagine having your own personal dietitian with you when you shop. Our Rouses registered dietitian, April, has handpicked more than 500 grocery items that have lower sodium, less saturated fat, healthier fats, and more fiber and less sugar. Just look for the Eat Right logo on the shelf tag or package. We also offer an extensive selection of organic, natural, gluten-free, sugar-free, paleo and special diet grocery items.

Private Label Products

If Rouses Markets is on the label, you know it’s good. We have close relationships with the dairies that bottle our milk, bakeries that make our sandwich bread, and manufacturers that package our products. Every Rouses Markets private label food item has been personally tasted by the Rouse Family and is guaranteed to deliver the best quality at the best price.

Support Your Local Food Bank

Local food banks rely on donations from people just like you. We make it easy to give right at the grocery store. Just scan a coupon at any Rouses register to add to your bill, or purchase a pre-packed bag of canned goods for $10, which we will deliver for you.

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M

QUICK. EASY.

SIMPLE.

A few minutes is all it takes to prepare a great meal with John Soules Foods Breaded Chicken. Great taste and made with the best quality premium ingredients. From our kitchen to yours, enjoy.

ÂŠ2020 John Soules Foods, Inc.

Now you can take Inland home with you. Inland Market makes delicious restaurant-quality seafood products, Inland Lobster is your Maine source for the freshest lobster available, and Woodsmokeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wood Roasted Salmon will WOW you! Available at your local Rouses.

InlandMarketPremiumFoods.com InlandSeafood.com /InlandSeafood | @InlandSeafood

PROUD TO BE AN EMPLOYEE-OWNED COMPANY

A SAUCE SIMMERED IN TRADITION

ÂŽ lowfat or fat free milk 1/2 cup - strawberries, hulled, chopped 1 tablespoon - honey 1/8 teaspoon - ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon - walnuts, chopped Directions: Combine first five ingredients in the carafe of a blender. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, blend the mixture until smooth. Top with chopped walnuts. Recipe courtesy of Milk. Love Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Real.

www.DairyPure.com

Mr. Anthony by David W. Brown

A good entrepreneur can build a business from the

ground up. A great entrepreneur can build a business

from the ground up, literally. That was Anthony

Rouse, the founder of Rouses Markets. Those who

remember him recall the family man in coveralls who

was always the hardest-working man in the room —

or on the back of a bulldozer. He was a businessman’s

businessman who pioneered an industry, brought innovation to the Gulf Coast grocery business,

and founded a company that has grown for three

generations and counting.

But such successes don’t just happen; they are made

to happen, and require sacrifice, dedication, and the

kind of commitment to quality and service that few possess — and fewer still can keep going across a

lifetime. Anthony was one such man, and if you are

holding this magazine, it means you walked into one

of his stores and cast your eyes on an enduring legacy

with no sign of stopping. Here is his story.

Roots in Local Produce

Joseph “J.P.” Rouse immigrated with his parents and brother to the United States from Sardinia, Italy, in 1900. As a young man, he got into the produce business, eventually founding in 1923 a packing and shipping company named City Produce. The company bought from local farmers, then loaded fruits and vegetables on railcars, and shipped the goods as far as Alaska. If you were a farmer in Thibodaux, Louisiana, it was a pretty exciting deal, and local families benefited mightily from the company’s national reach. City Produce also sold locally, including from stalls at the French Market. In 1929, J.P.’s wife gave birth to a son, Anthony; 14 years later, the younger Rouse joined his father in the family business. No two ways about it: To do the job, you needed a strong back and a strong will, because this was hard work in a fiercely competitive industry. And Anthony came along during the back half of the Great Depression. For the Rouse family, success was the only option — it was the only way to keep food on the table. Success, however, was by no means guaranteed. 14 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

Anthony and Joyce Rouse, circa 1950

City Produce weathered the storm, and 11 years later, Anthony and his cousin Ciro took over the company when J.P. passed away. There they remained until 1960, when Anthony spotted trouble ahead for the produce business. The oil industry in Louisiana was reaching critical mass, and Anthony realized that workers would soon be in short supply, which meant produce would be in short supply, which meant business would soon go flat, if it could survive at all. So he and Ciro decided to make the leap to the grocery store business. “They named it Ciro’s, because when you hung the letters on the outside of the store, Ciro’s had fewer letters than Rouse’s,” says Donald Rouse with a laugh. He is Anthony’s son, and chairman of Rouses Markets today. “That’s a true story.” Anthony put every dime he had into the new business, borrowing from the bank what he didn’t have. He and Ciro eventually opened a small, 7,000-square-foot store in Houma, hiring two workers to help them. Donald eventually joined the team, pulling carts from the parking lot, bagging groceries, learning the business even as a boy. (This would become a family tradition that endures today; age 16 is a rite of passage for young Rouse family members interested in learning a trade that has served the community for three generations.) In 1975, Ciro retired and Donald bought his interest in the business. They renamed the store Rouse’s, though that apostrophe didn’t last long. The bulb always burned out on the lighted sign, and Anthony, ever the pragmatist, did away with it completely. The following year, Anthony and Donald began work on a new grocery store on St. Mary Street in Thibodaux. And from the start, when Anthony saw the contractors at work, he knew right away that this wouldn’t do at all. He knew he could do it better. “He did everything himself,” says Jeaneen Rouse, his daughter. “He didn’t like the way some contractors were building his store, so he got his contractor’s license. He taught himself everything. He wasn’t

young when he did that, but he came from that generation where men did things for themselves. If he didn’t know how to do it, he was going to figure it out.” She adds with a smile, “We wanted a pool and we got a store.” Donald remembers the construction of that store well. “It was exciting. You know, it seemed like a big store at the time, but it wasn’t when we look back at it now. I remember business just picking up and growing slowly in volume. Same thing at Ciro’s in Houma. And I remember telling my dad one day, ‘Wow, we did this much business today — we used to do three times less.’” Donald’s favorite times were always when he was in the store, on the floor, working at Ciro’s or at that first Rouses. “Those are the most fun memories for me — it’s something my dad instilled in me — taking care of customers and serving customers and bagging groceries if I needed to do that, or bagging potatoes if I needed to, mopping the floors after we closed. Anything. Anything. Being at that level — I like serving people. My dad was the same way.”

A Force of Nature

Ask anyone who knew him and they’ll tell you the same thing: Anthony Rouse loved to work — and work hard. It wasn’t enough to work tirelessly in the stores. After he got his contractor’s license, he liked to build them, too — particularly the work involving heavy equipment. “I wanted to talk to him a lot of times,” says Donald, “I don’t know how many hundreds of times, and I would have to go out there and catch him on a bulldozer, or working outside moving trees or lumber, and I’d have to stop him so I could ask him some question, or perhaps tell him what’s going on, or just see if he needed help with anything. So many times I had to walk out through the mud to go talk to him that I started carrying boots in my truck!” Says Cindy Acosta, Anthony’s daughter: “He loved to work. He lived to work. His attitude was: ‘If somebody else could do it, I could do it.’” Donny Rouse, the third-generation (and current) CEO of Rouses Markets, agrees with that recollection of his grandfather. “He loved everything he did,” he says. “When we had construction going on, he wanted to be on that bulldozer. When he had family over to the house, he wanted to do the cooking. Walking in the stores, if the stocker was putting [groceries] on the shelf, he wanted to put groceries on the shelf. He loved being around people and he loved having his hands on everything.” But Anthony Rouse was not one for putting on airs, which could sometimes have humorous results. “My dad always wore these overalls, so nobody ever knew who he was,” says Cindy. “He blended in. One day I was at the store in the back, and he walked in and told this young stock boy to do something. And the boy said, ‘Who are you, old man?’ He found out!” Henry Eschete, who handled the Rouses Markets accounts for Bunny Bread and Evangeline Maid — a major task in the grocery business, bread being perhaps the ultimate staple — remembers Anthony fondly. “We talked at least once a week. He was always in the store, in those coveralls, and he was always looking at everything — what’s going on, you know, and seeing that it was done right. And nobody knew who he was!” He says that Anthony would stand around, or sit down somewhere, and just watch. “You’re going to laugh at this one,” he says. “Here I was, just talking to him in a store. And he noticed a bag boy sitting on the floor putting groceries on the shelf, and he was only using one hand. And Mr. Anthony told me, he said, ‘Henry, I think I paid for two hands.’” Anthony went over to the young stocker and patiently demonstrated the best way for stocking a shelf.

ROUSES

When Mr. Anthony said he built a new store, he meant it literally: brick by brick, from the ground up. The first time I called on the family in 1974, I showed a product to Donald and he liked it, but he asked me to check with his dad, too. At the time, they only had the little grocery store, Ciro’s in Houma, and Mr. Anthony was in Thibodaux working on the family’s first supermarket. I went to see him, and when I got there, the store was under construction — there wasn’t even a parking lot. I’d never met Mr. Anthony, so I asked a worker who he was, expecting someone in a suit, behind a desk. The man pointed up toward the building under construction and said, ‘That’s him up there on the lift!’ I still call on Rouses. I’m there every week, and now I meet with the third generation. — Neal Rome, Broker

This was hard-won knowledge. When Anthony first decided to open Ciro’s, there was no instruction manual for how to run a grocery store. He had to learn it all. Ordering product. The best way to shelve items. How to handle refrigeration and keep those coolers running. How to handle drains and plumbing. Inventory. Sales numbers. Figuring out what needed ordering when. How to keep the parking lots clean and the buggies in order. How to price items and keep those prices competitive. Payroll. How to handle ads and marketing. He had to figure it all out. Every time the family traveled, they would visit grocery stores across the country to see what they were doing, and how Rouses might innovate back home. Anthony and Donald were the first in the area to bring a deli to their stores. The first to boil fresh crawfish on-site. The first to bring a florist. A bakery. Electronic barcode scanning at the checkout. That young stock clerk may not have realized it, but he was getting a master class in shelf stocking from a pioneer in the field. And the business lessons from Anthony’s City Produce days applied neatly to the grocery store business. “One time my dad and I were talking about competition,” says Donald, “and I was telling him about a big national chain that had a certain price on a specific item. And he says to me, ‘Well, let me tell you about that…. Back in the City Produce days, I would ship one packing car of shallots to, say, Chicago, and maybe my competitor next door would be shipping 10.’ So one day my dad and that business rival got into a little, I guess, W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 15

competitive thing over pricing, and my dad said: ‘No problem,’ and Dad dropped his price below what it was costing him to ship the item. My dad said: ‘I’m shipping one car, you’re shipping 10. Now let’s see who’s gonna last the longest.’” Donald continues, “And when I was talking to him about that, we only had, maybe, a couple of stores at the time, and this national chain had a lot of stores. And my dad said, ‘I’ll tell you what to do. Sell the item at cost. They’ll get the message. They’ll back off of you. Put it at cost. You’re going to sell one truck and they’ve got to sell a hundred trucks.’ And it worked.”

Family Is the Most Important Thing, and then Business

“He and my mom liked to go out,” says Cindy. “They went out every Saturday night dancing. They always told us they’d babysit any night besides Saturdays. The thing is, they were going dancing and we weren’t! Boy, he liked to dance.” Donald adds: “My dad always preached to us that there is a price to success. And he wasn’t talking about money. He was talking about your time, your devotion and what comes first: family. Then the business and stuff like that. But he told us that and tried to make sure that we always put the right thing first.” Anthony never retired. A man like that was a force of nature; he loved his job too much. But Donald gradually took over increasing responsibility from his father. He had prepared for the job his whole life. “I remember one time hearing in the next room one of my dad’s good friends,” he recalls. “I was pretty young, and my dad’s friend and he were speaking, and for some reason his friend said, ‘Why are you so hard on Donald?’ And his answer was: ‘Because he’s going to be the one.’ “It stuck with me, yeah,” says Donald, quietly. Donald’s son Donny would likewise one day take over the business and, like Donald, he started out in the parking lots snagging buggies, working his way up over the decades. But the lessons from his grandfather started much earlier than that. “I rode around with him a lot as a kid, and he talked to me a lot,” Donny says. “I remember he just talked and talked and talked about everything. He wasn’t rambling — this was about the business or about life, and this is when I was young, eight, maybe 10. I still think about those talks pretty much every day. And I think I learned a good bit from them, because I am here today in this role.” He continues, “There’s a lot of pressure being in a family business. My grandfather, and my father — they were the best, and just to follow in their footsteps — to keep the business going for 7,000 employees — is a lot of pressure. And I enjoy it.” But that man Anthony could work. “We were building a store in Houma,” recalls Donald, “and I remember one time pulling up to the job site, and I see six guys standing around a big hole. They’re looking down there. I hear a chain saw going, so I walk up there and ask, ‘Where’s my dad?’ They say: ‘He’s in the hole down there cutting something in the way.’ I say, ‘What is he doing down there? Why aren’t y’all down there?’ They told me: ‘You tell him that!’” Donald recalls with a laugh, “I said, ‘You’re right,’ and I walked away.” That work ethic, and Anthony’s honesty and integrity, is at the heart of the Rouses business philosophy. And the third generation running the stores and main office today learned from him firsthand. The lessons never stopped. “I was 17 or 18 years old, and I was running the seafood department at one of the stores,” says Blake Richard, who is today a Rouses store manager. “It was about a week after Katrina, and Granny and 16 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

Pa, they were back at home — they were by themselves because everyone was busy running the store. And I remember he came to the store and said, ‘I need you, boy.’” Blake arranged to have his shifts covered and spent the next few days helping his grandfather clean up after the storm. “I woke at five o’clock every morning with Pa, and he would get on his tractor and I was helping with branches.” A tree had been uprooted in the back of the house, and when Anthony tried to pull the rest of it free, a root broke a water line. “It’s shooting out everywhere,” says Blake, “and I remember he said, calmly, ‘Come see, boy.’ And it’s hot as can be — I’m out there, it’s just me, Pa and Granny — and Pa gave me a shovel and said, ‘I need you to keep going down until you hit metal.’ And it’s a long way down!” Anthony had Blake searching for a water valve. “I had no idea what I was doing. So finally, I hit metal. And he says, ‘OK, boy I need you to dig three feet down and five feet across.’ And I’m like — all right!” he laughs. “He would even comment on it the whole time — I was digging the hole wrong, according to him. And finally, I dug this enormous hole, shut the valve off myself, and we grab this big Bobcat tractor; we go out there and I have to wrap chains around the trunk covered in fire ants, and Pa takes off and this thing is popping wheelies dragging this big old tree.” The tree’s remains finally removed, Anthony looks at Blake and says, “Now don’t do what I did and break the water line, but that’s how you fix everything else.” Blake says, “I’ll never forget that. He wanted to make sure we knew how to dig a ditch right. He would do everything in his power to teach us.”

A Legacy of Service

Anthony Rouse died in 2009 at the age of 79. Today Rouses Markets has grown to 64 locations along the Gulf Coast, with more to come. “Toward the end of his life,” says Cindy, “he still went into the office every day, but he never had his own office. He never wanted one.” Donald says, “He was a shrewd businessman, but a good-hearted businessman. He raised us, showed us how to live, and showed us how to live in the business world. And then in his final days, he showed us how to die. He died with integrity.” But he worked until the last. “I remember the day before he died, he was in his room, and he was on oxygen. And he asked me, he says, ‘What were the sales yesterday?’ So I gave him a rough number. And he said, ‘No, no. Per store.’ So I said, ‘All right!’ I went to get my computer, opened it up, and he sat there and listened, and would question me on specific stores. And the old man was dying, but he still had it in him — that amazed me. What he was going to do with that information, I don’t know, but he wanted to know, you know, how we were doing. And we were doing well, and that pleased him.” His legacy lives on, both in the Rouse family and in the thriving, family-owned business he built. “I am proud to say we have 7,000 team members,” says Donald. “We are not only responsible for the company, but for them as part of the company.” The Rouses experience applies not only to the men and women who work there today, but those who have worked at one store or another for decades. “I’ve had so many people come up to me and say their first job was at Rouses. You can’t imagine. If I heard that once, I heard it 5,000 times. And that’s a good feeling, to know they still remember it, and to hear how it helped them. That’s one of my proudest achievements.”

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Rouses ad circa 1984; Donny Rouse working in the butcher shop at store #1 in Thibodaux; celebratory grand opening ribbon cutting at Rouses #14 in Metairie, circa 1995; Meat manager at Rouses #4 in Houma, circa 1983; Mr. Anthony on a bulldozer, age 77; Ali Rouse Royster working at our corporate office; Tim Acosta at Rouses #4 in Houma, circa 1983

ROUSES

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 17

Rouses Means Local Communities grow together. On any number of holidays, you’ve likely dashed

into a Rouses Market at some point to pick up an item you forgot to get on your previous trip — some ingredient that makes or breaks your famous casserole, some seasoning you thought sure you had at home but you don’t. Or maybe

you’re picking up the Thanksgiving turkey, cooked and with all the fixings.

Maybe it’s Halloween, and you’re preparing to see the delighted faces of children

wearing superhero costumes and holding out hollow plastic pumpkins. Cakes on

birthdays, crawfish for graduation celebrations, “grazings” for Super Bowl parties, cabbage for New Year’s Day…. With each of these events and all of this food that

you bring into the most intimate occasions in your home, any Rouses employee

will tell you that providing the necessary goods is a humbling responsibility that

Rouses takes very seriously. We are one community.

To shop at Rouses is to shop at a local, family-owned company that carries local

products. Many of those products are so successful that you might not even have

known they were from Rouses local areas. And as Rouses has grown over the last

60 years, we have never stopped finding the best local products, the best local

produce, the best local meats and seafood. Together we have grown, Rouses and

the community, in a spirit of entrepreneurship.

18 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

by sarah baird

There’s something about a family-owned business that just feels comforting. In our increasingly disconnected, harried world, interacting with people who have committed themselves to making a single company the best it can possibly be — in some cases, for generations — feels downright novel. These companies possess the storied history and interpersonal respect that comes from working alongside parents, siblings and cousins over many years to perfect a single recipe, and to build trust with customers to always do the right thing. There’s a sense of tradition and a feeling of responsibility for the family legacy that imbue a successful family business model.

