2023 City Produce/Rouses 100th Anniversary

Milestone rooted in local produce

City Produce, which is celebrating its centennial through May 2024, is the first company that the Rouses started after arriving in America from Sardinia.

“Around 1899, my great-grandpa came over from Italy,” Donald Rouse said. “He came in through New York with a sponsor, and he had to get work. He had to be settled in before he could send for his wife – my great-grandmother – and my grandpa.”

The immigrant moved to Westwego, adjacent to New Orleans, where there was a thriving Italian community. There, he found a job on a little farm and worked tirelessly until he could afford to set up a sharecropper deal with the landowners. “That is how he started in the farming business.”

Donald’s great-grandmother, and two children, came over in 1900.

Donald’s grandfather, Joseph “J.P.” Rouse, was barely a year old then.

In the early 1920s, J.P. moved to the Thibodaux, Louisiana, area because he felt the ground there was fertile and would be good for farming. Eventually, J.P. was able to buy 10 acres of land. At first, he planted watermelons, tomatoes and shallots – good, reliable local crops. To sell his produce, he opened a little stand on Jackson Street. He would load up whatever he had grown, then bring it all to the stand to sell. Over time, he managed to buy additional land and grow more.

“When he did that,” said Donald, “he started growing more shallots and bringing them to New Orleans to sell.” He founded his company in 1923, calling it City Produce.

‘Sharing where food

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is grown, caught and made has been so much of our story’

The Shelby Report of the Southeast recently caught up with Rouses CEO Donny Rouse to discuss the 100th anniversary of City Produce and all things Rouses as the Louisiana-based grocer gears up for a big 2024.

100 Years of City Produce kicked off in May 2023, and continues this year. How are you recognizing and celebrating the centennial?

“It’s quite a milestone. Rouses Market wouldn’t be here without City Produce. We really wanted to honor that.

“We created City Produce branding using the logo on the side panel my great-grandfather’s truck as inspiration. That specially designed branding is on signage throughout our produce department and in our advertising. Our register monitors and produce bags sport the 100th Anniversary logo. We even brought the old City Produce truck to our store opening in Houma in August.

“We have always featured the farmers we work with in our advertising and in our stores because we want our customers to know exactly where their food comes from. Sharing where food is grown, caught and made has been so much of our story through 64 years of business. Now with the centennial, we’ve been talking as much about our own roots in local produce as the farmers we work with.

“We’ve definitely had long-standing relationships with the farmers, and as they have transitioned from family member to family member, but there are a few of them that we’ve done business with since our first store.

“Of course, we did a special edition of the Rouses Magazine celebrating 100 Years

of City Produce, and that got everyone talking about spring onions, which locals called shallots. We heard from readers whose parents and grandparents and great-grandparents grew shallots in South Louisiana and sold them to City Produce.

“We don’t want the celebration to stop in April. We created a wall history with old photos and ads from City Produce, Ciro’s, which was our first store, and Rouses. It really tells our story. We put it up in our Houma store last summer, and we are using it in décor in all of our new stores. You’ll see it in our new stores in North Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana, and Picayune and Biloxi, Mississippi, and in future stores.

“The new Baton Rouge store grand opening was held Jan. 11. The Picayune, Mississippi, store –which will be a new market for Rouses – is planned to open in early summer.

“We are always looking at other markets in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, because

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Donny Rouse

Donny Rouse and Donald Rouse

Rouses Markets’ produce team is shown in August 2023 at the new store in Houma: Raymond Eschette, assistant produce manager, Houma; Oscar Casco, produce merchandiser; Pat DeRoach, produce manager, Houma; Jessica Kliebert, produce manager, Thibodaux; Sam Lawson, produce merchandiser; Kevin Cazeaux, produce buyer; Jonad Galan, produce director; and Kerry Adams, produce buyer.

that’s where the base is. We don’t have anything to announce further at this time for locations.”

Is the drive-thru concept you introduced at the new Houma store something you plan to move forward with in other locations?

“It’s doing well for us, and we will add that to other markets for newer stores when we see that it’s going to lay out correctly on the site plan. We have a new store we’re going to build in Slidell, but it will be the same as the Houma store and does have room on that site to do a drive-thru as well. We’re not going to start construction on that until later this year.”

With City Produce, you’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the past. Looking forward, what are your plans for the future?

“We have a busy 2024 planned. We just opened two stores and we have two new stores opening, extensive remodeling and construction projects.

“We’re building two different stores right now. One’s about 55,000 square feet; the other one’s about 45,000 square feet. We feel pretty good today about how the new store is laid out for our customers as far as where departments are and what’s going on in there. That’s going to change probably in a couple of years.

“We’ll learn, we’ll add some new things and some things may come out. We’re always looking to make sure that we’re doing the best that we can and offer everything that

we need to offer for our shoppers. We’re not going to be stuck in one format for the next 10-15 years building stores. We will change them as we see fit.

“As part of our commitment to progress, we’re becoming more data driven. We’re getting more strategic with space management and planning techniques to optimize our retail spaces and improve the overall shopping experience.

“We’re adding more ways to save and new ways to reward our loyal customers. We’re getting close to finalizing a project to where we can really understand who our customer is and who’s buying what and where they’re buying it and how often.

“We currently use cell phone data to see where our customers are coming from, how long they’re in our stores, where they’re going, where they were before us, where they’re going after us. We don’t have a loyalty card, but we are working with different technology so we can grab that data and Please see page 24

MEMORABLE From page 20

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understand better so we can market to the individuals.

“Fresh and Grocery will continue to focus on product innovation and meeting customer preference with new private label SKUs and regular introductions of new products and limited-time offers.

“Our team is equally focused on the in-store and online experience. We pride ourselves on our customer service, and it’s crucial to me that customers who want to save time get the same customer service expectation, even in the digital space. We want a seamless and customer-centric approach across all touchpoints.

“My grandfather was always offering the customer the best quality at the best price. When he was farming and shipping produce, and even when he had his first store, he wanted the best quality he could get and sell it at the best price.

“I grew up learning customer service and understanding customer service. It’s just welcoming the customer to Rouses, bagging their groceries, helping the customers out with their groceries. If they’re asking for an item, walking them down through the store and bringing them to those items and just going above and beyond.

“And the customer is always right. We do not want to tell the customer ‘no.’ We need to find a way to make sure that we can satisfy that customer before they walk out the door.”

Rouses Markets has consistently been voted the best grocery store on the Gulf Coast in various polls, and national media outlets like Epicurious have recognized it as one of the best grocery stores in the country.

“This is a very unique culture. I always say, ‘You’re either local, or you’re not,’ which goes beyond just being born here; it means you get it, or you don’t; you’re either a part it, or you’re not. It’s about understanding, embracing and being an integral part of the community.

“We grew up here. We live here; we eat here. We know what our customers like to eat. We know what our employees like to eat. We have access to farmers and to fishermen and to the local grocery manufacturers just because we’ve been here forever, so we have those relationships.

“We’re not coming from out of state trying to figure out a market and figure out where to buy what the customers want. We know what our customers want to buy. It’s just a natural fit and it’s easy to understand. We’re not trying to figure it out.

“We have an unparalleled understanding. We know crawfish, Mardi Gras, snowballs and football

are seasons; that there are Cajun and Creole versions of gumbo and jambalaya; and fried seafood is a Friday must on the hotline during Lent.

“This cultural connection is why people want to shop at Rouses Markets, along with our quality, variety and value, and it’s also why they choose to work here.

“We take pride in being one of the largest privately held employers on the Gulf Coast, with 7,000 employees, creating job opportunities and contributing to the growth of our community as we expand.

“I’m very proud of our team members, those that have been with us for a long time and then Please see page 26

Donny Rouse at Shuman Farms in Georgia, circa 2014

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the newer team members who are coming as their first job or their second careers and trusting in Rouses for their careers and to support their families. And our suppliers that have been with us for many, many years. Just the trust that we have between the suppliers and our team members, knowing that Rouses is the place to sell your products or to come work on the Gulf Coast. We do our best to treat everyone right, treat everyone fairly. That way, everyone can be successful and provide for their families.”

MATT RANATZA

Matt Ranatza is the owner and operator of Matt Ranatza Farms in Belle Chase, Louisiana.

“My grandpa started the farm down in 1933, so this is our 91st year,” he said. “I’ve been selling to Rouses since before they had the New Orleans stores, when it was just the Bayou stores.”

Ranatza said his biggest crop for Rouses is Creole tomatoes.

“We probably sell them 10,000 boxes of Creole tomatoes a year,” he said. “We also have cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, bell peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, Romanesco broccoli, collard greens and kale. We also grow citrus – satsumas and navels. But tomatoes, that’s our biggest thing.

“I mostly supply to the Bayou stores, the North Shore and New Orleans. And when I have access, we’ll get up here to Baton Rouge.”

Ranatza credited the decades-long partnership to quality and trust.

“I stand behind my product and that’s why I think Rouses has stuck with me all these years. I made a pledge to them that it’s always going to be good. You’ll never lose $1 buying anything from me.

“I feel like I’m as much of an employee for Rouses as anybody that shows up every day because it’s my responsibility to put out a good product, because it’s their livelihoods as well as mine. And I want them to be successful so I can be successful.”

Asked what shoppers new to Rouses can expect, Ranatza didn’t hesitate to answer.

“A lot of good personal service, a lot of helping people, quality products, fresh produce, products you can’t find elsewhere – and always a good meat department,” he said.