Rouses Means Local

Community Coffee

Local, family-owned businesses understand the deep power of community, and what it means to be part of something bigger than yourself. This is why, for over 100 years, Community Coffee has put their community of neighbors and coffee drinkers first every step along the way. Whether brewing up a cup of the chicory blend or the classic dark roast, folks have been able to sip with confidence, knowing that the family behind their morning caffeine boost has been steeped in the coffee-making tradition for more than a century. And for Matt Saurage, fourth-generation owner of Community Coffee, working as part of the company is so much more than a Louisiana-proud, family tradition (though it is that too). It’s a way to recommit, each and every day, to the friends and consumers who make up the Community Coffee, well, community. Below are key tenets that any good community member should embrace — whether you’re getting more involved in your hometown, book club or bowling league — as demonstrated by the lessons Saurage has learned growing up immersed in the family-owned business that he’s now leading into the future.

ROUSES

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 19

Good Community Members Remember Their Roots

“When I was young, I would follow my dad to work. I wanted to be like my dad: I wanted to drink coffee, and I wanted to go to work, and I wanted to have a purpose. After school or during the holidays, I would come sit with him — and my grandfather — and just learn about what it takes to be in business with other people,” says Saurage. He developed an appreciation for the strength of relationships between employees, and how that goes deeper than just a job. It’s more about being part of a unit — a family unit. Saurage says he carried the importance of that idea through his teenage years and into early college, eventually joining Community Coffee for that particular reason. “I wanted to be with a local business, familyowned, that really had connectivity and appreciation for the people that worked with them in growing the business over a long period of time,” says Saurage. “My first job was actually in a grocery store … the summer when I was 13. And I would also work for the owner during the holidays, stocking shelves and unloading trucks. So I have a deep appreciation not only for working with small business, but for the challenge of being a grocer and what it takes to be a successful grocer,” Saurage explains. Although that grocery store summer job was the only experience he had on that side of the business before getting into the manufacturing, marketing and sales of coffee, the lessons learned there have remained important to Saurage. “As I got older, I wanted to prove myself to the family business — that I could get a great education and pursue my interests — and at the time I wanted to be an engineer. So, there was a period of time where I didn’t think much about the coffee company. And I felt that by being independent, I would be happy. But what I found was that I wasn’t, and it was always on my mind, and I wanted to be home. That’s what drew me back in 1994 to the family, and to the business, because I missed the people that I had met and knew.”

time; who believe in what we do and give us feedback. We’re very appreciative for not only our customers, but for all the dialogue. It’s a community, right? It’s the exchange of ideas — even criticism — and we’re very appreciative for it.” What’s important to Saurage is the ability to give back, by creating jobs and other opportunities — but even more so, by improving the quality of life in the communities where he works, and where his customers and employees live. This can mean very small or simple things, like giving donations to nonprofits to help them grow. It can mean supporting education in his employees’ and customers’ communities in a way that can make a lasting change, providing these communities with the tools needed to create new businesses and new opportunities. “I think if you look behind any successful business, you will see that they are also actively giving back to their community. I think it’s a natural thing: The employees, the owners — they all want to do that, and it’s just a matter of doing it,” says Saurage. “Taking action and giving back to our local community has always been part of our DNA. It’s become more formalized as we’ve grown into three community giving pillars: education, support of our service men and women, and the impact we can make in sustainability and the environment, since we are an agricultural product.”

Good Community Members Always Listen — and Lift as They Climb

“Our first name is ‘Community,’” says Saurage. “And we have to remember that we are successful because of those around us who support us; who work for us; who are there over a long period of Matt Saurage and Norman Saurage III

2 0 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

When you sell or market a perishable good, particularly a food product, you really have to know a lot about its origin and the care that’s taken to preserve quality from the day the plant is placed into the ground until it is harvested. “Not only is going to origin very important in our business, but it was a starting point for my career,” declares Saurage. He explains that the coffee farmers in Campos Altos, Brazil who grow the beans for Community’s products are much like farmers in America — except that the farms are at high altitude and in a beautiful, tropical rain-forest environment. While Saurage is quick to say it’s a wonderful place to visit, he acknowledges that the job of farming there is as difficult as it is at any other farm in the world. He says, “I gained a true appreciation for the amount of work that goes into husbandry of a crop or plant, and the focusing on quality to ensure freshness.” He reveals that the greatest lesson he derived from that, other than a real love for the farming and the people, was an understanding of the culture of those who produced the product that Community would ultimately roast and sell in the United States. He has enjoyed the real exposure he’s received, through his family’s business, to Brazilian culture, and the culture throughout Central and South America.

Good Community Members Always Work Together

“What’s important in long-standing relationships — like our relationship with Rouses, or with a customer or with an employee — is honesty and listening. It’s all about being true to your word and listening for opportunities to help. I believe, as a local company, that the ability to have a handshake relationship, as well as the ability to solve problems or bring ideas to help solve problems for a customer, is important to the relationship,” declares Saurage. And he believes the success that Community Coffee and Rouses have had over time are because of the two companies’ demonstrated dedication to those two things: honesty and listening. Says Saurage: “It’s about listening to the customer, being open to ideas. We have thoroughly enjoyed our relationship with Rouses. They’re good people. They’re true to their word. And they’re always looking for new ideas. It’s been an incredible relationship.”

about the father-and-son-working-together relationship to embrace new ideas while building confidence and trust.” The greatest change Saurage’s family business is facing in the immediate future is engaging their workforce in using technology to connect with the customer at all levels, so they can better understand their customers’ needs and respond more quickly to them. He sees technology as an immediate opportunity, one that will change the packaged goods industry as it changes the grocery channels where Community sells their products. Saurage has realized that a family business is much more than proving ideas or taking over ideas from one generation to the next, but in helping each other. Of working with his father, he says, “It was a great experience … I was able to implement a lot of my ideas and innovations and changes.” And working so closely with family members helped Saurage better appreciate, too, the contributions his father’s generation had made in advancing the company over the years.

Rouses Means Local

Good Community Members Build Relationships and Respect

Good Community Members Look Toward the Future

Saurage has five children of his own, as well as a number of nieces and nephews. He believes many of them will enter some area of the coffee business, either directly in operations, or in working to sustain the impact the family business can make locally in Baton Rouge and across Louisiana by giving back. “They will probably all be involved to some degree,” he says of that next generation, “and those who pursue their own interests will also remain engaged with ensuring that [Community Coffee] remains a multigenerational company. That’s our dream.” But Saurage also believes that Community Coffee, like many local businesses, is also owned by its customers. “This is not [just] my family’s business. It’s many families’ business. Many people are invested in this brand. So, our growth is really led by building value in and an affinity for the brand. Following that is the geography that we will gain. We’re not driven by growth for the sake of growth. We’re driven to build our brand and reach new consumers while delivering a great cup of coffee each and every time,” he declares, “because that’s what the people here in Louisiana expect from Community Coffee.”

Good Community Members Aren’t Afraid of Positive Change

It’s a common challenge for any family business when the next generation comes along; identifying where they fit in and how they can contribute value are crucial to guiding the family business. Saurage believed being part of the younger set of a generational business was quite daunting. But as he matured he began to realize that the older set in a generational business is also intimidated, hoping that they have taught their children, or their nieces and nephews, well enough to sustain the business. Saurage illustrates how learning to work with those generational differences can actually enhance the business as well as the family bonds: “It was kind of an interesting relationship with my father. I wanted to demonstrate my passion for the business and my new ideas, but I was always hesitant to implement them until he invited them. And that really flourished into a great relationship, where we had stories not just about the business, but 21

A Taste of Local History Opelousas

The Gulf Coast has a culinary tradition unlike anywhere else, and Opelousas, a small town in Louisiana due north of Lafayette, has played an outsized role. Eula Savoie (pronounced SA-vwa) grew a small Cajun grocery store there into a sausage-making empire. Members of the Savoie family continue to lead the business, and many employees are from the same families who first worked for Ms. Eula. Moreover, Tony Chachere’s (pronounced SA-shur-ee), has been blended there since 1972. Chef Tony Chachere, the “Ole Master” of fine Cajun cuisine, first featured his homemade seasoning blend in his Cajun Country Cookbook — to call it a success is an understatement. Tony Chachere’s — still a family-owned company — is a staple on Rouses Markets shelves across the Gulf Coast. Then there’s LouAna (shortened from Louisiana) cooking and salad oils, all crafted in Opelousas for over 120 years. Want more? Chef Paul Prudhomme, who created a national buzz around Louisiana cuisine, and in the process, fundamentally transformed what it meant to be a chef in the United States, grew up on a nearby farm in — you guessed it — Opelousas.

Did you know? Alabama’s Wickedly Delicious Wickles Pickles are based on a 90-year-old secret recipe. Family owned Milo’s Tea, which originated in Birmingham, Alabama, first hit supermarket shelves in 1989. Golden Eagle Syrup, a unique blend of corn syrup, cane sugar syrup, cane molasses and pure honey, has been made in Fayette, Alabama, since 1928.

2 2 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

Elmer’s

If you celebrate Easter, you know three candies: Heavenly Hash, Gold Brick and Pecan Eggs. And if you don’t celebrate Easter, you find someone who does so you can find their basket and steal a Heavenly Hash, Gold Brick or Pecan Egg. Here on the Gulf Coast, Elmer’s Easter candies outsell national manufacturers by a ratio of five to one. But are you ready to have your mind blown? Easter candy accounts for only 5% of the company’s sales. Elmer’s is the oldest family-owned chocolate company in the United States, as the company dates back to Antebellum Louisiana, at a confectionary on the corner of Jackson and Levee streets in New Orleans. The company was founded in 1855 by Christopher Henry Miller, a pastry chef and German immigrant. When his daughter married Augustus Elmer, the Miller Candy Company was renamed Elmer-Miller. In 1914, it changed names again to Elmer Candy Company after Augustus Elmer’s sons joined the company. It wasn’t long before Elmer’s was soon touting itself as “the largest candy factory in the Crescent City.” In 1923, Elmer’s purchased the recipe for a candy made and sold at a Canal Street department store. The ingredients were simple: marshmallow, chocolate and almonds, but when put together and wrapped in foil packets, Heavenly Hash took the South by storm. The company did it again in 1936, striking gold — literally — with Gold Brick. (At the time, it was shaped like a bar rather than the now-familiar egg.) Though Gold Brick was smaller than other candy bars, it was the first to sell for a dime. Roy Nelson acquired Elmer’s in 1963 and, two years later, his brother, Allan, joined him at the company. They relocated to Ponchatoula, Louisiana, 45 miles away, where the family business remains to this day. Today Elmer Chocolate is run by Allan’s son, Rob. Of course, they aren’t the only Elmers in town. In 1930, Augustus Elmer’s sons used machinery that they found at the World’s Exposition in Chicago to invent the “corn curl,” which would eventually evolve to become today’s CheeWees. Morel Elmer, Jr., opened the family’s cheese curl business in 1946 as a division of Elmer Candy Corporation. (There must have been something in the water where they grew up, because that still wasn’t enough for the Elmer family — in 1948, Charles Elmer Doolin invented a little something called Cheetos, after having already invented Fritos!) When Roy Nelson bought the Elmer Candy Company, the Elmer’s Fine Foods division wasn’t part of the sale, but the name “CheeWees” was. So the latter company continued manufacturing the same cheese curl under different names, including Chee-T and Chee-Z-Snax. Today, the company is owned jointly by Alan, Paul and Stephen Elmer. And it all has a happy ending: in 1993, Rob Nelson gave the CheeWees name back to the brothers Elmer. Today Elmer’s Fine Foods produces 15,000 cases of Original Cheese, Green Onion, Bar-B-Que, Hot-NSpicy and Jalapeño CheeWees every single month.

Rouses Means Local

Blue Plate

Blue Plate was one of the first commercially prepared mayonnaise brands in the United States. Its first batch was produced in 1927 in a small warehouse in Gretna, on the west bank of the Mississippi River across from Uptown New Orleans. Fourteen years later, operations were expanded to a sleek new factory in New Orleans’s Mid-City neighborhood, just a couple of miles from City Park. The iconic Art Deco Blue Plate building, all rounded glass-brick corners with a lush lawn out front, has since been repurposed as the Blue Plate Artists Lofts, and resides now on the National Register of Historic Places. The secret of Blue Plate’s success is that it is prepared like a homemade mayonnaise. Its recipe is deceptively simple, calling in particular for oil, vinegar and only the yolks of eggs. This gives Blue Plate Mayonnaise’s texture a silky creaminess, and a rich flavor evocative of the after-school sandwiches Mom used to make. In 1974, Reily Foods Company, a division of Wm. B. Reily & Company, bought Blue Plate. Reily Foods was founded in 1902 by William B. Reily, who was born in tiny Bastrop, Louisiana, and who operated a wholesale grocery business in Monroe before relocating to New Orleans, where he focused his company’s efforts on coffee and tea. In 1932, he developed one of the first teas blended specifically for making iced tea: Luzianne (a regional pronunciation of Louisiana) Iced Tea. Today, Wm. B. Reily & Co. is still headquartered in the city of New Orleans, and the fourth-generation Reily is at the company’s helm.

PHOTO BY FRANK AYMAMI

Pimento Cheese Dip

Makes 2 cups WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 (6-ounce) jar diced pimientos 3 cups coarsely shredded extra-sharp yellow cheddar cheese 4 ounces cream cheese, softened ²/₃ cup Blue Plate Mayonnaise 1 teaspoon garlic powder ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper ¼ teaspoon kosher salt ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper HOW TO PREP: Drain pimentos, reserving juice. In a medium bowl, mix the cheese, cream cheese, mayonnaise, garlic powder, cayenne, salt and pepper until all ingredients are well combined. With a spatula or fork, fold in pimientos. If needed, add juice from pimientos, a teaspoon at a time, to reach the desired creamy consistency. Mixture should not be stiff. Cover and refrigerate until just before serving. PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

ROUSES

Serve with crackers, celery or carrot sticks, or sturdy chips.

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 2 3

LABEL WIDTH (5.5”)

Discover NEW

SIMPLY PICKLES THE PORTABLE PICKLE SELECT INGREDIENTS

FRESH PACK

3.125”

24 FL OZ (1 PT 8 FL OZ) 710 mL

WIND DIRECTION

DIELINE PRINT-TO-DIE STAYAWAY .0625” BLEED AREA .0625”

MO 24oz SIMPLY PICKLES FROM THE CORNER OF Kosher Dill Spears Front Label Visit MtOlivePickles.com MO Item No.: LF0930000681 Applicator: Shorewood Four Head Rotary Label Machine Size: Across 3.125” Around 5.5” Corner Radius: .125”x H 4.875” : Press Quality PDF File W 7.625” Unwind: 4 - Left Side Off First For Any Additional Creative or Production Assistance Please Contact Core: 3” ID PatrckRoll: Coyne Email: 16” Pat@CoyneAndCo.com or Phone: 336.7O7.3664 OD (18” Maximum) Substrate: Clear Bopp/ CLIENT: MT. OLIVE PICKLE CO. Permanent Adhesive Product:

Stress-less family meals

JOB TITLE: UPDATED JAR LABELS ART SUPPLIED BY: COYNE & CO.

1.3O.2O

MECH RELEASED TO PRINTER: REVISED 07/25/17

Spend more time making memories and

QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS? less time in the kitchen. Our delicious Patrick Coyne Principal – Coyne&Co. sides are made with real ingredients pat@coyneandco.com and ready in just 6 minutes! Cell: 336-707-3664

Congratulations to

ROUSES on their

60th

Anniversary!

Find Bob Evans sides in the refrigerated section. © BOB EVANS FARMS, LLC 2020

Coming Soon to

Rouses Means Local Growth

farmers, as much as we could at the time. But whatever we

by David W. Brown

were selling, he stressed to us to buy local.”

Before Anthony Rouse founded Rouses Markets, he was in

The first Rouses grocery store opened its doors in 1960.

the shipping business. City Produce Company, founded in

Called Ciro’s, it was a 7,000-square-foot store in Houma,

Thibodaux, Louisiana, by J.P. Rouse, Anthony’s father, was an

Louisiana. Anthony and Ciro hired two employees. Fifteen

Italian immigrant’s gambit to support his family and, later, a

years later, Ciro retired and sold his share of the business

desperate attempt to survive the Great Depression. “In those

to Anthony’s son Donald, and the store was renamed to

days you had to do what you had to do if you wanted to put

the now-familiar Rouses. In 1975, the father-son team

bread and food on the table,” says Tim Acosta, the director

opened their second store in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Within

of marketing & advertising for Rouses Markets. “They were

two decades, Rouses would expand to become the largest

doing that just to survive — you’ve got a truck, I’ve got hands.

independent grocer in Louisiana. Today, the company is

Let’s get to work.”

made up of 64 stores across the Gulf South and is run by CEO Donny Rouse, a member of the third generation of

The Rouse men would buy produce from local farmers in

family members to keep the store going.

the area. Shallots and cabbage and potatoes — some would be sold in the French Market, but most would be packed up

Three things were key to the success of the company:

on rail cars and shipped out to other parts of the country, as

community service, a spirit of entrepreneurship and the

nearby as Chattanooga, and as far away as Alaska. Anthony

merging of those two ideas, a determined effort to help local

and his cousin, Ciro DiMarco, took over City Produce

producers grow alongside Rouses.

in 1954 when Anthony’s father died. When the duo later opened their first grocery store, that devotion to buying local only intensified.

“My grandpa would always make sure that the local guy got a fair shake,” says Ali Rouse Royster, a third-generation owner of the company. “If they’ve got a product, we’ll put it out

“He would always buy from local farmers,” says Donald Rouse,

there. He was always favoring the local guy, the local farmer,

the chairman of the company and Anthony’s son. “He grew

the local fisherman, the local manufacturer and anybody

up being a farmer and he got along well with them. He put

local with a new product. And if they had passion, it was

farmers and fishermen high on the list, and we learned to

always: ‘Okay, yes, we will definitely put you on the shelf.’

respect them from him, and how to work with them. From

Giving the community a hand up has always been what we

an early age, I was buying produce and paying cash to the

strive to do.”