Rouses magazine celebrates the culture of the Gulf Coast. Does having such strong family roots in the region and working to preserve the culture contribute to the success of Rouses Markets?

“Absolutely. Every time you pick up one of our magazines, you feel that culture, you feel the family. You can almost taste the food as you’re looking through the pictures and reading the recipes.

“Our customers that are reading that magazine, it relates to them. They understand the stories, they understand the recipes and the food and it’s part of everyone here on the coast.”

Matt Ranatza, owner and operator of Matt Ranatza Farms in Belle Chase, Louisiana, helps a customer select Romanesco broccoli Jan. 11 during the grand opening of the Rouses Market in North Baton Rouge.

City Produce brings Louisiana to America

As the company grew, every day he and his small group of employees would load his big green truck with the best produce he had grown and drive it all over to sell.

Because his crops were so prolific, he also brought shallots to what, at the time, were called “the sheds” in Thibodaux, where wholesalers would buy the crops, load them up on railcars, and ship them to other markets. (The sheds were a lot like the stands on docks today where you can buy fresh shrimp.) J.P. quickly figured out that he did not need to sell his products to other people to do the shipping – he could do that himself.

Eventually, when a shed opened and J.P. could set up shop there, he started selling his shallots to other markets. When demand exceeded his supply, he started buying shallots from other local farmers as well. For the Rouse family, supporting local farmers has always been a priority, and this is one of its earliest instances.

Unlike other shippers, J.P. or a member of his team would actually go into the fields where farmers grew shallots and would talk to the farmers to get a feel for the crops, their likely yields and their quality. J.P. would buy entire fields rather than what was later harvested.

Though he never knew exactly how much he was going to get from a harvest, he guaranteed farmers a certain amount of money for the crops – which was a win for everybody – and many local farmers soon worked out similar deals with him.

J.P. and his men began shipping produce out of Thibodaux to markets such as Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh – even as far away as the Caribbean. And they extended the reach of where they bought products, acquiring such crops as potatoes and sweet potatoes from Fairhope, Alabama, and rural Mississippi, and red potatoes from areas in South Louisiana.

When Anthony Rouse, who later founded Rouses Markets, reached age 14, he climbed into the truck driven by his father, J.P., and joined the family business, going dutifully to the sheds for the unloading, sales, loading and shipping of the produce. Much later, when Donald was a boy, he would join his father, Anthony, at those very sheds.

“I remember going to the shed as a kid and watching them load shallots,” Donald recalled. In those days, workers would load shallots into barrels, fill them with ice, stack them in a railcar, and add more ice yet, to keep the produce fresh even as it traveled to places far from Louisiana.

City Produce to Ciro’s to Rouse’s to Rouses

The produce business had high times and low. City Produce weathered the Great Depression,

though Anthony learned well the lessons of that hard time in American history. When J.P. died, Anthony Rouse and his cousin, Ciro, took over City Produce.

But there was trouble on the horizon. The produce export business slowed as more products began shipping from Mexico. Concurrently, the oil industry in Louisiana was reaching its peak, and Anthony realized that farmhands would have other work options and would soon be in short supply, which would make the company harder to keep going. So Ciro started looking far and wide for what could be the family’s next move in the food business, and soon settled on the idea of opening a grocery store in Houma.

“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,” Donald said. “That’s a true story.”

The two put all their money (and a lot of the bank’s money) into this tiny, 7,000-square-foot store, hiring two workers and doing everything else themselves – from stocking merchandise to working the register.

Donald joined the company when he was old enough, bagging groceries and rounding up carts out front. When Ciro retired in 1975, Donald bought out Ciro’s interest in the company, and he and his father renamed the store “Rouse’s.”

Many may have noticed that Rouses stores today lack the apostrophe. The reason is because in those early days, the lightbulb in the punctuation mark kept burning out. Rather than continuing to spend the money fighting a losing battle, Anthony – ever a practical man – decided to take the apostrophe down from the store sign and solve the problem permanently.

Rouses Markets still has trucks, still does produce J.P. Rouse way

“We still have relationships with local farmers,” Donald said.

That is one of the best things about being a local company, he added, and generations after the founding of City Produce, Rouses Markets is more committed than ever to local farmers, and to bringing store guests the very best this region has to offer.

“I feel like our responsibility as a company is to give back to the local community. Our responsibility is also to our team members and to our customers,” he said.

To serve store guests today, Rouses has also established a new partnership with Capitol City Produce in Baton Rouge.

For over 75 years, Capitol City Produce, a family-owned company, has provided the best produce of the highest quality for some of the most celebrated members of the culinary world – everyone

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from The Windsor Court hotel and Ruth’s Chris Steak House to the Ritz-Carlton. Now, shoppers at Rouses can enjoy that same quality, practically year-round.