2 6 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

Rouses Means Local growth

...when J.P. Rouse and his wife, Leola (née Pitre), moved to Thibodaux, where he opened City Produce Company. Rouse bought fruits and vegetables from big farms in Chackbay and Chocktaw, then trucked them to the public markets.

…when Elmer’s Chocolate, having discovered a delectable candy made and sold at a Canal Street department store, bought the recipe and began producing it themselves. Thus was born Heavenly Hash.

…when L.H. Hayward, founder of produce and dry goods company Camellia, began selling red beans at the Old French Market in New Orleans.

…when entrepreneur Alvin Baumer borrowed some cash from his future father-in-law to purchase Mill’s Fruit Products, a small syrup company in New Orleans whose product was used to make the shaved-ice summer treat called sno-balls. Part of the sale included a recipe for a hot sauce made with cayenne peppers called Crystal Pure Louisiana Hot Sauce. Today you can find Crystal Hot Sauce everywhere.

…when Frank Mosher and Mose Lischkoff started a company called Magic City Food Products in the basement of a Hill’s Grocery Store in North Birmingham, Alabama. Magic City Products would officially become Golden Flake, Inc., in the 1940s.

It has been tremendous to see the growth of Rouses over the years. To see a strong Louisiana business continue to grow, as we both have, from generation to generation, is a testament to the values that our families have instilled in us. The way Donny has expanded the Rouses footprint across the Gulf Coast has been amazing. It is pushing me to strive to leave my own legacy at our company. — Alvin “Pepper” Baumer III, President, Baumer Foods, Crystal Hot Sauce

…when the Curtiss Candy Company of Chicago, Illinois, came out with a sensational chocolate-covered, crispy peanut butter candy bar and held a public contest to choose its name. The winning entry: “Butterfinger.” …when the first filled candy bar became the coveted delight of children and discriminating adults everywhere. They called it Milky Way. … when — as if all that weren’t enough — every brown bag school lunch in America soon packed a new chocolate drink called Yoo-hoo and sandwiches filled with newfangled Welch’s Grape jelly.

Camellia Beans by DAVID W. BROWN

Like so many Louisiana culinary success stories, Camellia Brand beans began at the French Market. In 1850, a ship carrying a West Indies immigrant named Sawyer Hayward docked in the port of New Orleans. Industrious and looking to make a living for his family, he grew cotton, but soon moved into dry goods and beans, which he sold to French Market vendors. Even then the French Market was old — it had been the city’s produce hub for nearly 60 years. And Sawyer’s crops were a success.

“My family came to the United States through the Caribbean islands,” says Vince Hayward, the CEO of L.H. Hayward & Co., which owns Camellia. “It is there, we surmise, that they gained an appreciation for beans, how to cook them, how to eat them, the health benefits — and the city of New Orleans was a great melting pot of its time with an assimilation of many cultures, many of which had beans as a big part of their traditions.” Sawyer’s son and grandson, Lucius Sr. and Jr., eventually joined the now-burgeoning business of beans, and in 1923 they founded L.H. Hayward & Co., naming their brand Camellia after the favorite flower of Lucius Jr.’s wife, Elizabeth. That same year, the company moved into an old cotton warehouse on Poydras and South Front streets in New Orleans — present-day Convention Center Boulevard. At the time, you bought beans in brown paper bags that were filled with a scoop from big burlap sacks. With supermarkets growing in popularity in the 1940s, William Gordon Hayward, son of Lucius Jr., had a stroke of genius: Why not pack them in store-ready, individual, one-pound bags? Gordon’s revolutionary cellophane packages, each adorned with a camellia flower, soon became synonymous with premium-quality beans.

2 8 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

The Monday Night Meal

For generations in the city of New Orleans, Monday was laundry day, which meant if you were a homemaker tied up with the wash from dawn to dusk, you needed a meal that could take care of itself. Camellia was there to help. Red beans and rice thus became a Monday night tradition in the city: The beans could sit all day on the back burner, with the remains of Sunday’s ham simmering inside the pot and infusing the beans with a savory flavor. When the laundry was done, so too was dinner. The meal would eventually become as emblematic of the city as Mardi Gras, humidity and Louis Armstrong (who signed his letters Red Beans and Ricely Yours). “When people think of New Orleans,” Vince says,“ they think about red beans and rice. It’s genuinely one of the many things that makes the city a very special place, because the dish of red beans spans all divides.” Indeed, it is a food that unites, in a city for which unity is everything. It crosses cultures and classes, cares not for one’s education or upbringing. There aren’t many meals that can feed a whole family for five dollars: The economy goes up, the economy goes down, and red beans and rice doesn’t notice; it is always there to keep bellies full. The most expensive restaurant in town, or a soup

kitchen for the downtrodden? Both serve red beans and rice. Ravenous carnivore or devout vegan? You guessed it. “Everybody from our area eats and enjoys red beans & rice,” says Vince, “and usually they do so with others for some type of gathering. That’s one of the things I tell my team all the time: We don’t sell beans in a bag. We sell the opportunity for friends and family and loved ones to come together and enjoy a meal. It’s something that we are really proud of.”

The Shelf Where It Happens

Any reader of this magazine is likely to close each issue, reflect for a moment and say: “Those people at Rouses are obsessed with food.” You’re not wrong. When we aren’t writing about it, we are eating it. When we aren’t eating it, we are checking the shelves just to see what’s new and what’s changed. Before we open a store in a new market, we eat at every restaurant, talk to the locals, live in the community, see what they eat, and eat it ourselves. For Rouses, food is everything — but not just any food. We want the best food at the best prices, and more than anything else, we love local products. You can’t get much more local than Camellia. When you bought your red beans from Rouses, that’s almost certainly the pack you picked up — and not just today, but any time over the last 60 years! Rouses Markets has proudly worked with L.H. Hayward & Co. to carry their products even when we were but a single small store, and Anthony Rouse himself — the founder of the company — was the one on his hands and knees unpacking boxes of Camellia Brand red beans and stocking the shelves. His son, Donald, would later do the same thing, and his grandson, Donny, would again do the same. Three generations of the Rouse family are proudly part of the four-generation Hayward legacy.

The Hayward Standard

A stunning 90,000 to 100,000 pounds of Camellia beans, peas and lentils are packed by the company every day. The red beans are, of course, their flagship product, and are — it should come as no surprise — the best-selling red beans in the United States today. This is in large part because of the Hayward family, whose hands remain fixed firmly on the wheel. It takes more than marketing and business acumen to find that kind of success. This is a family business. The secret to Camellia’s success is love. Every bean poured from a pack of Camellia beans was grown on American farms, some of which the family has been working alongside for generations. Unity, again, is part of the red bean story of triumph:

When Camellia succeeds, the local community succeeds right alongside it. The family keeps a close watch on the quality of the beans that bear that distinct, long-leafed red flower on its packaging. So high, in fact, are the standards necessary for the Camellia label that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s method for sorting bean quality proved inadequate to the task. Farmers famously had to create a new, higher level for the company and its most famous product. They call it the Hayward Standard. L.H. Hayward & Co. is today run by Vince, Connelly and Ken Hayward — the fourth generation of Hayward men to sit behind the big desk, to walk the warehouses, to check the plowed rows to keep an eye on quality. “My job is to be a steward who passes on this organization to the next generation in better shape than I received it,” says Vince, “and that’s also their job: to continue the legacy and values that got us here today; to value our consumers, to value our team members and to value our place in the community.” One hundred seventy years ago, when Sawyer Hayward first set foot on the docks of his new home, the immigrant could never have dreamed that his hard work would outlast not only the turn of one century, but of two, and that it would be his direct descendants who kept it going forward. “Next to white rice/it looks like coral/ sitting next to snow,” wrote the great Puerto Rico-born poet, Victor Hernández Cruz, in his poem Red Beans. And the dish, prepared with Camellia, shared across generations, and adopted across the South, always looks like New Orleans. And it always tastes like home. Pictured: Connelly, Ken & Vince Hayward, fourth-generation producers of Camellia Beans (images courtesy of Camellia Beans)

Red Beans & Rice

Makes 12 servings WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1½ pounds dried red kidney beans (soaked overnight) ½ pound andouille or smoked sausage, sliced ½ inch thick ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil 1 16-ounce container Guidry’s Fresh Cuts 1 bay leaf 1 tablespoon sweet paprika 1 tablespoon hot sauce, plus more for serving 1 large smoked ham hock (about 12½ ounces) 2 quarts chicken stock 3 teaspoons kosher salt 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Rouses Means Local growth

“Our relationship with the Rouse family and their company has always been that ‘a gentleman’s word means everything,’” says Vince. “If there was ever an issue, somebody with the last name of Rouse would talk to somebody with the last name of Hayward, and we’d get it worked out, get it handled, and take care of business. There was a time in which business was very much a personal relationship, one on one. And that’s still the case today for both of our organizations. Rouses is still about those ideals. Donny Rouse is the face of the company. I’m certain that the consumer feels like they have a very personal relationship with the Rouse family, and our consumers feel like they have a personal relationship with our brand. And those are not the norms across the industry. These are unique and special circumstances in today’s world.” A local product of the best quality, sold for the best price. Even though we’ve been together for 60 years, the Rouses partnership with the Camellia brand is only just getting started.

HOW TO PREP: In a large bowl, cover beans with water by at least an inch, and soak for at least 4 hours or overnight. In a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, brown sausage in 1 tablespoon of oil until fat drippings are rendered and sausage is slightly crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Add remaining oil and Guidry’s, and cook, stirring often, until onion is translucent and limp, 3 to 5 minutes. Add bay leaf, paprika and hot sauce. Drain, rinse and sort soaked red beans; add beans and ham hock to pot. Pour in chicken stock to cover. Increase heat to high, and bring mixture to a boil, skimming off and discarding foam that forms on the surface. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until beans are tender, 3 to 4 hours. Remove ham hock in the last hour of cooking, and cut meat from bone. Chop ham meat and return to pot, stirring to further break beans up. Remove and discard bay leaf. Stir in salt and sugar. Serve beans over white, brown or jasmine rice (recipe below).

Jasmine Rice

Makes 4 cups WHAT YOU WILL NEED: ½ cup canola oil 1 large yellow onion, diced ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened 1 bay leaf 2 teaspoons kosher salt 2 cups uncooked jasmine rice 3 cups water HOW TO PREP: Heat oil in a medium saucepan with a tight-fitting lid over medium-high heat. Add onion, butter, bay leaf and salt, and cook, stirring often, until onions are tender and translucent, about 6 minutes. Add rice and stir well. Stir in water, and bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork and serve.

BETTER

Choices BETTER

™

LOWER CARBS HIGH FIBER PLANT PROTEIN GLUTEN FREE ZERO SUGAR Claims vary by product.

Explore delicious recipes at missionfoods.com

Under 300 Calories Over The Top Taste!

Scott & Jon are two brothers from Maine living healthy lives. They created their seafood entrees to be better-for-you, taste fresh and easy to prepare.

• • • •

Under 300 calories, 15+ g protein, simple ingredients Tender & juicy shrimp, phosphate-free and sustainably sourced Microwaves in under 4 minutes Find us in the Frozen Seafood section | www.scottandjons.com

Scott & Jon’s | Better Seafood. Better Living.

$1 OFF 0858175003-122595

in accordance with our redemption policy (copy available upon request). Consumer must pay any sales tax. Send all redeemed Encode: coupons81104085817500312259531001100003200531 DEMERS FOOD GROUP, Mandlik & Rhodes, PO Box SYMBOL HEIGHT 0.8697 NBAR 0.0104 BWA -0.0020 490,ID: Dept122595 #1657 Tecate, CA 91980. to produceGourmet invoices In Store Distributed Offer - $1.00 off 1 Failure Any Cheating request providing Any on Cheating Gourmetpurchase of stock covering coupons may void all coupons submitted. Void if copied, reproduced, altered, transferred, sold or exchanged. Cash value: 1/100¢. © 2018 DEMERS FOOD GROUP, All Rights Reserved.

NOTICE: This DigiCode™ is considered original artwork. It must be inspecte person, firm, or group prior to store redemption. Any otherfile use Consumer pays sales tax. Discount may not byconstitutes the fraud. purchaser. Use Any modification of thi be combined with any other offer. No cashback. LIMIT of ONE this file confirms acceptance. PER PURCHASE. RETAILER: DEMERS FOOD GROUP will orCOUPON distortion is prohibited. See back of the Symbology invoice for Limitation of reimburse you the face value of this coupon plus 8 cents handling

CONSUMER: Redeem only by purchasing the brand and size(s) indicated. May not be reproduced. Void if transferred to any

We find local success stories refreshing. Cheers to the next sixty years Created on 1-31-20 at 7:13:01 by SYMBOLOGY, INC. Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55369 763-315-8080

Congratulations!

DigiCode™ Data File ACCOUNT : 88852 ORDERED BY : MANUFACTURER COUPON P.O. NUMBER EXPIRES : 05/31/20 one (1) 8 oz. box of any flavor INVOICE NO. : Scott & Jon’s Shrimp Bowl ( EPS via EMAIL )

60 TH

SINCE 19 6 0

Rouses Means Local Farmers by David W. Brown

When he founded Rouses Markets, Anthony Rouse

And though he’s scaled back his farming as he has grown

wanted to support local farmers, and that’s what he did.

older, he has no intention of stopping. “They treated me

That commitment to the community is at the heart of the

right at Rouses from the start. I learned that you have to

Rouses store culture to this day. “Really, you’re supporting

bring the best. That’s what the people like.”

the community by supporting your local people,” says Tim Acosta, Rouses advertising & marketing director, “because

As Tim says, you want to satisfy your customers 100 percent

they will come back and support you.”

of the time. “That’s the first, most important thing, if you want them to come back. If you’re not satisfying your

The local farmers bring that same sort of dedication to

customers, you’re not going to grow your business. You

Rouses produce bins. “I’ve been with ’em 25 years,” says

might get a dollar from them today, but if they aren’t satisfied,

Burton Whitfield, a farmer out of Plaucheville in Central

they won’t spend that dollar with you again.”

Louisiana, who provides produce to Rouses. “I was raised on a farm and it gets in your blood.” New Year’s in particular is

And supporting local farmers, supporting local products,

always an exhilarating time for him — one in which, when

cultivating a revered local label and nurturing local

he’s not harvesting his vegetables and fruits, he’s loading

entrepreneurs — is how communities grow, and it circles

them into his pickup truck and driving them to Rouses

right back to the ethos of Rouses. “We are local,” says

Markets. “I used to plant 6,500 cabbages and support four

Donald Rouse, chairman of Rouses, “and we give back to the

stores: in Houma, Thibodaux, one in Raceland and one in

community. We work on keeping our stores clean and fresh,

Morgan City.”

keeping our prices as competitive as possible, and keeping a much bigger variety than what a supercenter would carry,

When the time came — about a week before Christmas —

with healthier options. We work hard to train our personnel

he and his daughters would pick the cabbages, load them up

to give the shopping experience that our customers deserve,

and truck them to fill the bins at the different stores. Years

and that we want to see them have. We love the business and

later, his grandkids joined the harvest. “I don’t want to brag

are intense about it. I think it shows in our stores.”

and all,” he says, “but when they put my cabbage out there — 300 or 400 heads at a time — it wouldn’t last out there but maybe a day.”

3 2 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

by ken wells

I’m a gumbo purist. I like to make my own roux. I like to chop the bell pepper, celery and onions for my trinity. But then, sometimes, reality sets in. Two years ago, I rented a fishing camp south of Houma and promised two of my out-of-state guests an authentic Cajun chicken-and-andouille gumbo just like my momma taught me to make. I checked in to the camp before heading to the supermarket. The kitchen was rudimentary. There wasn’t an adequate cutting board. The knives would never pass the sharpness test of my home kitchen. And my guests were arriving in just a few hours, so I did what any enterprising gumbo chef would do. I improvised. I live in Chicago most of the year but when I’m in Houma, where I grew up and where three of my brothers still live, there’s only one supermarket I go to: Rouses near Bayou Black. Perusing the gumbo fixings, I came upon a time-saver: a plastic tub of Guidry’s Fresh Cuts Inc.’s Creole Seasoning — basically, what appeared to be a precut trinity (a blend of chopped onion, bell pepper and celery used by Cajun and Creole cooks). I scooped it up along with everything else I needed for my gumbo. Back at the camp, having made my roux, I studied the Guidry’s offering a little more carefully. Ah, it wasn’t exactly the trinity. Green onions, parsley and garlic had been added to the mix. It was also far more finely chopped than the way my mother taught me to chop my trinity. I became somewhat dubious but, by this time, it was too late to go back to the grocery. So I dumped it into my dark-brown roux and stirred like crazy. I needn’t have worried. I’d say the Guidry’s imparted a slightly sweeter aroma and taste to the gumbo that was otherwise indistinguishable from the taste of the gumbo I’d been cooking for more than 40 years. (All credit to you, Mom.) My fishingfanatic nephew, who lived in Thibodaux at the time and who hails from a long line of gumbo cooks from Petit Caillou, was my canary in the gumbo coal mine. He took a bite and said, “Killer good, Uncle Ken.” My out-of-town guests gorged on the gumbo like they hadn’t eaten in a week. (I’m not trying to be immodest, by the way. It’s what I call the Gumbo Effect. If you learn to cook Momma’s recipe and just stick to the plan, your gumbo will never miss.) I’ve since learned that there’s nothing surprising about Guidry’s authenticity. It’s the real deal, a company from the bedrock Cajun ROUSES

town of Arnaudville, about 15 miles north of Breaux Bridge in the heart of Acadiana. Founded in 1992 by Ray Guidry, who remains president, the company began as a mom-and-pop enterprise with four employees in a tiny facility, and has grown to more than 100 employees who today operate out of a 70,000-square-foot production plant. One impressive Guidry statistic: These days, it processes 10 million pounds of onions annually. Early Guidry’s wasn’t a Cajun-centric enterprise, even though the Guidry family was already well-known among the grocers of Arnaudville as a family that had long supplied fresh fruit and vegetables to local vendors. Taking a cue from a trend that had begun in California, “We were one of the first ones who got into the precut vegetable business,” says Todd Stelly, also an Arnaudville native, who serves as Guidry’s vice president and oversees the production facility. One of the first big Guidry contracts was supplying premade salads to more than 40 parish schools every Monday on a weekly basis, recalls Stelly, who joined the company at its founding after a stint in the oil and gas industry. Early on, the mixes came by truck from California. Transit interruptions sometimes made it difficult for Guidry’s to fill its orders with a single Monday delivery, which is when Ray Guidry decided enough was enough. “I’m just going to build my own plant,” he told Stelly. “We know it’s going to be done and it will be fresher. We can do it on Saturday and Sunday and deliver it on Monday.” With the plant in place, Guidry’s began to explore other markets. One of them was the local restaurant scene, where demand proved brisk for things like individual tubs of precut onions, celery and bell peppers — the gumbo trinity — plus items like diced cabbage that could be turned into coleslaw. Out of that experience came the fresh six-veggie blend known today as Guidry’s Creole Seasoning. It was so popular among restaurants and other clients that Guidry’s decided it could become a hot consumer product. By this time, the company was mindful of how the market for gumbo products was exploding and also how gumbocooking culture was beginning to change. For every traditionalist who insisted on making their own rouxs and trinities, there were younger, novice gumbo cooks whose active lifestyles had them looking for ways to fulfill their gumbocooking ambitions without a lot of the muss, fuss and time of their parents or grandparents. Stelly says there was some concern at first that the Creole Seasoning’s addition of parsley, green onions and garlic to the mix might turn off Gumbo Belt consumers. But that hasn’t happened. “Our original focus was on the younger generation — they weren’t using the trinity anyway, but they still

Rouses Means Local farmers

Guidry’s Fresh Cuts

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 3 3

wanted the pleasure of making that gumbo while they were watching the ball game or whatever, and this was perfect for them,” says Stelly. Meanwhile, traditionalists discovered what I discovered that day at the camp. If you don’t have all day to make a gumbo, it’s an absolutely fine and authentic substitute for the trinity. “We’ve ended up with a product that now serves both spectrums,” says Stelly. “It’s proved wildly popular.” In 2013, Guidry’s forged even deeper into the gumbo-convenience market by coming up with a handful of dry mixes — Guidry’s Cajun Gumbo being one of them — that basically aim to take the guesswork out of making a gumbo. The mix, when stirred into a gallon of water and cooked for an appropriate amount of time, turns into a gumbo to which the cook only has to add whatever protein — chicken, sausage, shrimp — pleases them. Stelly credits Ray Venable, a former Guidry production manager who has since retired, with coming up with, and taste-testing, the recipes.

PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

3 4 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

“It’s not ‘instant’ gumbo,” says Stelly, “and we remind people that the suggested cooking time is the minimum time, and longer is better.” But the glory, especially for novice cooks, is that “…you don’t have to make a roux, you don’t have to season it. It goes from the pantry to the pot and comes out the same every time, because everything is measured so precisely,” Stelly says. Stelly also credits a great deal of Guidry’s success and exposure over the years to Rouses, the supermarket chain that publishes this magazine. “We love Rouses because they push very hard for local vendors, of which we are obviously one…. They also are masters at display — they keep the racks full and they do a great job with inventory control. And with our Creole Seasoning being a fresh product, a lot of things have to be done right to keep it fresh, and they just know how to do things right.”

by Sarah Baird

Larry Daigle’s five decades of experience as a produce buyer make him not only a bona fide expert in his field, but one of the most knowledgeable people on the Gulf Coast about the ins and outs of local produce. In 1960, after finishing high school, Daigle went to work officially joined the Rouses team as local produce buyer. full time at Caro’s Produce in Houma, Louisiana — the “Mr. Anthony was never a man to show what he had. same year that Anthony J. Rouse, Sr., and his cousin, Ciro He’d wear his coveralls and work just like everybody DiMarco, opened Ciro’s. “Mr. Anthony” quickly became else,” Daigle recalls. “There was a time, a guy working one of Daigle’s biggest customers. for Mr. Rouse, he was struggling because his daddy was “I approached Mr. Rouse at the time and asked him if sick. And every Friday afternoon, Mrs. Rouse would get I would be able to sell him any product. He said, ‘Yes, a bucket and she’d fill it with groceries and send it to you can, but I want you to always remember: The first that boy’s house — a big bag. And when that boy grew thing I want is quality and the last thing I want is quality. up, he would never buy anything, anywhere but Rouses. In between, I want price. I want the best price you He was a true Rouses supporter because Mr. Rouse took can get the customers, but I want the quality, because care of him. But Mr. Rouse took care of everybody. If he they remember the quality before they promised you something, he did it.” remember the price.’ We hit it off real This tradition of respect and reverence good.” for others was passed down through Over the course of 57 years as a the generations to Donald Rouse, Mr. produce buyer working closely with Mr. Anthony’s son. “Donald was a good I approached Mr. Rouse at the time and Anthony and the Rouse family, Daigle guy to work with. He grew up working asked him if I would be able to sell him any — Don and [his brother] Tommy — when saw just how committed the company product. He said, ‘Yes, you can, but I want was to trusting and supporting their they were done with school for the day. suppliers: the local farmers. They carried on the tradition. Donald was you to always remember: The first thing I more of the business type — he would “People would bring stuff to Mr. Rouse. want is quality and the last thing I want is always take care of the customers.” A guy would have five dozen mustard [greens]. Mr. Rouse would say, ‘Bring quality. In between, I want price. I want the If caring for employees, customers and best price you can get the customers, but I them in.’ I’d say, ‘What are we going to everyone in between was the hallmark of do with it?’ He’d say, ‘It’s good for the want the quality, because they remember the Mr. Anthony’s life, for 57 years produce business. When they come in and bring has been the heartbeat of Daigle’s — and quality before they remember the price.’ the mustard [greens], they buy other stuff he has the knowledge to prove it. We hit it off real good. at the store.’ He took care of the farmers.” “There are four ideals of produce. If it’s And along the way, there were plenty too ripe, nobody wants it. If it’s too green, — Larry Daigle, Produce Buyer of opportunities to get a little creative they don’t want it, either. If the price is too in order to make sure farmers were high, nobody wants to buy it. If it’s too supported and customers got exactly cheap, well, they figure everybody’s got what they needed. “One year, I remember it. If you’re too late with the order, that’s I promised a farmer I would buy all his no good, but they get nervous if you cabbages. He had about 1,200 heads come early. It’s a complicated situation. [of cabbage], and the cabbages came Now if you beat all that, you’re in good out to be 12 pounds apiece — which is shape! I was going to write a book about big! I told Mr. Rouse that I had an idea for produce and call it, ‘Sell It or Smell It!’” selling it. So, we took a knife and we cut In fact, just before our conversation, the cabbage in half, wrapped them, and he was still working in the garden at 76 made them into six-pound halves! At 10 years old — and was eager to head right cents a pound, the customer got 60-cent back out there after we finished our chat. cabbage. That was a real deal. We sold Produce, of course, doesn’t run on any that cabbage lickety-split!” schedule but nature’s own. After Ciro’s closed upon Ciro “Earlier this morning, I was pulling up DiMarco’s retirement in 1976, Daigle some green onions for our church. I do continued to work with the (then newly that every year. So, today’s the day, and opened) Rouses Market in Thibodaux, I want to do it before the rain — it was and with every Rouses Market opened already muddy. If I wait another day, thereafter. When Caro’s sold their they’re going to seed. So, I got to hurry produce company in 1999, Daigle up and get out there to pull them out!”

Rouses Means Local farmers

Remembering Mr. Anthony

Top: Larry Daigle; Bottom: Produce department at Rouses #4 - Village East Store in Houma, circa 1983

ROUSES

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 3 5

your snacks for march madness

Rouses Means Local Flavor by David W. Brown

With that in mind, if you’re making a jambalaya with local sausage, you might as well use a local jambalaya mix as well. Jambalaya Girl, a New Orleans company founded by Kristen

Few foods attract as strong a following as local meats. One such local meat that Rouses proudly carries is Chisesi Pride, which in New Orleans is synonymous with ham. Rouses has been selling the beloved local product since its very first store.

Preau, puts out a rice mix based on her father’s recipe. “She came on the scene in the last 10 years,” says Tim. “We were in my office when she came in to talk to us, and we thought she had an interesting story. We gave her a shot.”

The two companies, both founded by first- and secondgeneration immigrants from Italy, have found success and

And Preau hustles, says Ali. “She will cook that jambalaya

grown concurrently.

anywhere and everywhere. Almost anytime we had an event for a few years, I would see her there. She started in 2010,

Meanwhile, Rouses goes out of its way to get to know local palates and to carry more sausage than you even knew existed. It’s just how the Gulf Coast works. We know sausage, we have our favorites, and we want them on local shelves at good prices. Rouses even makes its own local sausages for purchase.

and every weekend for the first few years she was in Rouses demonstrating her product.” When local entrepreneurs arrive at Rouses in hope of success, they are reminded that passion is at the core of everything. No one needs to be told that outright, of course. If you work with grocers who are passionate about the business, it becomes infectious, and you’ll give it your all, too.

“Our sausage is made fresh at all of our stores with all of our recipes — that’s three generations of recipes!” says Nick Acosta, the meat director of Rouses Markets. “We’ve got green onion, Italian, Cajun — a lot of bigger retailers outsource their fresh sausage, but we make it all in-house in every store. We know every area and region has its own local flavors and favorite local brands, and we make sure we carry them. And when somebody comes up with something new, we always meet with them. We always want to give everybody a chance. That’s families helping families.”

3 8 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

We know every area and region has its own local flavors and favorite local brands, and we make sure we carry them. And when somebody comes up with something new, we always meet with them. We always want to give everybody a chance. That’s families helping families. — Nick Acosta, Rouses Markets’ Meat Director, third generation

by Justin nystrom

“A guy came up to me at a food show once,” laughs Nick Chisesi. “‘Man, you guys have a cult following,’ he says.” It’s true: Few products have a deeper identity with the local market than Chisesi Ham. In fact, for many Louisianians, the words are nearly interchangeable — for them, Chisesi is ham. The company traces its roots to the first decade of the 20th century, when Philip Chisesi sold chickens, rabbits, ducks and turtles in the French Market. An immigrant from the Albanian enclave of Contessa Entellina on the island of Sicily, Chisesi sailed for New Orleans in 1878, joining the unique Albanese culture of the city. By 1908, he’d opened a saloon and grocery on the corner of St. Philip and Chartres, at the Quarter’s Italian epicenter. Perhaps surprisingly, it was not ham that laid the early foundation of the Chisesi family. Much like J.P. Rouse had done in the 1920s with fresh goods, Philip Chisesi concentrated his business efforts on the distribution of groceries in the growing city, emerging as one of the metropolitan area’s popular suppliers of meat and, in particular, chickens. His great-grandson and namesake, the Philip Chisesi who today runs the company with sons Nick and Cody, remembers this much more homespun era of the company well. Born in 1936, the same year that his great-grandfather died, Chisesi likes to tell a story about coming home after school at St. Aloysius High School (today’s Brother Martin) and cutting up dressed chickens for distribution. It’s difficult to imagine in today’s Quarter, but it was a chore he performed underneath and in the backyard of the family home at 920 Governor Nicholls Street, a job he fondly recalled as “being all right” despite the nature of the task. The appreciation of hard work is a recurrent theme in the Chisesi family. Philip is proud of the multigenerational lineage of the family, as well as that of many of the Chisesi employees. When discussing the early history of the company, he retrieved from a nearby office a ledger book from the early 1930s, setting it on a table and opening it. The names on the page read like a graduation list from St. Mary’s Italian in the French Quarter, where Philip went to grade school: Mancuso, Sciambra, Albenesi and so on. “Some of the people working here,” smiles Philip as he points to the ledger, “are their grandchildren.” The company went through critical transformations when it moved out of the French Quarter in 1953, into what at the time were comparatively modern facilities at the corner of North Galvez and Lapeyrouse, just down the street from Dooky Chase’s Restaurant. The building was an old ice house with thick brick walls where, in the days before household refrigeration, 100-pound blocks of ice were made. It was perfect for the Chisesi’s growing business, which increasingly required ample cold storage. And it was here that the company began to transform into the Chisesi Brothers meat company we know today.

ROUSES

Rouses Means Local flavor

Chisesi’s Pride

The move to Galvez Street coincided with an expansion into the sale of hams — other people’s hams — along with other pork products. In the late 1950s, the thought occurred to Philip’s father and his Uncle Frank that they could probably make their own smoked meat. “We had this wooden box, and put some wood chips in the bottom,” remembered Philip, “that could hold maybe six hams.” A man from Mississippi, who stayed in a trailer behind the warehouse while the hams smoked all night, showed them how to do it. The first Chisesi hams were essentially what we’d consider today a craft-made product, a process that continues to inform the way the company makes hams now. Philip laughs when he recalls how they got into the sausage business. “We used to cut steaks. And the thing we were selling was the seven steaks, and the rest of the product we kept putting in the freezer.” Between the cutoffs from the beef and the growing number of cutoffs from the ham-making, meats had begun to pile up. “My daddy walked into the freezer one day, and said, ‘What are we going to do with all this?’ And then he said, ‘Well, we’re going to make sausage.’ And we got into the sausage business.” The ham that we identify today with Chisesi literally “took shape” in 1971, the year that Philip’s father died. “We named it the V.I.P. ham,” noted Nick Chisesi, “because my grandfather was a Very Important Person to us,” and hams had been his vision. But it took a bit of trial and error to achieve Chisesi’s teardrop form, a process that remains in use today. A Chisesi ham consists of two boned-out pieces of trimmed ham. A skilled worker arranges these pieces together crosswise, then deftly places them inside netting. He then rolls and spins the ham to orient the meat, pressing out the air pockets, and shaping it into its signature appearance before placing it on a rack destined for the smoker. “Every ham is made by hand,” Nick proudly observes. In the late 1960s they had experimented with machines but weren’t satisfied with the quality they produced. “What makes it different? We make it different.” As ham and house-made sausage joined a growing list of meat products that Chisesi Pride began to distribute, the company soon outgrew the facility on North Galvez. They kept buying nearby lots as the smoking facilities became more elaborate, but that still wasn’t enough room. “I had to unload trucks right in the middle of the street,” Cody Chisesi recalls. “It was difficult and dangerous.” With Philip’s sons engaged in the business, in 1978 this next generation put down roots — in the shadow of the recently built Superdome — at 2419 Julia Street.

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 3 9

A twist of fate contributed to Chisesi becoming the most widely recognized ham in Louisiana. Chisesi’s main competitor in the cured meat business in the early 1980s was Schott’s, a local, family-run company with a loyal following that had been in business in the city since 1879. A fire at the Schott facility right before the holidays prevented the company from filling orders, and customers turned to Chisesi as an alternative. These customers soon discovered that they liked what they tasted. Within two years, the heirs of the Schott company sold the business, including its recipes, to Chisesi, which still distributes some of the Schott products including its popular chili meat. The Chisesi family is proud to keep the Schott name alive, recognizing as they do the value of local connections. It was also around this time that the relationship with Rouses and Chisesi really began to grow, particularly as Rouses itself began to grow. “Oh, we have been supplying products to Rouses for a long time, almost from the beginning,” recalls Philip. “We sold to them when they had just the first store.” What impressed the Chisesis back then was how Anthony Rouse built his business from the ground up in a way that was familiar — because it was how they did it too. “Mr. Anthony was hands-on, no doubt about it,” Philip continued. “He would do the grunt work right along with the others” when they started building the stores in Houma, undoubtedly contributing to the grocery chain’s great success. Nick smiles when he explains trips down to Houma when he was a young salesman in the late 1980s: “I remember walking into that Rouses Number One, and the house behind it was where you had the meeting rooms…and the bedrooms and the kitchen were offices. In those days Mr. Zerengue was the guy who handled chickens, and you would walk over to his office and do business.” The family quality of the business makes it an easy relationship to maintain. “I think we’ve helped each other,” Nick says. He emphasizes that Chisesi is proud to supply a local product to Rouses that their customers like, and that Rouses is a good partner in helping them reach that market because the two companies share the same values. Both companies have grown in creative ways since Hurricane Katrina, but it was not without significant challenges at Chisesi, which lost 2.5 million pounds of meat in one day. “The cavalry isn’t coming,” Philip told his sons in those difficult days. “We have to do it ourselves.” And they did: After cleaning out a warehouse that even the USDA inspector refused to enter, they managed to get operations up and running, remarkably meeting their goal of turning out their first ham a week before Thanksgiving of 2005. Why? “It’s what we do,” the Chisesi men replied. Chisesi’s Pride, like Rouses, is a multigenerational local family business, with the fifth generation of Nick and Cody running day-to-day operations, while a sixth generation is coming up in the wings. And so it is, too, with their employees. Their longest-serving employee has worked at Chisesi for 56 years, beginning her career at the old facility on Galvez Street. Walk through the shop floor at the company’s current Jefferson Highway location, and it’s easy to encounter personnel who have been with the family 30 or more years. They are as proud of the work they do as their employers are. The family is hopeful about the future and some of its more recent innovations. These include partnerships with the fabled Louisiana spice Tony Chachere’s, while more locally they’ve teamed up with chefs from the Hogs for the Cause charity to develop a specialrecipe sausage — and a percentage of the profits of this sausage go towards children’s brain cancer research. Both products are distributed regionally by Rouses. More recently, the company has become involved in National Sandwich Day (which locally manifests itself in the po-boy), often at events built around constructing the “world’s longest” variety. “I have a goal,” says Nick. “I want to make a po-boy that wraps around the Superdome.” 4 0 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

Ham & Cheese Po-Boys

Makes 10 sandwiches WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 5 loaves French bread Mayonnaise, to taste 4 pounds root beer glazed Chisesi Ham (recipe below) 1 pound Swiss cheese, thinly sliced Shredded lettuce Sliced tomatoes Sliced pickles HOW TO PREP: Slice each loaf in half lengthwise and crosswise. Thickly layer each bottom half with ham and cheese, and top with lettuce, tomatoes and pickles. Spread each top half of bread loaf with mayonnaise, and place each on top of its bottom.

Root Beer Glazed Ham

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 24 ounces root beer 1½ tablespoons Rouses Pepper Jelly 1½ tablespoons Pickapeppa Sauce 6 cloves 1 stick cinnamon ½ orange, peel and juice ½ lemon, peel only 1 bay leaf 1 (4- to 5-pound) Chisesi Ham 3/4 cup dark brown sugar ½ teaspoon dry mustard

HOW TO PREP: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine root beer, pepper jelly, Pickapeppa, cloves, cinnamon, orange peel and juice, lemon peel and bay leaf. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 30 minutes. Remove pan from heat and strain the mixture, discarding any solids. Pour the liquid back into the pan and cook, over medium-low heat, until the liquid is reduced to about ½ cup and is thick enough to coat a spoon, about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the ham on a rack in a disposable aluminum foil pan. Using a knife, score the top half of the ham in a crisscross pattern. Spoon the glaze over the entire ham to completely moisten the surface. In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and the dry mustard. Using your hands, pat the mixture all over the ham. Pour ½ cup of water into the pan. Bake until the ham reaches an internal temperature of 160°F on a meat thermometer, about 3 to 4 hours. While the ham is baking, spoon some of the glaze over it, allowing it to dribble down the sides, at 15-minute intervals, until the glaze is used up. Add more water to the pan as needed to keep the ham from getting dry. Transfer the ham to a work surface. Let it rest, uncovered, for about 30 minutes before carving.

Rouses Means Local flavor

Jack Miller’s BBQ by michael tisserand

The town of Ville Platte has long proclaimed itself the “Smoked Meat Capital of the World,” so it should come as no surprise that the town also produces one of Louisiana’s most beloved sauces for those meats. It all started in the summer of 1941, when a former sweet potato farmer and truck driver named Jack Miller heard that there was a restaurant in Ville Platte that was about to go under. Miller took it over, and he honored the patriotism of the war years by giving the place a new name: American Inn. Jack had previously tried out a wide range of jobs, even working for a small company that sent men door to door in search of household gold. All that experience gave him a knack for dealing with people, which came in handy during the American Inn’s early years. There was a wartime meat shortage, so Miller served chicken and started working on barbecue sauces to keep the chicken from drying out — Jack needed that sauce, because he didn’t have a cover for his barbecue pit, his son, Kermit Miller, later recalled for the Opelousas Daily World. The new place was a hit with servicemen who’d driven to Ville Platte to dance at the Evangeline Club. Pretty soon, customers began showing up with empty jars to fill up with sauce for their own home cooking. And with that, Jack Miller’s Bar-B-Que Sauce was born.

A scan of old issues of South Louisiana newspapers shows how much Jack Miller’s business became a part of local life. It’s hard to find a local school event that didn’t include donated meals from Miller. Not surprisingly, Miller reigned as king over Mardi Gras festivities in Opelousas and served as Grand Marshal for a Louisiana Cotton Festival parade. “After 40 years in business, I have made a lot of friends,” Jack Miller told the Ville Platte Gazette in 1981. After serving in Vietnam, Jack Miller’s son Kermit joined his father in the business; Jack eventually named Kermit head of the company. Jack passed away in 1988 and, today, Kermit continues to run operations, assisted by numerous other family members. New products include a Cajun seasoning blend and a dipping sauce — but it’s the original tangy sauce that is lodged deep in the memory bank of the folks in South Louisiana. In fact, for some, the sauce itself is enough to make a meal. “Growing up south of Ville Platte, to me there was no other option,” wrote one fan on the company’s Facebook page. “I love to put it on Evangeline Maid bread.”

Conecuh If we asked our Alabama customers to pick their all-time favorite brand of sausage, there’s no doubt they would choose Conecuh. The late Henry Sessions, a World War II vet, created the original recipe, naming it after the Southern Alabama county between Mobile and Montgomery, where he lived. The sausage is still made in Evergreen, a small town there that is the seat of the county. Sessions was originally a salesman for a meat packing plant in Montgomery, but he had bigger ideas. In 1947 he opened a hog and cattle slaughter facility with freezer locker space for local families (this was before most people had home freezers). He quickly hit upon the idea of making his own smoked sausage using pork shoulders and bacon trimmings. He

ROUSES

also added more spice than traditional smoked sausage, and used a higher sugar content, which helps the sausage char and crisp. The delicate snap you hear when cooking it comes from its all-natural sheep and hog casings. Today, Conecuh Sausage produces 35,000 to 40,000 pounds of sausage per week, in six different flavors, including Cajun Smoked, Spicy & Hot, and Cracked Black Pepper. The company is run by Henry’s son, John Crum Sessions, and grandson, John Henry Sessions. And every Alabamians favorite sausage is now the “Official Smoked Sausage” of the Alabama Crimson Tide.

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 41

Rouses Means Local Brands by David W. Brown

If you’re looking to wash down those tamales or some Spicy Cajun Crawtators while watching the game, you might reach for a beer — another area where Rouses has made

Local products of every stripe, coffee to candy, dominate the shelves at Rouses — and it’s been that way for a long time.

local its heart and soul, and in the process, practically kickstarted an entire industry.

“I remember salesmen coming in with potato chips, and I remember asking, ‘What’s this? Zapp’s?’ Ron Zappe was a local guy from across the river, in Gramercy, Louisiana. We set him up and started selling his products. We said yes,

As Rouses Markets have expanded over the last 60 years,

we’ll give you an opportunity, and if it sells, that’s great.

they’ve brought their local products with them, helping the

And if it doesn’t sell… we gave you an opportunity!”

smaller companies grow as the store chain grows. “When we move into an area,” says Ali Rouse Royster, “we like

And boy howdy did they ever sell, becoming, by the end

to bring the best of what we offer, which means all kinds

of Ron Zappe’s life, the second-largest-selling snack food

of local products from all across the Gulf Coast. We also

in Louisiana and Texas — two states where the snack food

work hard to learn about the new community we’re going

competition has a lion-like ferocity.

to serve, and meld them together.”

Mickey Brown’s, another beloved local company, makes

It goes both ways. “We take the best local products

some of the best fully cooked, frozen tamales in the world.

from the rest of our network, and bring them to the new

But they weren’t always frozen on arrival. “He was making

community. We also take their best local products and

them right here in Houma,” says Tim, “and years and years

move them back to the rest of our network. It is a great

ago, I remember these warm tamales coming in. They

opportunity for us to keep bringing new cool products for

would bake them, pack them up in little brown bags and

everyone, everywhere to discover. And it’s also great for

bring them to the store, and we would put them in the

the vendors, who can expand their footprints in a kind of

freezer. It’s a great local product and it’s still there today.

organic way, because they know us, they know our systems.

They’ve expanded. They do burritos now, too.”

They can keep moving geographically with us.”

4 2 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

He was making them right here in Houma, and years and years ago, I remember these warm tamales coming in. They would bake them, pack them up in little brown bags and bring them to the store, and we would put them in the freezer. It’s a great local product and it’s still there today. — Tim Acosta, Director of Marketing & Advertising at Rouses Markets

Mickey Brown’s employees wrap tamales in vegetable parchment paper at their production center in Houma, Louisiana (images courtesy of Houma Today)

ROUSES

by michael tisserand

The tamale is one of the most versatile dishes, with its ability to serve as a quick bite from a street vendor’s cart or a gourmet appetizer, with a wide variety of exotic fillings to choose from. It’s also a storied food, dating back to ancient Aztec and Mayan civilizations, and even earlier, when tamales were considered sacred foods. They served nomadic cultures and traveling hunters well, as the filling in a tamale came wrapped in its own container, such as a banana leaf or a corn husk, which handily functioned as a “plate” too.

Rouses Means Local brands

Mickey Brown’s

Tamales are most associated with Mexico and Central America, but the Southern Foodways Alliance has identified what it calls a Southern “Hot Tamale Trail” that dates back to at least 1928, when the Louisiana gospel-blues singer Reverend Moses Mason recorded the song “Molly Man,” with lyrics calling out the promise of red hot tamales, two for a nickel. The tamale song tradition continued into modern times, thanks to zydeco legend Clifton Chenier’s “Hot Tamale Baby,” which was also a hit for both Marcia Ball and Buckwheat Zydeco. While the Mississippi Delta is the primary home of tamales in the South, the savory delight was found in neighboring states as well. For decades, the epicenter of tamale production in Louisiana was a nondescript building in Houma, a city otherwise known as a seat of Cajun culture and home to families who made their living harvesting seafood from the Gulf and working in the oil industry. Speaking to Houma Today newspaper in 2005 — when the company was moving from handrolled tamales to an expanded production with greater automation — company owner Marshall Brown couldn’t recall exactly how his father, Mickey, realized his future was in tamales. “I’ve heard a couple different stories,” he said. But his father was an innovative cook, and when Mickey took a trip to Mexico and sampled the wares, the family’s future was set. He began making tamales by hand in his own father’s kitchen. Marshall Brown started out in this business as a child, going along with his father on tamale deliveries; in 1977, he took over the business operation. He confirms that he still uses his dad’s recipe, even though the production has grown exponentially. Instead of banana leaves or corn husks, Mickey Brown’s tamales are wrapped in parchment paper. And in South Louisiana — where everything and everybody seem to become Cajun sooner or later — it should be no surprise that packages of Mickey Brown’s tamales are stamped with a “Certified Cajun” seal, along with a map of Louisiana and a chili pepper with its tip pointing straight to Houma.

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 4 3

by Robert simonson

Leo A. Basile, vice president of sales for Louisiana’s Abita Brewing Company, knew about Rouses Markets well before he came to work for the craft beer giant. He went to school in Thibodaux, in Lafourche Parish, where the company was founded in 1960 and where the first store christened Rouses opened in 1974. So when Rouses opened a store in Metairie, just across Lake Pontchartrain from Abita’s headquarters of Covington, Basile was interested, to say the least. He wanted in. “It’s one of the stories I always talk about,” said Basile. “I was an extremely ‘rookie’ salesperson. But I knew Tim a bit.” Tim is Tim Acosta, the director of advertising and marketing at Rouses. The two men were standing in the beer aisle of the Metairie store one day when Basile just came right out and asked what it would take to get an Abita mention in one of Rouses’ promotional advertisements. “Abita was a local craft brewery,” recalled Acosta. “We had heard about them. They were just getting starting. We like to work with local companies, and this was one of the first local beer people we got to know. We had carried their product. We had it stocked on our shelves. Leo said, ‘We’d just love to get in one of your ads.’ I said, ‘That’s no problem. I’m the one who sets up the ads. Just give us a deal and we’ll set it up.’” And so began a lengthy, symbiotic relationship between two iconic Gulf Coast businesses that continues to this day. The relationship is not unusual in a certain respect. As a proud local enterprise, and in the spirit of forebears J.P. and Anthony Rouse, Rouses has long maintained a dedication to local businesses. “It is common,” observed Basile. “In Louisiana, locals try to help locals.” And there is no craft brewer more associated with Louisiana than Abita. Abita was founded on in 1986, by two home brewers, Jim Patton and Rush Cumming. It is named after the small town of Abita Springs, and the brewery uses the artesian water from those springs (regarded as some of the purest water to be found in the area). Abita’s arrival on the scene was welcome and needed. The beer landscape in Louisiana at that time was pretty bleak. Prohibition had done its demolition work and, by the end of the 20th century, only Dixie Beer was left among the old local brands. It can be said, without exaggeration, that the opening of the Abita Brewery officially kicked off the craft beer boom in the state. Abita was only the 13th craft brewery to open in the United States — and the first in the South. Moreover, for their first couple of decades in business, Abita remained the only craft beer maker in the area. As is often the case with start-up craft breweries, Abita was for several years only available on tap; Abita Amber and Golden were its first releases. With the help of the Munich-trained brewmaster Mark Wilson, Abita started its ascent by placing the beers in two bars — one in New Orleans and one in Mandeville. By 1989, the beers had become available in bottles. In its first year of business, Abita rolled out a modest 1,500 barrels of beer. Today they brew more than 100 times that, including several ROUSES

year-round flagship brews. The Abita Amber and Purple Haze raspberry lager are arguably the best-known. Other year-round products include Wrought Iron IPA; Turbodog, a dark brown ale; Old-Fashioned Pale Ale; and Abita Light Lager. There’s also a variety of seasonal ales, which come out only during a specific period each year (Pecan Ale and Christmas Ale are two); limited-release beers, which are designed to disappear completely after a short stay on the market (Macchiato Espresso Milk Stout and Office Party, a holidayseason brew, were two recent attractions). For the teetotaler, there are Abita Root Beer (flavored with herbs, vanilla, yucca and Louisiana sugarcane) and Vanilla Cream Soda. (Patton sold his stake in the company in 1997, and he passed away in 2012. Cumming also left the company, and he passed away in 2016.) Today, Abita is a national brand with a presence in nearly every state in the union. I personally first encountered Abita at Vaughan’s Lounge in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans in 2006, when I tossed back a couple of Ambers while listening to Kermit Ruffins play his Thursday night set. Today, I have no trouble finding Abita in New York, including at The Gumbo Bros, a New Orleans-style eatery just blocks from my Brooklyn home; and at Clover Club, one of the best craft cocktail bars in the city. On the Gulf Coast, meanwhile, Abita still has a dependable home at every Rouses Market, including the one on Highway 190 in Covington, which sits just a stone’s throw from the brewery. And Rouses — which is locally renowned for its exhaustive craft beer selection — is ever eager to know about anything Abita might be up to. “We want to be the first to market anything they have with our customers,” said Acosta. He mentioned Abita’s Strawberry Lager, which was introduced more than a decade ago. While at first glance a strawberry lager might seem like a headscratcher, the flavor mash-up was a natural one for a Louisiana brewer like Abita. The state’s “berry belt” dates back to the 1800s, when immigrants from Italy and Hungary began planting the fruit in large numbers. Some consider them the best-tasting strawberries in the country — not as large as the California version, but much sweeter. The refreshing, pilsner- and wheat-based beer, which was created to coincide with the local Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival, caught the public’s fancy, and Abita upped production fairly quickly. Rouses’ savvy marketing expertise likely had a little something to do with that. The market’s approach to selling the product was to match like with like. Bottles of the Strawberry Lager were displayed beside containers of actual Louisiana strawberries. The Strawberry Lager was, for its first 15 years, a seasonal product, but in 2019 Abita announced it would be available year-round. The brewery said it will use a whopping 120,000 pounds of strawberries to make the brew a 365-day-a-year thing. Abita appreciates such cheeky ingenuity. David Blossman, the president and CEO of Abita and one of the original investors in the brewery, observed that Rouses is “very good for marketing products.” A similar sort of promotion was built around King Cake Soda, which was introduced by Abita in early 2016. Perhaps the most local product imaginable, the

Rouses Means Local brands

Abita Beer

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 4 5

vanilla and cinnamon flavored soda is meant to match the flavor of King Cake, the iconic, super-sweet confection that is all but inescapable during the Mardi Gras season, and is typically decorated with icing and sugar in the traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold. The seasonal product is, like Abita’s root beer, made with Louisiana sugarcane. Rouses promotes it by placing it alongside its non-liquid King Cakes. These cross promotions work well, according to Acosta. “The more we display, the more they buy,” he remarked. In 2012, as the down-market reputation of canned beer began to fade among consumers, Abita decided to finally make their products available in cans, beginning with Amber lager, Purple Haze and Jockamo IPA. Rouses knew it wanted to be on the frontline of that innovation; the market was the first in the state to sell the canned beer. (In 2015, Abita began to sell its root beer in cans as well.) Sometimes the ongoing collaboration between Rouses and Abita takes unexpected turns. In 2012, the market offered customers a glaze for hams that was made with Abita Root Beer. (That same year, Rouses also created a glaze made with another local product, Steen’s Pure Cane Syrup.) In 2018, Abita and Rogue Creamery, a cheesemaker based in Oregon, teamed up to create Andygator Cheddar Cheese, named after Abita’s “high-gravity” brew. The cheese and beer mash-up was sold exclusively at Rouses. (Since Abita promotes the beer as being a good accompaniment to cheese, it only made sense to skip the middleman and make some cheese themselves.) Abita employees set up frequent tastings in the various Rouses locations. Sometimes these involved the seemingly endless line of limited-series brews that Abita whips up. These have in the past included Lounging Iguanas, an IPA flavored with pineapple and coconut; and Maison Blanc, a limited edition, Louisiana-only pale wheat ale Abita put out in 2017 to mark New Orleans’ tricentennial. (If there is any doubt that Abita is still, at heart, a Louisiana brand, all you have to do is take a look at the names that make up their line: Big Easy IPA; The Boot; Mardi Gras Bock; Bayou Bootlegger Hard Root Beer; Strawgator; and a juicy pale ale called Hop-On, as in hopping on a streetcar.) Throughout their long partnership, Rouses and Abita have had the pleasure of seeing each other grow together from small, Louisianabased family operations to something quite considerably larger.

4 6 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

Rouses had a handful of outlets in 1986, when Abita opened its doors. Now, the chain has 64 stores, including three in Mississippi and eight in Alabama. Abita, meanwhile, has flourished, becoming one of the most recognizable craft beer brands in the country. There is now a popular brew pub on the site where the original Abita brewery was, where you can order gumbo, po-boys, muffuletta sandwiches and, of course, beer. “Rouses has been around a lot longer than we have,” admitted Basile, “but they have grown, and we have grown as well.” “We helped each other,” added Blossman. “One thing I appreciate is, they are all about Louisiana and family. They understand the pride people take in everything Louisiana. It’s great to see them enjoy success.” Blossman mentioned that Donald Rouse, and his children Donny Rouse and Ali Rouse Royster, have all taken the time to visit Abita and check in with the company. “That was very nice,” he said. “They didn’t have to do that. They saw us as a supplier partner.” Today, Rouses carries dozens of Louisiana craft beers, including products from Urban South Brewery, Port Orleans Brewing Co., NOLA Brewing Company and Second Line Brewing in New Orleans; Crying Eagle Brewing Company in Lake Charles; Tin Roof Brewing Co. in Baton Rouge; Great Raft Brewing in Shreveport; Parish Brewery in Broussard; Gnarly Barley Brewing Co. in Hammond; and Bayou Teche Brewery in Arnaudville. Many of these brash young brewers have opened up just in the last decade. Abita is no longer a lonely outpost in the Louisiana beer universe. But there will always be a special place for Abita in every Rouses Market beer aisle. Abita is carried at every one of Rouses’ locations. And, because of the brewery’s many different expressions, it commands the most shelf real estate of any local beer, including in the markets on Power Boulevard in Metairie and on Village Market Street in Baton Rouge — the two Rouses with the largest craft beer selections. Additionally, Rouses offers Abita beer in its original 1980s form — draft — at two stores: on Center Court Boulevard in Baton Rouge and South Acadia Road in Thibodaux — the town where one-time Abita rookie salesman Leo Basile first noticed a grocery store named Rouses. “I just think it’s a good relationship,” said Blossman. “They’re looking after the better good of Louisiana businesses. It’s not faked. It’s in their DNA. It’s who they are.”