“It’s a good partnership we have with them,” said Donny Rouse, CEO of Rouses Markets. “We are two family-owned companies with strong roots in the produce business. And with our partnership, we’ll be able to expand our offerings and build more relationships with farmers throughout the Gulf Coast, so we can get that product to our customers.”

In addition, the Rouses team travels the country – and goes around the world – in search of the very best produce grown anywhere, anytime of year. Rouses Markets was one of the first grocery stores in America to offer organic produce and one of the first to bring in such once-exotic items as kiwis from New Zealand, guavas from Honduras and hatch chiles from New Mexico. Today, every Rouses location routinely offers hundreds of different fruits and vegetables for shoppers to enjoy.

When it comes to produce, Rouses prides itself on giving busy customers plenty of options.

“One thing we continue to do in produce – that a majority of other retailers have gotten away from – is cut and package fresh fruit for our store guests,” Donny said. “We have that in every store – watermelon chunks, pineapple chunks, cantaloupe slices – we still do that every day.

“The national chains have stopped doing that just to cut their labor force, but that’s not important to me. We will continue offering cut fruit because it’s just what we do and how we will always do business. We offer our customers the best quality and convenience of fruits and vegetables there is.”

Innovation, quality and devotion to the community have always been essential parts of the Rouses ethos. They are intertwined with the entrepreneurial spirit that motivated J.P. Rouse and made City Produce a success. That dedication has carried across the generations, to every Rouses location. It is something the Rouse family has been doing for 100 years now. And it all started with a produce truck.

“Our customers place their trust in us to consistently provide the best and freshest fruits and vegetables every time they shop. Following in the footsteps of J.P. Rouse, who did the same at City Produce, we are continuously visiting the farms throughout the growing seasons.”

– Jonad Galan, Produce Director

“Our Produce Director, Jonad Galan, is continuing the legacy set by previous directors and by Mr. Anthony himself, who initially worked at City Produce before establishing his first grocery store.

“Jonad has brought a fresh and inventive perspective to our produce department. Under his leadership, the team has successfully improved efficiencies in both procurement and merchandising processes.

“I am immensely proud of the achievements of each member of the Rouses produce team, and I look forward to the continued growth of this exceptional group of individuals.”

– James Breuhl, VP of Fresh

TREY HARRIS

Every April since 1972, the town of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, puts on the state’s largest free festival in honor of the beloved strawberry. Harris Farms owner Trey Harris won grand champion at the 2023 Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival berry-judging competition. He grows fields of strawberries exclusively for Rouses Markets.

Former longtime employee, family friend reflects on importance of produce to Louisiana-based grocer

by Jack R. Jordan / content creator

Joe Watson began his career at Rouses Supermarkets in 1983 – at the very bottom. Working for the company until 2015, he held many positions before ultimately directing produce operations.

His responsibilities included buying, category management, marketing, sales, financial forecasting and personnel development. Today, Watson serves as VP of retail foodservice and wholesale for the International Fresh Produce Association.

In celebration of the 100 Years of City Produce, The Shelby Report of the Southeast spoke with Watson about his history with Rouses Markets, his relationship with longtime friend, mentor and Rouses founder Anthony Rouse and the importance of produce in his career and the company’s success.

Rouse family

At the beginning of Watson’s career, Rouses had just three stores. Beginning as a stocker, Watson moved into the produce department within his first year. He was then made produce manager, where he stayed for seven years before becoming a merchandiser in the late 1980s and director of produce in 1993.

“Along the way, I had the great opportunity to work with Anthony [Rouse] for 27 years before he passed. He was one of the greatest mentors I’ve ever had in my life,” Watson said. “His background was in produce as well … they shipped fresh produce all through southeast Louisiana. He shared his love for fresh produce with me.”

Watson recalled a phrase the late Rouse commonly repeated.

“He used it in any negotiations. No matter who the vendor was, he would say, ‘I just need two things: I need the best quality at the best price.’ And that was his mantra,” Watson said.

“Many times, people would hear that and think he was saying, ‘I want the best at the cheapest.’

That was not at all what he was saying.”

Watson explained that Rouse’s phrase was shorthand for a very important lesson.

“He taught me early on that, when negotiating with a supplier, it is very important that the person who’s selling to you can make money selling to you. Because if he or she cannot, they won’t be there the next time,” Watson said.

“The point is to always negotiate fairly, get the best rate we could for our business but also to make sure that our suppliers as a whole are [treated] fair.”

Watson said that mentality is something that he has carried throughout his career. At the same time Watson was learning from Rouse, he was getting to know his son, Donald Rouse, who was already involved with day-to-day operations when Watson joined. He quickly earned Watson’s respect.

“You think about the fact that he cut his teeth in the business, in that original store doing all the things that you had to do in a family supermarket. From bagging ice-packed chickens to trimming the lettuce to cashiering, that’s how he cut his teeth in the business. He wasn’t someone who was handed the keys. He had the sweat equity,” Watson said.