Rouses Means Local brands

Wow Wee Sauce PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

by sarah baird

You never quite know which lessons you picked up in the kitchen as a child will come in handy later in life. Maybe your childhood job was setting the table for formal family dinners, which inspired a love of organizing parties and led to a career in event planning. Perhaps desserts were always your responsibility for family potlucks, ensuring a love affair with pastries and, eventually, a bakery of your own. For Lois Lasseigne of Cut Off, Louisiana, it was her childhood role as “sauce maker” for the family that eventually led to the founding of her company, Wow Wee Dipping Sauce. “My mom always made me help cook, and the sauces were the thing she had me make, like the dipping sauce and tartar sauce,” Lasseigne explains. “She would have me mix them up. It was kind of my duty.” This childhood assignment inspired a lifelong commitment to a type of sauce that is special not only to her family, but her community as a whole. “It’s actually been my God-given desire since I was young to bottle my sauce, because around here it’s a Cajun tradition that, anytime we boil seafood, we make a dipping sauce. And this is basically what Wow Wee is,” she says. “But we don’t just eat it on seafood. We put it on our sandwiches, we dip our chicken tenders in it, our French fries — we even put it on a hamburger. So, it’s very versatile. There’s really no other sauce like it out there. I’ve heard people say that it’s an alternative to ketchup or ‘the new ketchup’ because, just like ketchup, you can basically dip anything in it.” Boiling seafood is something of a religion in Cajun country, and no meal would be complete without a little something extra — the dipping sauce — for an additional pop of flavor. “Wow Wee is from a family recipe. However, every household where we’re from in South Louisiana pretty much makes a version of it. They may add things like onions or Worcestershire sauce, but the recipe I’ve put forward is just a basic, simple recipe. It’s a base, pretty much. And, around here in this area, if they don’t have to make the sauce — if they can just buy it off the shelf — that’s what they’re going to do.”

ROUSES

And while the dipping sauce might be a known quantity in and around Cut Off, people outside the region experiencing the dipping sauce for the first time are quick to point out just how unique — and delicious — it is. “It’s something different. It’s something people have never had before. When you get outside of this area, the word is pretty much, ‘Oh, it’s different — it’s really good!’” says Lasseigne. Wow Wee has been in Rouses stores since 2011, and the relationship marked the beginning of broader exposure for Lasseigne’s company — as well as plenty of new dipping sauce converts. “Honestly, Rouses is where it all started, because they gave us a chance right off the bat. They say that they support local and they are true to their word. They support local products, they support local businesses, and they have been just phenomenal with that. They have been a blessing. They were our first big customer. They were right there to help, and they never looked back and we never looked back.” Going forward, Lasseigne and the Wow Wee team hope that slow and steady growth will keep bringing the traditions of her childhood kitchen to hungry seafood boilers, French fry dippers, sandwich makers and everyone in between. “I’d like to keep expanding — like Rouses is doing. I like the way they grow, because they’ve really done it at a steady pace: a little bit at a time. And that’s the vision I have for my business as well. I want to grow a little more here, getting a couple of more stores there, because that way, you can keep up with everything!”

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 47

Donny Rouse, the CEO of the company, tried one and fell in love with them. The pralines were made available first in a single

store and were a success. Today they are available in five stores.

As Keyala’s Pralines grows and has the capacity to make more,

Rouses Means Local Innovation by David W. Brown

there are more than 50 other Rouses waiting to carry the product. Bringing Other Communities Into Our Own

Finding those local products is important, but so too is bringing the big brands from elsewhere into the local community. Rouses

strives to get the hot new items before anyone else. “We do In 2007, Rouses had its biggest expansion in the company’s

history when it acquired the Southern division of A&P’s Sav-A-

Center stores. In one month, the company, which then had 15 stores, added 17 more to its family.

“There wasn’t much sleep in October 2007!” says Ali Rouse

Royster with a laugh.

She adds: “Those were long days. We were converting four

stores a week, two on Wednesdays and two on Fridays. The first

one was our Carrollton store — we did it by itself as a test: Can

we do this? We had to replace register systems — overall we tried to keep — because we were doing so much — we tried to keep

everything intact, but the first thing we were trying to do was

bring in local products that we carry. We knew our guests would

realize that they were going from this national conglomerate to these folks from the bayou who they don’t really know.” Rouses

managers figured the best thing they could do was what they

already did best. “We reached out to our local vendors and said,

‘We need to get your products into these stores as fast as we can.’” And local also means local variety. They were cognizant that

large retailers might advertise carrying local, and yet carry only

one kind of Blue Runner beans, for example. “Local for us means

we’ve got every flavor in every size,” says Ali. “Overnight, we

added 400 new local products to their shelves.”

The Rouses network of stores lets local products grow to become

statewide and even regional products. It takes time, though. Small

companies just starting out might only be able to make enough

product for a small group of stores. Once such story of a growing

company is Keyala’s Pralines, a New Orleans-style, authentic, handmade praline. That product is so local that it started in a

Rouses Market, literally. Keyala worked at the Downtown New

Orleans market and came up with an extraordinary praline.

4 8 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

not like having someone send us a picture of an item that just

came out that we don’t have, that we’ve never heard about,” says

Chris Acosta, the category manager of Rouses and another thirdgeneration team member, “and we stress that to every player in

the game: They need to be presenting those new items to us first.

And as we grow, as we get bigger, that means more opportunities

for our customers to get those things first, because we have better buying power and can negotiate those kinds of things.”

Being first, innovating hard — that’s one way that Rouses

succeeds, and how it helps the local products it carries succeed.

“We were the first grocery store in Thibodaux to put a bakery in,” says Donald Rouse. “We were the first to put a florist in. We

were the first ones to boil crawfish in the store. The first deli.

The first scanners. The list goes on. It was a learning proposition for us.” Sometimes the innovation borders on science fiction.

“I remember when we were stamping the price on every canned

good and I remember reading about — this was a long time ago — a magazine that they were working on presenting a barcode that would be placed on every item, and that’s how the item would be

identified, and eventually there would be scanners that would ring

it up. And I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that would be amazing!’” There’s a sense of adventure that comes with being first to

innovate. “And nobody can take it away,” says Donald. “They can

copy you, but they can’t beat you.”

Building the Community One Business at a Time We live in a world where manufacturing feels as though it is

performed by robots. Glance down the aisle and marvel at what feels like perfection: every item stocked and stacked, flush rows

of products like perfect lines converging in the distance. Every label is so straight, every bottle and box so nicely designed and

printed, and within, just the right amount of food, prepared just the right way. You’ve never opened a bag of chips and found a whole potato in there. You’ve never opened a can of soda and had

Local products are also featured in every ad that Rouses puts

is always one pound or two, the pickles are perfect spears, sliced

out. “I appreciate every Monday that I can come to work, log

has to be robots. Right? Not always, and especially not when the

“Watching those numbers grow for local companies, through the

and arranged as though by a master of Tetris. It just somehow product is local.

Many — if not most — of your favorite products are prepared,

tested, packed and labeled by human hands. Local products start

into our pricing system, and I can check weekly sales,” says Chris. ideas that we collaborate on together — it’s rewarding for us and it’s rewarding for them.”

It’s more personal than numbers, though. “It excites me when

small and scale upward. Local cooks and entrepreneurs don’t just

I see, for example, Mike Lewis’ Big Mike’s BBQ Smokehouse

and stamping. Most are like Hanley’s Foods, whose Sensation

Chris. “You know he was excited to see his product! And that’s

start out like Kraft, with miles of robots mixing, shaking, pouring salad dressing is prepared with local ingredients and bottled in

Baton Rouge. Each of those labels is applied by a Louisianian

— carefully and purposefully, like a painter’s stroke of the brush. And that gets to the heart of what it means to be local. It is never done by a single person, though it may be one person’s passion that keeps the project on a path to success. And Rouses Markets

makes it a point to help get these companies up and running.

“We used to have, on Wednesdays, what we would call Vendor

come into my store after we put his product on the shelf,” adds

the thing: When you’re a local company carrying local products, your neighbor can see his or her product right there. It’s always

exciting for the community.”

According to Donald, a good local product needs a plan, but

not necessarily all of the answers on the first day. Rouses can help

fill in those blanks. “We help them clear from the beginning,” he says. “The packaging, how to get a UPC code, how to go to

market, how to get into our stores…. We’ve done it for so many

Day,” says Tim Acosta, advertising & marketing director at

companies, I can’t even begin to name them all, the ones that

people to come in just to present their ideas, and we work together

They come to us and say, ‘I have this product — now what do I do?’

Rouses. “We still do. We set up dedicated meetings for salesto get their products out there. That all started with Donald in the mid-1980s.”

Rouses Means Local innovation

pure water pour out. The cereal box is always full, the bag of sugar

we’ve started from boutique operations and taught them to grow.

and we teach them from there.”

Local products are community products. Their manufacture

pays local workers whose kids attend local schools and who dine

at local restaurants, tip local servers, shop at local stores. A rising tide lifts all boats; to support the little guy is to support everyone

around you — it is what it takes to make one’s community thrive. Items made right here along the Gulf Coast are of such quality

both inside and outside of the package that, if not for store

displays spotlighting these local successes, you might never know they were local. Which is where Rouses comes in.

“Local has first priority when it comes to our store, and every

Rouses Market, I guarantee you, when you walk in, there’s a local

product right there,” says Blake Richard, a Rouses manager. “At the store level, when we have a local item we always make sure

we have a special ‘Buy Local’ sign that signals that item is local,

and especially if the item is new, we’ll make a big display about it.

Consumers want that local product. Donald once told me that we were local before local was cool, and it’s true, and that trend has

exploded. We’re excited to be a driver of it.”

ROUSES

We’ve teamed up with Home Malone, which supports over 150 Southern makers and artists who are designing and producing their products in the Deep South, to make exclusive merchandise, including a Makin’ Groceries door hanger and shirt celebrating our 60th anniversary.

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 4 9

We Dat’s by sarah baird

When it comes to dreaming big and starting your own business, the road to success is never without a few bumps along the way, and these temporary roadblocks come in many forms. It might mean that — only hours before your new restaurant is set to open — you’re scurrying around in the attic of the space, trying to figure out why a fuse suddenly blew. It could be that a shipment of English cucumbers didn’t arrive on time, throwing your menu completely out of whack for the next week. And if you’re Gregoire Tillery, founder of We Dat’s “New Orleans Owned” Chicken & Shrimp, your first obstacle to culinary success means being stranded on the side of the interstate with a flat tire and blown-off hood vent from your recently purchased food truck — and an inspector’s visit is scheduled for later in the day. Yikes. But first, let’s back up a little bit.

While working a corporate job in Alabama, New Orleans native Tillery became inspired to start his own food truck after catching an episode of The Great Food Truck Race. The entrepreneurial spirit quickly took hold. “This was about five or six years ago, when everybody was talking about food trucks, food trucks, food trucks,” says Tillery. “I was like, ‘Man, this is something that I can do.’ Long story short, I wound up getting a transfer back down to New Orleans, and when that happened, in my mind, I was like, ‘I want to start this business. I want to invest in a food truck. This is something cool that I know I can make successful.’” While still working his full-time job, Tillery started making plans and researching everything he could about the ins and outs of food trucks. “I never had a lick of culinary school, never knew anything about food trucks. So I went to YouTube, and would sit there and watch documentary, after documentary, after documentary about food trucks,” he laughs. “But what’s so funny is that even though you can watch videos on stuff, you still don’t really know until you know, because YouTube makes it look so easy.” Tillery eventually found a food truck that looked promising for sale in Athens, Alabama, and recruited one of his best friends to make the six-hour drive with him to pick it up. If all went according to plan, food truck glory would now simply mean bringing it back down to New Orleans and starting to hustle in earnest for his meals-on-wheels dream. But not so fast. “When I got on the truck, I immediately thought, ‘This is perfect!’ I paid the guy — I’ll never forget, his name was Mr. Ronnie — and then I noticed that the truck was a stick [shift]. I’d never driven a stick a day in my life. So, that was the first problem.” Fortunately, his friend had experience driving a manual transmission, and the two set off down the interstate, hoping to make the meeting with a health inspector to review the truck later in the day. “So, I got the truck. I’m feeling great; I’m on a high; and we start driving it down. I’m following behind my friend [in a car] and he’s driving the truck when, suddenly, the hood vent on top of the truck — the mushroom — actually falls off as we’re on the interstate and hits the car that I’m driving! I’m starting to sweat even thinking about it. I’m like, ‘Oh my Lord, what did I do buying this thing?’” After an equally panic-inducing experience filling up at a gas station — where Tillery learned that the cost of a full tank rang up 5 0 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

to a whopping $300 — the two found themselves in the homestretch, 93 miles outside of New Orleans. But once again, Murphy’s Law — “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong” — took hold. “We’re almost there, and I start seeing the food truck going side to side, wobbling, and the truck catches a flat tire! My best friend is panicking. He’s like, ‘Man, what do you have me driving? Look at these tires! They’re old and bald!’ At that point I was really like, ‘What did I get myself into?’” Faced with an increasingly tough situation, Tillery did what any good Louisiana son does when he’s in trouble: He called his mama. “We’re there on the side of the interstate with this flat tire, and at this point, I immediately pick up the phone and call my mom. And I’m telling her, ‘Mom, what did I do? I am so lost right now. I didn’t spend all this money for this food truck to be coming apart. What am I going to do?’ And I’ll never forget my mom telling me, ‘Relax. Say your prayers. Everything is going to be okay. It’s all going to work itself out.’” And work itself out, it did. There were still plenty more trials and tribulations along the way — from expensive upgrades, to electrical failures, to blown generators — but a few months later, at Essence Fest 2013, things were starting to turn around for We Dat’s and their soon-to-be legendary wings, catfish and shrimp. “I’ll never forget it — I remember it like it was yesterday. People [after Essence] were pulling up to the truck constantly, and I was out from 10 p.m. until four in the morning. People are hungry; they’ve been out partying; they need food. I was like, ‘Wow, this is what’s up! This is fun!’ Not only is it work, but I was getting to interact with people. And being able to really serve people for the first time and see their expressions when they say things like, ‘Man, this is the best thing I’ve ever tasted!’ It was a huge confidence boost, because they all didn’t know that I was just starting the truck — that I was brand new.” Since that fateful night, We Dat’s has expanded exponentially: from a food truck popping up at bars and events around town, to a full-time food truck, to a couple of always packed brick-and-mortar stores — with more on the way. “In 2015, I took everything I had saved up on the food truck and invested it in the Canal Street location. It has turned into our flagship, and a staple in the city,” says Tillery, pointing out that We Dat’s

Rouses Means Local innovation

has become a hot spot for celebrities and sports stars. “[Saints player] Alvin Kamara comes in, and he gets the Wuzzam Wings [a signature menu item] and ranch fries. We’ve had Dee-1 and Choppa, and have catered for everyone from Snoop Dogg, to Wyclef Jean, to Laurence Fishburne. Anthony Davis has been supporting us since our food truck days, and even has a menu item named after him: The Brow. It’s our famous two-piece catfish, shrimp and fries.” But Tillery and Davis’ connection runs even deeper than just a menu special. Always looking for ways to grow, Greg and the former Pelican’s personal chef, William Jones, worked together to create a line of We Dat’s seasoning that’s taken the city — and shelves at Rouses — by storm. “Chris [Acosta, third-generation Rouse family member] actually took a chance on me and our seasoning line. I told him what it is that I was going to bring to the table with social media, and that I was going to do everything I possibly could to bring exposure, because I get close to a million or two impressions a week. I said, ‘Look, I’m going to use my influence to help you guys as you are helping us.’ Because, Rouses is all about supporting local. That’s the backbone of their business — helping local small businesses get a footprint in their stores. That’s exactly what they did for me. I’m forever grateful.” Today, We Dat’s has their Original seasoning and Garlic Parmesan seasoning in Rouses stores, with a sweet heat seasoning, crawfish boil and bottles of their über-popular Wuzzam Wing sauce currently in production. “People use the seasoning in everything from crawfish boils, to putting it in their red beans and rice, to their chicken, to steak, to fish. You can put this seasoning literally on everything. I have people that use the seasoning on their eggs. People use it on their grits. The seasoning is amazing.” And whether you’re hustling alongside your best friend to drive a rickety food truck down the highway, or partnering with other local businesses to boost your shine, the We Dat’s team knows that life is better when you work together. “We just get so much love and support from the city, and now the relationship with Rouses — I thank God for it. We’re really starting to build some momentum,” says Tillery with a smile. Pictured: We Dat’s “New Orleans Owned” Chicken & Shrimp; Gregoire Tillery, founder; We Dat’s food truck (images courtesy of We Dat’s)

PHOTOS COURTESY OF COTTON BLUES

by Liz Thorpe

I had my doubts about cheesecake from Hattiesburg. Sure, Cotton Blues’ tagline is “Mississippi Made, New York Approved,” but who were the New Yorkers? Six years into life in New Orleans, I still feel more New Yorker than New Orleanian — I’m sure my neighbors would agree that I haven’t earned my Southern stripes yet. Call me a New Yorker then, and — bad news for Cotton Blues’ owner Chris Ortego — I’m a New Yorker who doesn’t really like cheesecake. (Gasp!)

Even New York’s most famous brand, Junior’s, with its Downtown Brooklyn flagship in walking distance from my home of 15 years, makes cheesecake that, to me, tastes heavy. Gluey. Too sweet. And, often drowned in drizzles and crumbles and candy. When I sat down with Chris and admitted that cheesecake wasn’t my first (or second, or third) pick from the dessert buffet, he barely blinked. “Yeah, I know. Most of it is so…[he made a face like a cow working its cud)…pasty,” he agreed. Had I found a kindred spirit in a guy who runs a cheesecake company?! It turns out that Chris Ortego, first and foremost, runs a restaurant. Cotton Blues is the name of his popular Hattiesburg establishment and, as he prepared to open it eight years ago, he became reacquainted with a young local chef named Shaun Davis. Shaun had skipped town straight from high school to attend Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas. When he circled back to Hattiesburg, angling for a job at the country club Chris had been running, and caught him on his way out to open Cotton Blues, it seemed like fate. As Chris said, for the first of several times in our conversation, “There are things that are meant to be.” Cotton Blues’ menu is huge, meant to hit all the South’s comfort food classics. In between the po-boys, fried green tomatoes and pimento grilled cheese, how did they get to cheesecakes, I wondered? Chris was quick to point out that, while cheesecake might be the toast of New York, its main ingredient — cream cheese — can be found in king cake and Danish, as well as on the pages of every Ladies’ Auxiliary cookbook across the land, gussied up as pimento cheese, cream cheese and pepper jelly, or countless appetizer fillings. Cream cheese may be the domain of “mom and grandma recipes,” he pointed out, but Southerners appreciate what a good block of cream cheese can do. Meanwhile, Shaun’s destiny as a pastry chef was written long before his phone call to Chris. For years, his culinary instructor ROUSES

warned him that he’d never be allowed to graduate until he gave up his cheesecake recipe. It was one he started as a kid watching Julia Child on PBS and continued to tinker with at school. Shaun made it out of Vegas with a diploma and brought his carefully honed recipe with him. Chris set him up at an old oyster grilling station in Cotton Blues so folks could watch him work. Cheesecake went on the menu a few weeks after opening. It was easy to see, Chris marveled: “You could tell we had something special.” Last year, the restaurant served 12,000 slices. When people are liking that much cheesecake, it’s only a matter of time before they ask if you can mail one to a friend. And that was how, three years ago, Chris and Shaun found themselves expanding from the restaurant business to the cheesecake business. Still cranking out of his former oyster station, Shaun began making cheesecakes to mail. When that didn’t work out, the two set their sights on local and regional retailers. Two years ago, Chris drove to Thibodaux with a cheesecake on the passenger seat of his car, hoping to get Rouses interested. They weren’t. But as Chris sees it, there are things that are meant to be. Shortly after his Thibodaux trip he saw a movie called

The Founder about McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc. Ray Kroc was “all about persistence,” Chris remembers. “Brains and talent are great but persistence will win out every time. I decided to go back to Thibodaux and sit in the lobby until someone would see me.” I guess it’s only a little while that a man with a tall stack of boxes on his lap can go unnoticed. A buyer invited him in for a meeting. As the story goes, Chris was so flustered he left his cheesecakes unattended. While he was making his pitch in some locked room, Donny Rouse strolled through the lobby, stuck a finger in a cheesecake and announced to no one in particular, “Put these in all my stores!” Shortly afterwards, Chris got a call from Rouses bakery director and the great cheesecake rollout began. Selling cheesecake, or any perishable food, is tricky because of its short shelf life. It’s common in the world of supermarket bakeries to buy items frozen and then thaw them out before sale. I started to understand why Cotton Blues’ cheesecake was different when I learned that freezing it is actually part of the production process. As Chris put it, “Freezing isn’t a compromise of the standard, it is the standard.” Part of Shaun’s obsessive recipe development was figuring out how to cool the cheesecake as quickly as possible once it came out of the oven. He found that the faster it chilled, the less time the cake had to settle, and the lighter and

Rouses Means Local innovation

Cotton Blues

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 5 3

fluffier the texture remained. The fastest way to chill it was to take it from the oven and put it straight into the freezer. While Chris was telling me his story, a blueberry cheesecake was thawing on the table between us. I realized my moment had arrived. I was going to have to eat the cake. I was pretty curious, now that I’d heard about this special chilling process to preserve the light and fluffy texture. As Chris slid the box over I caught a look at the ingredients label. It was surprisingly short and surprisingly specific: not just cream cheese,

5 4 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

but Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Not sour cream, but Daisy Sour Cream (wait, sour cream?!). Oh and, not graham crackers, but Keebler Graham Crackers. “Tell me about this,” I said, nodding at the label. The ingredients, like the chilling process, have been intensely tested and retested. Technically, Chris points out, a pastry chef wouldn’t call this a cake but a custard filling. That’s because Cotton Blues uses no starch of any kind to bind its cheesecake. Philadelphia Cream Cheese (generic brands just aren’t as good and brown too quickly), Daisy Sour Cream (for a bit of tang and airiness), sugar and vanilla are bound together with whole eggs, carefully added by hand. The crust is also handmade — Keebler Graham Crackers pounded into coarse dust, bound with butter and pressed into a delightfully knobby and imperfect shell. The crust is par-baked, then filled, baked again and then frozen. The absence of any flour or cornstarch means a silken, fluffy, creamy texture

that’s never pasty. Thinking back to Chris’s ruminating-cow face, I realized why he understood my concerns. This whole cheesecake was designed to be the opposite of what I’ve come to expect. It only helped that my sample had swirls of Mississippi blueberry puree to offer another layer of bright, tangy complexity. The filling was indulgent but balanced, the sugar restrained enough that the sour cream tang made it feel almost light. When you buy a frozen Cotton Blues cheesecake, you can cut one slice out at a time, letting it thaw on the counter while you return the rest to the freezer. (A knife run under hot water does the trick beautifully.) As Chris told me, “People can eat it like ice cream,” a bit at a time, until that sad day when it’s all gone. But then you can decide which flavor to try next. As is true of the entire story of Cotton Blues and its cheesecakes, there are things that are meant to be. Cotton Blues cheesecakes are available in Original, Sea-Salted Caramel, Blueberry and Strawberry.

Think you know local foods? Well, buckle up, because we’re about to race down the grocery aisles! Tabasco brand products

are made by the McIlhenny

Company, founded by

Edmund McIlhenny in

moved to its current location in Gonzales,

Louisiana, where all its products are still produced today ...

farmers. The business expanded and Dutch

moved Double D Sausage to a new

location on Highway 21 just south of

Bogalusa, Louisiana ...

Founded in 1928

At the age of 21,

in New Iberia, Louisiana, Bruce Foods has been manufacturing original Cajun

condiments and seasonings for more than

90 years ...

Lonnie Richard

bought a delivery truck to take his

grandmother’s Cajun specialties to stores

in Acadia and neighboring parishes. Today

Rouses Means Local innovation

A Few of the Gulf Coast’s Famous Foods

Richard’s Cajun Foods offers two brands

1868 on Avery Island, Louisiana ...

of sausages and a complete line of prepared Cajun favorite entrées …

Emile A.

Zatarain

introduced his signature root beer in 1889.

Mustards and pickled vegetables would

soon follow, and the company would really

The recipe and smoking

faithful to the originals used by founder

J.P. Veron in 1938 in his backyard meat market in Gramercy ...

get going in its diversification when they

Smokehouse

introduced their Jambalaya and Gumbo

mixes in 1975...

Tony Pizzolato

added spices, seafood boils, fish fries, rice

established Louisiana

mixes and frozen favorites ...

Fish Fry Products in 1982. He started Mam Papaul’s Original New

Orleans Style Entrée Jambalaya Steen’s syrup has been

Oak Grove

technique for Veron’s Sausages are

Mix was introduced in 1972 ...

made by the Steen family

with fry mixes, then expanded to base

mixes for Louisiana favorites like

jambalaya and étouffée, followed by

seafood boil, sauces and gravy mixes ...

since 1910 in Abbeville, Louisiana, at the

C.S. Steen’s Syrup Mill ...

Brothers

Vincent, John and Bennie Manda

combined their Sicilian background and

Conrad Rice Mill,

Cajun influences to create their uniquely

America’s oldest operating rice mill, was

flavored smoked sausages in 1947. Today

New Iberia ...

by three of Vincent Manda’s grandsons …

founded in 1912 and is still going strong in

Zapp’s put out Cajun

Crawtators way back in 1985. It was the nation’s first spicy potato chip ...

Manda Fine Meats is owned and operated Big Easy Foods is a

relative newcomer on the sausage scene.

Blue Runner Foods got

going on its famous foods back in 1918, when the Union Canning Company

started canning fresh fruits and a variety

of other items. In 1946 the company ROUSES

The company introduced their first two Tillman “Dutch” Stogner,

Sr., moved his family from

New Orleans to the tiny town of Sun,

Louisiana in 1967 to open a butcher shop, where he did custom processing for local

products — smoked sausage and boudin —

yet? y r g n u h u o y e Ar

just over a decade ago …

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 5 5

2G SUGAR.

PRETTY SWEET, HUH?

CARBS PER 5.3oz

80%

LESS SUGAR

THAN AVERAGE GREEK YOGURT*

IT’S WHAT’S ON THE INSIDE THAT COUNTS

CONGRATU LAT I ON S R OU S E S ON

Years

LOCATED ON THE MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST 9380 Central Avenue • D’Iberville, MS 39540 • 888–752–9772 • ScarletPearlCasino.com • Must be 21 to gamble. Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort reserves all rights to cancel or modify any program at any time. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-522-4700.

Can you find these 60 essential Gulf Coast ingredients? You know onions, celery and bell pepper, and but have you heard of tasso? It’s a spicy, dry-cured, smoked meat made from the pork shoulder and used as seasoning for jambalaya, greens, even shrimp and grits. Try your hand at finding 60 of our region’s greatest ingredients, then turn the page to see 60 of our greatest Gulf Coast dishes. Answer key on page 82.

Name:

Created with TheTeachersCorner.net Word Se

ONIONS GARLIC

BELLPEPPER GREENONIONS

CELERY TOMATOES

PECANS

OREGANO

GRITS

SALT MEAT

TABASCO

BELL PEPPER

CABBAGE

CAYENNE PEPPER

SUGAR

PICKLE MEAT

CRYSTAL

CELERY

EGGPLANT

FLOUR

STEENS SYRUP

TASSO

TONY CHACHERES

GARLIC

GREENS

VEGETABLE OIL

COFFEE

ANDOUILLE

REDFISH MAGIC

GREEN ONIONS

STRAWBERRIES

OLIVE OIL

WATERMELON

TURKEY NECKS

CRAB BOIL

TOMATOES

BLUEBERRIES

EGGS

LEMON

CRAWFISH

FISH FRY

RED PEPPERS

FILE

MAYONNAISE

WHITE BEANS

CRABS

ITALIAN SAUSAGE

MIRLITONS

BAY LEAVES

BUTTER

RED BEANS

OYSTERS

CAJUN SAUSAGE

CORN

ROSEMARY

BREAD CRUMBS

BLACK EYED PEAS

SHRIMP

SMOKED SAUSAGE

OKRA

BASIL

CORNMEAL

LIMA BEANS

GULF FISH

Rouses Means Local

ONIONS

SWEET POTATOES

Name:

Created with TheTeachersCorner.net Word Search Maker

GRITS COFFEE

SUGAR WATERMELON

STEENSSYRUP LEMON

Alabama Banana Pudding Makes 8 servings WHAT YOU WILL NEED: ¾ cup sugar ¼ cup cornstarch ½ teaspoon kosher salt 6 egg yolks 3½ cups milk 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon dark rum 5 medium bananas, sliced 1 12-ounce box vanilla wafers

HOW TO PREP: Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt and egg yolks in a large saucepan. Whisk in milk and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until it thickens to a custard, 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk in butter, vanilla and rum. Let cool. Place ¹/₃ of the vanilla wafers over bottom of 8" × 8" dish. Top with ¹/₃ bananas, then cover bananas with ¹/₃ of the pudding. Repeat each layer twice. Refrigerate until chilled. Serve cold with vanilla wafers on top.

Rouses Means Local

Banana Pudding Recipe on opposite page.

Bananas Foster

This flambéed dessert, made with bananas, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, rum, banana liqueur and vanilla ice cream, was invented at Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans in 1951. Recipe on page 68.

Barbecue

BBQ Shrimp

New Orleans style BBQ shrimp isn’t smoked or grilled, nor is it served with anything that even resembles American barbecue sauce. Instead, what you get are big — but not too big — shrimp, usually served with the shells, heads, tails and claws intact. They are cooked in a sauce that is primarily butter and black pepper. Beyond those main elements, the recipes for BBQ shrimp are quite varied. Among common ingredients in the sauce are garlic, Worcestershire sauce, Louisiana hot sauce, lemon juice, white wine, beer and paprika. — food writer Tom Fitzmorris

Beignets

Biscuits

There’s no shame in using canned or frozen biscuits or rolls, especially if you’re Southern. After all, those pressurized foil sleeves that pop when you twist them were invented by a Kentuckian with a name that even sounds Southern: L.B. “Lively” Willoughby. And two of the best frozen biscuits brands we sell — Marshall’s and Sister Schubert’s — were created in Alabama.

Blackened Redfish

Boiled Seafood

PHOTOS BY ROMNEY CARUSO

Boudin & Boudin Balls

Café Au Lait

Charbroiled Oysters

Bread Pudding

Cochon De Lait

Browned-Butter Pecan Pie Recipe on page 68.

Coffee & Chicory

17 32

6 4 M A R C H â&#x20AC;¢ A P R I L 20 20

Cold Brew Coffee

Corn & Crab Soup

Cornbread

Cracklins

The correct definition of cracklin’ is a source of debate, depending on geography and personal taste. The term sometimes refers to pork rinds, which are simply pieces of skin that puff into curls when dropped into hot lard. Other times — and most of the time in Louisiana — the term cracklin’ applies to gratons, which are made up of layers of back fat and meat as well as skin. Gratons, which are usually fried twice, are bigger and meatier than pork rinds. Lardons, which sometimes come from the back fat and sometimes from the belly, are meatier still. — Chef Nathan Richard

Crawfish Étouffée Recipe on page 68.

Courtbouillon

Creole Cream Cheese

Crab Cakes

Dirty Rice & Rice Dressing

What’s the difference between rice dressing and dirty rice? While rice dressing is generally made with ground beef or pork, dirty rice is made with pork and chicken livers.

Creole cream cheese is a regional type of tart, farmer-style cheese similar to a combination of cottage cheese and sour cream. It is traditionally eaten for breakfast on French bread or toast with fresh fruit and sugar sprinkled on top.

Fried Seafood

Greens (Mustard, Collard & Turnip)

34 27

French Bread

Fried Catfish

A rich, spicy tomato-based soup or stew made with fish fillets and onions, and sometimes mixed vegetables.

Rouses Means Local

Grillades & Grits

Grillades are thinly pounded pieces of veal, beef or pork that are coated in seasoned flour and browned in butter, oil or bacon grease, then simmered in a tomatoey sauce. Grillades were originally served alone, then with rice and eventually with grits (the way we eat them today). They are typically a breakfast or brunch meal.

Gumbo

Fried Chicken

Fried Green Tomatoes

Jambalaya

King Cake

Crabmeat

Deviled Eggs

Fried Okra

38 41

6 6 M A R C H â&#x20AC;¢ A P R I L 20 20

Macque Choux

Recipe on page 68. This dish borrows its name from the Creole word for corn, maque, and the French word for cabbage, chou, but it’s Cajun, and no longer made with cabbage but with fresh kernels of corn cooked down with onions, bell peppers, seasonings and tomatoes. You can also add seafood to turn this luscious side into a main dish.

Pickled Okra

Rice & Gravy

Recipe on page 23.

Seafood Bisque

Shrimp & Grits

Meat Pies & Crawfish Pies

Po-Boys

Recipe on page 40.

This Lowcountry classic, once a humble breakfast dish called shrimps and hominy, or breakfast shrimp, is now served on menus all over the Gulf Coast. In Lower Alabama, you’re just as likely to find fried fish served atop creamy grits.

40 41

Oysters Rockefeller

The elegant baked oyster dish in a sauce heavy in butter, green vegetables and herbs was invented at the historic French Quarter restaurant Antoine’s. Jules Alciatore, the son of the restaurant’s founder Antoine Alciatore, first conceived of the oyster specialty in 1889.

Shrimp Creole

Red Beans & Rice Recipe on page 34.

Red Gravy & Spaghetti

Recipe on page 68. This hearty, slow-cooked, roux-based Creole Italian tomato sauce is made with canned tomatoes rather than fresh. It derives its flavor from the slow-cooking of onions, garlic, celery and bell pepper, and typically some sort of meat. It is sweetened with a pinch of sugar.

Stuffed Mirlitons

Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed Pistolettes

Pralines

Okra & Tomatoes

Stuffed Artichoke

49 Pimento Cheese

Rouses Means Local

Stuffed Seafood Pistolettes, also called Cajun Pistols, are small, oval French rolls about four inches long that are baked or fried, then split and stuffed with an étouffée sauce, a spicy seafood sauce, or a cheese and seafood sauce (and sometimes with jalapeños).

Shrimp Remoulade

Snowballs

When you head north of I-10, snowballs (also spelled sno-balls) are called snow cones — perhaps because, up north, they have the other kind of snowball in abundance.

Sweet Potato Pie

Trout with Crabmeat

Turtle Soup

Bananas Foster

Makes 2 servings WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar 1 banana, peeled and halved lengthwise and crosswise Cinnamon, to taste 1 teaspoon banana liqueur 1 ounce white rum Vanilla ice cream, for serving HOW TO PREP: Melt butter and sugar in a small frying pan. Add banana pieces and sauté over medium heat until soft and slightly caramelized. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Remove pan from heat. Add liqueur and rum to pan. To flambé, carefully light sauce on fire with a long-reach lighter or fireplace match. Spoon flaming sauce over the banana pieces until flame dies out. Ladle warm banana pieces and sauce over vanilla ice cream in bowls, and serve.