Just five years older than Watson, Rouse was known to be straightforward, smart and business-savvy.

“One thing I always said about Donald is that you never have to guess where you stand with him. He will make sure that if he’s unhappy with something, he’ll tell you,” Watson said. “By the same token, if he’s pleased, you’re going to know that, too. That was just his style. And I appreciated that greatly.”

Watson attributed the success of the business to the family-owned operation.

“Family is visible in the stores, although certainly they don’t run it by themselves,” he said. “They’ve got a great, talented group of leaders across the organization. Still,  [they’re] making that connection with the community no matter where they go.”

Joe Watson

He recalled Rouses’ move into Alabama. There was little worry about the reception of the store.

“We were not a secret at all,” Watson said. “They knew exactly who we were, they knew exactly what our strengths were. By the time we went to Alabama in 2014, that brand was well known, and consumers made that connection and accepted Rouses from day one.”

Speaking to the 100th anniversary of City Produce, Watson said that it is the connections made that have kept the business going.

“What sets the company apart is being able to have that brand, that name recognition, connecting with the community, embracing local and making sure that they connect with the communities where they serve. Going forward for the next 100 years, providing the company stays in family hands, it will just continue to build upon that legacy and continue as they go into new markets.”

Produce is the legacy

“It’s easy to say produce is the background of the company,” said Watson, referring to its orgins as City Produce in 1923. “That’s sort of the legacy, the heritage because that’s what started the business.

“Fresh produce was always critically important to the growth of the business. And it all starts with relationships with local producers.”

Rouses is built on a foundation of sourcing locally.

“It was always job No. 1 for us to source anything we could from local producers for our stores, to keep the local farmers in business,” Watson said. “At the same time, we would work with them to develop new products, new varieties.”

At the time of Watson’s departure, the company had relationships with more than 100 farmers. The company brings those local relationships to customers.

“Being able to tell that story of the farmer – to make that connection between the farmer and the consumer with Rouses as the conduit – served us very well,” Watson said. “We became known as the supermarket where they can get local produce. That’s just one aspect of that heritage.”

Kicking the dirt

To build these relationships, Watson and Anthony Rouse spent a lot of time “kicking the dirt.” That meant being out on the farms and meeting the people who were growing Rouses’ products. Rouse and Watson made many trips across the country together and, occasionally, internationally.

Rouses started a program that brought farmers’ stories to the consumer, through promotions, signage and occasional visits in-store.

“We built a really strong program to be able to tell those stories … to let farmers and consumers connect face to face. It wasn’t just buying something out of an order book. We knew – and the consumers knew – where that product was coming from because we have been to their farm.”

Speaking to how Rouses worked alongside its vendor partners, Watson shared a story about strawberries.

In the early 2000s, local strawberries were highly sought-after during the holiday season. Typically, they were planted later and are not ripened before the new year. Watson said they knew they could get strawberries from sources in Florida or California, but staying local was key.

“We said, ‘Look, if you can plant strawberries and we can have them by the end of the year, we will buy them.’ And so working with strawberry producers, knowing that they could plant strawberries – which is not cheap – and knowing that they had a market for them during the holiday season, we made sure that they could come out profitable as well as be able to meet the needs of the consumer.”

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DONALD ROUSE

“We always put local farmers, fishermen, companies, restaurants and manufacturers first,” said Donald Rouse, the chairman of Rouses Markets. “When the pandemic started, our sales team reached out to local fishermen and farmers we have done business with for years and years – not only in Louisiana but along the Gulf Coast – and asked what we could buy.”

Before his father, Anthony, opened the first Rouses market, he was a farmer. “I drove many times with him to farms across the coast, and he would talk to farmers and you could just feel the energy between them, and the comfort, and the respect that they had for one another.

“My father always respected farmers, and he would preach to us to do whatever we could to help when it came to farmers. Buying their produce, and also, just buying local, lives on today.”

Rouses produce managers at Family Tree Farms, California, circa 2013

Dale Huss, Ocean Mist, Joe Watson and David Williams, produce merchandiser

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Even with an emphasis on local produce, Rouses tried to bring variety into the produce department while not doing away with the personal connections.

Watson recalled a time when the company wanted to offer a new type of melon from California. “We had the grower come to our stores. We built it up in our promotional activity, ‘Come meet him and his wife.’ They came dressed just like they would be if they were out on their farm,” Watson said.

The couple, Milas and Diana Russell gave out samples of their melons at the stores and fielded questions from consumers.

“And it was really an amazing thing to see because once a connection is made, a consumer is totally in love with that product,” Watson continued.

BURTON WHITFIELD

“I’ve been with ’em more than 25 years,” said Burton Whitfield, a farmer who provides produce to Rouses Markets from Plaucheville in Central Louisiana. “They treated me right at Rouses from the start.”

Nick Davis, Onenta Trading; Anthony Rouse Sr.; Sam Lawson, produce merchandiser; Joe Watson; and Troy Sampey, former produce manager, circa 1996

Congratulations

FRESH LIVE GULF OYSTERS

Live oysters are weighed and inspected before undergoing a pressure washing process where oysters are handpicked for quality assurance. Applying the HPP method to shucking, the oysters open without damaging the meat leaving you a perfectly shucked oyster.

Oysters are packed in a variety of ways to accommodate your needs.

IQF OYSTERS

IQF is the process of quickly freezing food for an extended shelf life. This process has been applied to oysters providing consumers with an easy to handle oyster.

Fresh oysters are frozen using Instant Quick-Freeze (IQF) equipment. They are placed into a cryo-chilling tunnel, which instantly freezes them sealing in the flavor and freshness for an extended period of time. This method is applied to both oysters on the half-shell and select grade shucked oyster meat.

TREASURE BAND HIGH PRESSURE PROCESSED OYSTERS

High pressure process is a food processing method of using water and elevated pressures to achieve consumer desired goals. In 1990’s HPP emerged as a method of processing food but not until the 21st century was it applied to seafood. The advancements in HPP technology over recent decades have proved this method of food processing of the highest quality. From fresh juice to meats and seafood, HPP neutralizes listeria, salmonella, E. coli and other deadly bacteria.

Our Treasure Band oysters have undergone our High Pressure Process which reduces the Vibrio Vulnificus and Vibrio Paraheamolyticus to nondetectable levels.

Mr. Anthony Rouse’s Down Home Oyster Dressing

Serves 8 to 10

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

2 cups cooked long-grain rice, covered and kept warm

1 pound lean ground beef

1/2 pound ground pork

1 16-ounce container Rouses Fresh Cut Creole Seasoning Blend, or 1 large onion and 2 large green bell peppers, finely chopped

2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning mix

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 tablespoon granulated garlic

1/2 tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning

11/2 quarts Louisiana oysters, cut in half if large

Okra & Tomatoes

Serves 10

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

2 pounds fresh okra

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 cups chopped onions

2 cups chopped celery

3 cups chopped, peeled, and seeded ripe tomatoes, or 3 cups chopped canned tomatoes, including their liquid

HOW TO PREP:

Preheat oven to 300ºF.

2 bay leaves

1 bunch green onions, white and green parts, finely chopped

1 tablespoon Kitchen Bouquet

HOW TO PREP:

Cook rice and keep warm, covered.

In a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat, brown beef and pork. Add Guidry’s Seasoning Blend (or onions and bell peppers). Mix well and cook until onions are translucent.

Add Cajun seasoning, basil, garlic and Old Bay, and mix well. Add oysters. Mix in green onions and Kitchen Bouquet. Remove from heat and mix in the rice. Serve.

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon dried thyme

3 cloves garlic, chopped

Rinse the okra under cool water. Cut off the stems and slice each pod crosswise into 1/2-inch rounds.

Coat the edges of a large ovenproof pot with the vegetable oil. Add the okra and all other ingredients to the pot. Mix well. Cover the pot with an ovenproof lid.

Place covered pot in the preheated oven and bake, stirring occasionally, for 11/2 to 2 hours, or until the slime has disappeared.

Remove lid and bake uncovered for the last 15 minutes of the cooking time, until okra is tender. Remove the bay leaves and serve immediately.

Donny Rouse’s Seafood Gumbo

Serves 10 to 12

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

1 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

6 celery stalks, diced

2 large onions, diced

2 bell peppers, diced

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound Rouses andouille sausage, sliced 1/2-inch thick

4 quarts seafood stock

1 pound wild-caught Gulf shrimp, peeled and deveined

HOW TO PREP:

1 pound jumbo lump Gulf crabmeat, picked over for shells

4 gumbo crabs, halved

1 pint shucked Gulf oysters and their oyster liquor

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup diced green onion

Salt and pepper to taste

6 cups cooked white rice or Rouses potato salad, for serving

1. Warm oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot or Dutch oven over low heat.

2. Add flour, a little bit at a time, stirring constantly, and cook 30 minutes to make a medium-brown roux. Add celery, onion, bell pepper and garlic, salt and pepper, and continue stirring until vegetables are wilted, about 15 minutes.

3. Brown andouille in a separate skillet, about 5 minutes; set aside.

4. Slowly add stock to roux, one ladleful at a time, stirring after each. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Add andouille, shrimp, crabmeat, gumbo crabs and oysters, including oyster liquor. Return to a boil and cook an additional 5 minutes.