Browned-Butter Pecan Pie

Makes 1 9-inch pie WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 11 tablespoons (about 1¹/₃ sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature 3 large eggs 1 cup sugar ½ cup plus 3 tablespoons light corn syrup ¼ cup honey 1 tablespoon dark molasses 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract ¼ teaspoon salt ¾ cup chopped pecans One 9-inch pie crust, unbaked ¼ cup whole pecans HOW TO PREP: Preheat the oven to 425°F. On the stovetop, in a small skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Cook until the foam subsides and the butter turns a deep nut brown. Remove from heat so it does not burn. Blend the eggs, sugar, corn syrup, honey, molasses, vanilla and salt in a food processor until smooth. Add the browned butter to the processor and blend. Add the chopped pecans and process with just a few quick pulses. Pour the mixture into the pie crust, and scatter the whole pecans decoratively. Place pan in oven and bake for 12 minutes. Lower the heat to 325°F and bake for another 40 minutes (check to see if the crust is browning too quickly; if it is, cover it carefully with a long, narrow, folded-over piece of foil).

6 8 M A R C H • A P R I L 20 20

Pie should be nicely browned and firm at edges, but still a little wet at the center. Remove from the oven and let cool thoroughly before serving.

Macque Choux

Makes 8 servings WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 8 ears of fresh corn, shucked 3 tablespoons canola oil 1 large onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice 1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch dice 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup green onions, thinly sliced 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped Salt and freshly ground black pepper HOW TO PREP: Shuck the corn. Remove the kernels and set them aside. (To cut down on cleanup and keep things contained, try shucking inside a plastic or paper bag.) Cut the corn cobs in half, place them in a pot, and barely cover with cold water. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer to make a corn stock; let simmer about 1 hour. Strain and discard solids. In a separate pot, heat the oil over mediumhigh heat and sauté the corn, onion, bell pepper and garlic. Add the corn stock, half of the green onion, half of the parsley and the heavy cream, and reduce to a simmer. Simmer until the liquid has reduced and slightly thickened. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Serve garnished with the remaining green onions and parsley.

Red Gravy & Spaghetti

Makes 6 servings WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, preferably San Marzano, with their liquid 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 3 garlic cloves, minced 2 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste 3 cups water Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste ¼ cup white wine 1 tablespoon fresh, roughly chopped basil leaves 1 tablespoon fresh, roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves ½ teaspoon dried oregano 2 bay leaves Cooked pasta, for serving HOW TO PREP: Put the tomatoes and their juice through a food mill; discard any remaining seeds or skin. Set puréed tomatoes aside.

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Add tomato paste and fry, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add water, salt and pepper, and stir well. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Add wine, basil, parsley, oregano, bay leaves and reserved tomato purée to the pot. Stir well and cook for 10 minutes more. Partially cover pot with lid and cook until slightly thickened, about 30 minutes. Discard the bay leaves before serving. HOW TO MAKE PERFECT SPAGHETTI: Add the pasta to the boiling water and stir. Start tasting after 5 minutes. When the pasta is tender but not mushy, drain it, reserving some of the cooking water. Return the pasta to the pot. Spoon about half the sauce into the pasta pot. Toss the pasta over low heat, adding a splash of cooking water to make it saucier if you like. Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Crawfish Étouffée

Makes 4 servings WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter 8 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 cups chopped onions 1 cup chopped celery 1/2 cup chopped bell peppers 1 pound peeled Louisiana crawfish tails 2 tablespoons hot sauce, plus more for serving 2 bay leaves 1 cup seafood stock 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper Chopped fresh parsley, for serving Chopped green onions, for garnish Hot cooked white rice, for serving HOW TO PREP: Melt the butter in a large skillet over mediumhigh heat until foaming. Whisk in the flour one tablespoon at a time. Reduce the heat to medium and continue whisking until the roux turns a deep brown color, about 15 minutes. Add onions and sauté until translucent, about 2 minutes. Stir in the celery and bell peppers and cook for 2 minutes, until slightly softened. Add the crawfish, hot sauce and bay leaves. Reduce the heat to medium. Stirring occasionally, cook until the crawfish begin throwing off a little liquid, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the seafood stock to the crawfish mixture, and season with salt and cayenne. Stir until the mixture thickens, about 4 minutes. Add the parsley and green onions and cook for about 2 minutes. Remove the bay leaves. Serve with steamed rice and hot sauce at the table.

Rouses Means Local

Private Label by David w. brown

When pushing your cart up and down the aisles, you have likely noticed Rousesbranded products — everything from coconut water to olive oil. The man responsible for them is Jason Martinolich, the vice president of natural & specialty foods for Rouses Markets, and Donald Rouse’s son-in-law. “When we look at our brand, we make sure it’s as good as or better than a national brand,” says Jason. He says Rouses looks for unique items, and the goal is not only to bring local products to a larger community, but also to find the best products in other communities and introduce them to ours. “We’re willing to go anywhere in the world where we feel that the products are the best,” he says. For example, in the case of olive oil, Jason and a contingent from Rouses traveled to Sicily. “We sourced our olive oil from a Sicilian supplier that works with local farmers to get the needed olives. The oil is then bottled within 24 hours, and those bottles are on our store shelves within 30 days. “On the flip side,” he says, “if it’s a product that we’re good at, we work with local vendors. Jambalaya, for example, and gumbo and fish fries — local companies know how to season their products for the Gulf Coast.” Among those local, Louisianamade products being produced now are also some with the Rouses label: a jambalaya mix, a gumbo mix and different fries for chicken, fish and shrimp. “The fish fry has got heavy cornmeal and it’s really crunchy, the way we like it here,” Jason says, holding a box proudly. “The chicken fry is more like a seasoned flour mix. The shrimp has a yellow corn flour — a great texture and seasoning.” It all feeds back into the community. “When you’re working with local suppliers, you’re helping local companies, you’re helping create jobs in the local community, helping boost the local economy. And food is big for our local economy. It’s what drives our culture.” The strength of the Rouses brand, built over 60 years through the company’s spirit of entrepreneurship and attention to local suppliers, means that shoppers know what they’re getting if they see the Rouses name on a product. “Now that we’ve expanded along the Gulf Coast, our customers really follow us,” says Jason. “They love our magazine. They love our smokehouse. They love our seafood department. The Rouses

ROUSES

Perfectly Seasoned for the Gulf Coast! brand means something, and it makes my job easier to create a Rouses private label. People buy things with the Rouses name on it because they trust it. And we make sure that our quality is just as good, if not better, than the national brand, but at a better price.” Unsurprisingly, it takes a lot of work to earn that Rouses seal of approval. Before a product is given serious consideration for a Rouses private brand label, it has to survive endless tastings by company management and workers — quite the gauntlet, as Rouses knows food. It’s all they talk about all day long. Once a product gets by the company gatekeepers, outside committees are formed. Their job: to try the product in what is called a “blind cutting.” Jason’s team takes the national brand and the potential private label item, and lets people try them both and decide which they like better. If they don’t like the potential private label better than the national one, the team drops it and goes off in search of a better product. In recent years, Rouses private label items have pushed hard into organic foods. “We have a lot of customers that shop for natural and organic products, and they shop with us because of that,” says Jason. “Whenever we put out a new conventional item, we try to do an organic product alongside it as well.” The products include things like bread, milk and other grocery store staples, but Rouses casts its net wide in search of products no other store would ever consider bringing into a private label line. “We brought in some seasonal gelatos this year from Italy,” Jason says proudly. “We did a candy cane, an eggnog and a pumpkin pie, which was really cool. For the holidays, too — but we’re also going to start carrying it year-round — we

have a homemade tiramisu for the Rouses label. It comes frozen, and you set it out for a few hours.” When it’s ready, he says, “It’s like eating a homemade tiramisu from Italy. It’s really, really good.” He is particularly excited about the treats headed to Rouses Markets later in the year. “This summer, instead of an ice cream sandwich, we’re going to do a gelato sandwich. Instead of a sundae cone, it’s going to be a gelato cone, which is lighter and fluffier.” And he doesn’t mince words on what store guests can expect when they add those boxes to their baskets. “It’s better than an ice cream sandwich. It’s the best you’ve ever had.”

People buy things with the Rouses name on it because they trust it. And we make sure that our quality is just as good, if not better, than the national brand, but at a better price. — Jason Martinolich, Vice President of Natural & Specialty Foods for Rouses Markets

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 6 9

Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make it to your neighborhood Rouses? Place your order online, and have your groceries delivered right to your home or office the same day. Curbside pickup is also available at select locations.

www.rouses.com/shop

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

BURGERSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; SMOKEHOUSE

1 LB STEAK CUT BACON

1 OFF

BING BEVERAGES

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

WHEN YOU BUY 2 (TWO) CANS

Limit one per purchase per individual. Void if altered, reproduced, exchanged, sold, purchased or where prohibited or restricted by law. Excludes alcohol and tobacco purchases. No monetary value. Valid at any Rouses Markets location from 3/15-5/14/2020.

1 OFF

36 - 40 OZ SELECT VARIETIES

2 OFF

www.rouses.com

OSCAR MAYER BACON

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

1 OFF

$ 50 www.rouses.com

JOHNSONVILLE

SELECT PRODUCTS

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

HORMEL PEPPERONI

WHEN YOU BUY 3 (THREE) PACKAGES OF 6 OZ ORIGINAL AND/OR 5 OZ TURKEY

1 OFF

$ 50 3 LB BOX

www.rouses.com

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14 Limit one per purchase per individual. Void if altered, reproduced, exchanged, sold, purchased or where prohibited or restricted by law. Excludes alcohol and tobacco purchases. No monetary value. Valid at any Rouses Markets location from 3/15-5/14/2020.

1 OFF

$ 50 www.rouses.com

JOHN SOULES FOODS

www.rouses.com

DINO NUGGETS - 24 OZ

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

2 OFF

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

BENEFUL DRY DOG FOOD

14 - 15.5 LB SELECT VARIETIES

www.rouses.com

WHEN YOU BUY 2 (TWO) PACKAGES

$ 50

MANDA OR MR. T SMOKED SAUSAGE

ALL ULTRA LAUNDRY DETERGENT

www.rouses.com

ÂŽ

www.rouses.com

BELGIOIOSO

8 OZ - 2 LB MOZZARELLA BALLS, PEARLS, SLICED LOG, SNACKING OR RICOTTA CHEESE

www.rouses.com

A STEAK FOR EVERY APPETITE AND BUDGET DRY AGED AT LEAST 25 DAYS

Every Rouses Market features a full-service butcher shop with USDA Prime and USDA Choice Angus Beef, and butchers available to answer your questions about cuts, grades and cooking. We also dry age on site in many stores. USDA Choice Angus Beef is aged to perfection in our custom Dry Aged Meat Locker for a hearty, rich flavor and hand-cut to the exact size and thickness you want.

2 OFF

www.rouses.com

BEYOND MEAT

8 - 14 OZ BURGERS OR BRATS

75Â˘ OFF BLUE RUNNER BEANS

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

ANY 1 (ONE) CAN OF 16 OZ BEANS

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

1 OFF

9 OZ HONEY CHIPOTLE, GARLIC HATCH OR LIME JALAPEĂ&#x2018;O

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

BUSH'S BEANS

1 OFF

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

www.rouses.com

AHA SPARKLING WATER

8 - PACK OF 12 OZ CANS

www.rouses.com

COCA-COLA PRODUCTS

24 - PACK OF 12 OZ CANS

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

CHOBANI DAIRY CREAMER

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

CHOBANI OAT DRINK

ANY 52 OZ OAT DRINK

ANY 24 OZ DAIRY CREAMER

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

BLUE TOP SAUCE

BLUE PLATE MAYO

30 OZ ANY VARIETY

WHEN YOU BUY 2 (TWO) CANS OF 15.8 - 16 OZ BEANS

www.rouses.com

3 OFF

www.rouses.com

COMMUNITY COFFEE

ANY 1 (ONE) 36 CT SINGLE SERVE K-CUPS

If our name is on the label you know itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good

HOUSE AD

Every Rouses Markets private label food item has been personally tasted by the Rouse Family and is guaranteed to deliver the best quality at the best price.

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

$ 50

www.rouses.com

COMMUNITY COFFEE

1 (ONE) 20 OZ BAG OF DARK ROAST, BREAKFAST BLEND OR CAFÉ SPECIAL COFFEE

50¢ OFF CRYSTAL HOT SAUCE

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

12 OZ BOTTLE

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

2 OFF

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

www.rouses.com

WHEN YOU BUY 2 (TWO) 2 LITERS

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

1 OFF

GUIDRY'S SHRIMP OR CATFISH STRIPS

2 - 3 LB BOX BREADED

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

HANDY SHRIMP

8 OZ SHRIMP ROLLS OR NASHVILLE HOT SHRIMP

2 OFF

HUGGIES SPECIAL DELIVERY

20 - 35 CT JUMBO

www.rouses.com

FREE

www.rouses.com

ROUSES HOT DOG BUNS

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

WITH PURCHASE OF 3 (THREE) 15 OZ CANS OF HORMEL NO BEANS CHILI Offer

valid 3/15 - 5/14

www.rouses.com

ANY 10 (TEN) 32 OZ BOTTLES

7-UP PRODUCTS

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

GATORADE SPORTS DRINKS

FIORA PRODUCTS

12 DOUBLE ROLL BATH OR 6 GIANT ROLL TOWELS

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

CRAB OR LOBSTER SMART

8 OZ NATURAL FLAKES, STICKS OR CHUNKS

www.rouses.com

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Proud to put Our Name on the Things We Make We make it easy to save with store brands that are as good as national brands, and unique products developed in partnership with local producers.

1 OFF

$ 50

KIBBLES 'N BITS DRY DOG FOOD

3.5 LB BAG

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

KLEENEX FACIAL TISSUES

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

4 PACK (110 - 144 CT)

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

12 PK 12 OZ CANS LIMONCELLO OR PASTEQUE

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

LOUISIANA FISH FRY

1 OFF

1.65 - 7 OZ CHEF PAUL

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

MEOW MIX DRY CAT FOOD

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

MILKBONE DOG TREATS

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

16 - 24 OZ SELECTED

www.rouses.com

NATURE'S BEST

2 LB BAG SWAI FILLETS

www.rouses.com

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

$ 50

1 OFF

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

MAGIC SEASONINGS

1 GALLON

www.rouses.com

3 - 3.15 LB BAG SELECTED

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

LACROIX

KRAFT DINNERS

2 (TWO) 9.4 - 14 OZ SELECTED DELUXE OR VELVEETA

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

NATURE'S OWN

1 (ONE) 20 OZ HONEY WHEAT BREAD

You Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Fake Cajun! Our boudin, andouille, fresh and smoked sausages, and stuffed meats are made with Rouse Family Recipes that go back three generations.

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

ORCA BAY FILLETS

1 OFF

PUPPERONI DOG TREATS

10 OZ SALMON, MAHI OR FLOUNDER

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

5.6 OZ SELECTED

1 OFF

NEW ORLEANS ROAST OR PJS COFFEE

12 OZ BAG OR 12 CT SINGLE SERVE

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

www.rouses.com

PURINA CAT CHOW

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

RED BARON PIZZA

15 - 16 LB BAG SELECTED

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

17.8 - 24 OZ CLASSIC, BRICK OVEN OR THIN CRUST

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

RED GOLD

3 OFF

www.rouses.com

RICH'S ICE CREAM CAKE

ANY 2 (TWO) 15.5 OZ SALSA, 32 OZ KETCHUP OR 28 - 29 OZ CAN TOMATOES Offer

valid 3/15 - 5/14

OREO OR REESE'S

www.rouses.com

ROUSES VEGETABLE OIL

GALLON (128 OZ)

www.rouses.com

PUREX DETERGENT

2 OFF

1 OFF

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

43.5 - 50 OZ SELECTED

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

ROUSES GATOR PUFFS

ANY 2 (TWO) 8 - 10 OZ

Fais Dough-Dough Our recipe for the sweet-dough Cajun pie known as Tarte-a-la-Bouille has been passed down from generation to generation. We fill a sweet-dough crust with a traditional custard bouille, and top it with a lattice crust. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been voted your all-time favorite pie!

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

ROUSES RED KIDNEY BEANS

1 OFF

ROUSES PEELED SHRIMP

WHEN YOU BUY 2 (TWO) 16 OZ BAGS

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

16 OZ BAG 40/50 CT

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

TONY CHACHERE'S

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

www.rouses.com

WHISPS CHEESE CRISPS

ANY 1 (ONE) 2.12 OZ BAG

www.rouses.com

ST. PIERRE

BRIOCHE SLIDER ROLL OR BREAD

WHEN YOU BUY 3 (THREE) 1.3 - 8 OZ SELECTED PRODUCTS

www.rouses.com

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

TABASCO SAUCE

ANY 1 (ONE) 5-12 OZ

50Â˘ OFF

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

SABRA

1 OFF

2 CT ORIGINAL, ORANGE OR CARAMEL

CHOCOLATE DESSERT DIP OR SPREAD

Offer valid 3/15 - 5/14

ROUSES CINNAMON ROLLS

ATLANTA CHEESECAKE

QUARTER NEW YORK, PASSION OR TURTLE

www.rouses.com

1 OFF

www.rouses.com

ZAPP'S POTATO CHIPS

ANY 1 (ONE) 9 OZ BAG

Word Search Answer Key Name:

Name:

Created with TheTeachersCorner.net Word Search Maker

Created with TheTeachersCorner.net Word Search Make

O C

Y R

ONIONS GARLIC REDPEPPERS OKRA CABBAGE STRAWBERRIES

BELLPEPPER GREENONIONS MIRLITONS PECANS EGGPLANT BLUEBERRIES

CELERY TOMATOES CORN SWEETPOTATOES GREENS FILE

GRITS COFFEE WHITEBEANS LIMABEANS TASSO CAJUNSAUSAGE

SUGAR WATERMELON REDBEANS SALTMEAT ANDOUILLE SMOKEDSAUSAGE

STEENSSYRUP LEMON BLACKEYEDPEAS PICKLEMEAT ITALIANSAUSAGE TURKEYNECKS

ROUSES

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 8 3

8 4 M A R C H â&#x20AC;¢ A P R I L 20 20

ROUSES

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 8 5