6. Add parsley and green onion, and season with additional salt and pepper if needed.

7. Serve over rice or potato salad.

Mrs. Rouse’s Stewed Chicken

Serves 8

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

11/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup canola or vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium green bell pepper, chopped

1 celery rib, chopped

1 cup white button mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced

HOW TO PREP:

6 cups chicken broth

5 pounds bone-in chicken thighs

1 bay leaf

Creole seasoning, to taste

Hot rice, for serving

Heat oil in a 4- to 5-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Stir in flour with a flat metal or wooden spatula and cook, scraping back and forth constantly (not stirring), until roux is the color of milk chocolate, 10 to 20 minutes.

Add onion, bell pepper, and celery. Cook, scraping back and forth occasionally, until onion is softened, about 8 minutes. Add mushrooms and stir to combine.

Add chicken broth and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until roux is incorporated. Add chicken and bay leaf. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until chicken is cooked through and gravy is thickened, about 1 hour. Remove bay leaf and discard. Stir in Creole seasoning. Serve hot over rice.

Red Beans & Rice Serves 12

No, you don’t have to soak your beans overnight, but they will take longer to cook if you don’t. We recommend soaking beans the traditional way: Cover dry beans with 10 cups fresh water and add 2 tablespoons kosher salt. Let soak for at least 8 hours or overnight. Drain, rinse and pick through before using.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

2 pounds bag dried red kidney beans, rinsed and sorted (soaked overnight)

¼ pound bacon, roughly chopped

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 large celery stalk, diced

1 green onion, white part, save the green for garnish

HOW TO PREP:

2 bay leaves

1 large ham hock

2 quarts chicken stock

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter

1 tablespoon salt

Hot cooked rice

Hot sauce or vinegar, for serving

Warm a heavy-bottomed 12-quart pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add bacon and cook until fat drippings are rendered, around 3 to 5 minutes. Add onion, bell pepper, celery and green onion bottoms and cook, stirring often, until onion is translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add bay leaves. Drain, rinse and sort soaked red beans; add beans and ham hock to pot. Pour in chicken stock, covering beans. Increase heat to high, and bring mixture to a rolling boil for 10 minutes, skimming off and discarding foam from surface while the beans boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until beans are tender, 3 to 4 hours.

Turn off heat. Remove and discard bay leaf. Remove ham hock and transfer to a cutting board; let cool. Stir in butter, salt and sugar.

Remove meat from ham hocks and chop it, then return it to pot. Serve beans over rice. Garnish with green onion tops and serve with hot sauce or vinegar on the side.

Food desert no more – Community of North Baton Rouge embraces new store

by Kevin Atwill / editor-in-chief

A collaborative effort years in the making, the Rouses Markets store that opened Jan. 11 at 5909 Florida Blvd. in North Baton Rouge was hailed by elected officials and the community as a muchanticipated end to a long-recognized food desert in Louisiana’s capital city.

A well-bundled crowd of hundreds started gathering in the wee morning hours, braving chilly temperatures to be among the first inside the brand-new 44,000-square-foot supermarket. By the time the store opened at 8 a.m. – following a ribbon-cutting ceremony – the line snaked around the building.

Rouses committed to underserved markets, freshness and sustainability

The Shelby Report of the Southeast visited with Charles Merrell, chief administrative officer for Rouses Markets, before and during the grand opening of the company’s new store on Florida Boulevard in North Baton Rouge. Merrell shared some insights into Rouses’ growth and sustainability efforts.

Why was it so important to open a Rouses Market in North Baton Rouge?

“We have a long-term commitment to the Baton Rouge area; we’ve been there for nearly a decade. Much of North Baton Rouge is considered part of a food desert, meaning there is limited access to fresh food.”

How did you decide on the Florida Boulevard site?

“As we scour our market area for opportunities, we’re looking for underserved markets with populations of folks who are really looking for healthy, full-service grocery alternatives that they may not have.

“When we were doing our market studies, we came across this region. We worked with the city of Baton Rouge, a bunch of the different municipality offices, and landed on this spot.

“Other than Zachary, which is a town north of here, this is our northern-most Baton Rouge store. We are looking to help revitalize the Florida Boulevard corridor.”

How does this location compare to other Rouses Markets?

“This is a full-service store. This has everything that we do everywhere – every offering at the highest level. We didn’t skimp on a single corner.

“The Houma store [which opened in the fall] is a bit larger, but it is an exact same layout with the exact same offerings. For Houma, we are testing a drive-thru chicken concept. Until we vet Please see page 38 Please see page 39

Charles Merell

Addressing the crowd before the opening, CEO Donny Rouse described the supermarket as “one of the best stores we’ve built in our company.”

“This is what we do. We want to help the community, we want to change the community, we want to boost economics around the community,” said Rouse, the third generation to run the business started by his grandfather, Anthony J. Rouse Sr.

In developing the new store, Rouses Markets collaborated with Sharon Weston Broome, mayor-president of the City of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish; Councilman Cleve Dunn Jr.; Veneeth Iyengar of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber; Build Baton Rouge; and Baton Rouge North Economic Development District.

Broome recalled the summer ground breaking ceremony four years earlier (when the heat index was well in the triple-digits) and shared her gratitude to Rouses Markets, referring to the new store as “the manifestation of a dream for this community.”

“One of my favorite quotes that we use in the office is from Henry Ford that says, ‘Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. And working together is success.’ And so what you have seen here is certainly the manifestation of working together,” she said.

“And the truth is regardless of what side of town you live in, everyone deserves access to fresh food and healthier options near their homes. And I think that’s something we all would agree on.”

Broome added that the new Rouses location is “an important step toward increasing access to quality fresh nutritional food in an area that certainly is in need of healthier options.”

Please see page 40

The store, Rouses Markets’ 11th location in metro Baton Rouge, will eliminate the need for residents to travel lengthy distances to buy fresh produce and groceries.

FOOD DESERT From page 37

ROUSES COMMITTED From page 37

that, we won’t roll it out anywhere else. But this store has every other offering [Houma] has – and more offerings than some other stores in the market.”

One hundred years of City Produce seems like a great time to talk sustainability. Rouses is very committed to sustainable farming, fishing and ranching. What you are doing in the stores themselves on the sustainability front?

“We follow sustainable practices. We reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle everywhere possible – and we are always looking for more ways to do so.

“We are making our stores more energy efficient, including improving efficiencies of refrigeration systems, retrofitting existing stores with LED lights and utilizing them in new stores for reduced kilowatt usage, as well as choosing systems with lower energy demands.

“We are reducing our environmental impact by using environmentally friendly solutions and materials, and sourcing materials for new construction regionally, reducing freight mileage.”

What is the key to fresh, particularly when it comes to produce?

“From my standpoint, we do it on the aesthetics of how we show the produce, the cases we choose, how they hold the product fresh and present to customers. And then there’s the environment in which customers are able to shop for produce, see produce and really feel that freshness as they pass through the market.”

Please see page 41

FOOD DESERT

From page 38

“And I will tell you that this Florida Boulevard corridor is in the midst of economic renewal and revival, and Rouses Markets is a key partner in this,” she said.

Broome then presented Rouse with a proclamation recognizing the grand opening and in “appreciation for the significant investment Rouses Markets has made in our community, creating new jobs and providing residents with access to affordable and convenient shopping.”

Employing more than 200 people in full- and part-time positions, the store features a deli department serving Boar’s Head products. In addition, it has a hot food bar, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as additional bars offering hot soup and fresh salad.

Other store highlights include:

• Sushi, poke bowls and a Mongolian grill with rice bowls and teriyaki;

• Chef-inspired, fresh, ready-to-eat and -heat options; and

• Full-service bakery, floral and seafood departments, as well as a butcher shop with USDA Prime and USDA Choice beef, and steaks, roasts and chops sliced in house.

The seafood department has an in-house boiling room, with seafood delivered from all over the Gulf Coast and around the world.

In honor of the opening, Rouses Markets presented donations to several nonprofits and emergency services in the area, includ ing Hope Ministries; 100 Black Men of Baton Rouge; Rise 225; TRUCE; and CAP, Family Justice Center.

Schriever, Louisiana-based Rouses is ranked one of the top private companies and largest employers along the Gulf Coast. It has been voted Best Grocery Store in Baton Rouge by readers of 225 Magazine year after year, and in polls across the region.

Since opening its first store in 1960, the company has grown to operate 63 locations across three states. It has more than 7,000 employees, with additional stores under construction.

Rouses, the official supermarket of the New Orleans Saints, has been honored for its community impact, supporting local food banks, charities, festivals and events.

ROUSES COMMITTED From page 39

Tell us a little about the new store in Lafayette that opened Jan. 25.

“For all intents and purposes, it’s a little bit larger – not much – than [North Baton Rouge store]; we just opened up the thorough ways a little. But it has the same exact offerings. It’s in downtown Lafayette, right in the heart of town.”

Where will Rouses Markets expand next?

“There are opportunities for expansion in many of the markets where we are operating, and to increase market share there. Lafayette Parish is a great example. This is our fourth store in that parish.

“We also want to expand our footprint in Mississippi. We currently have three stores in Mississippi; we’ll have five by the end of the year.”

Can you share more detail about the Mississippi locations?

“We’re going to Picayune, Mississippi, which of all the communities along the Gulf Coast, they’ve called our office looking for a grocery store over the years more than any other community. So we’re happy to go fulfill that and, again, in a lesserserved market.

“We’re going in with about a 39,000-square-foot store, backfilling into a shopping center. We acquired the whole shopping center, and then we’re raising that tide. We’re improving all the conditions in the shopping center.

“We also have a store under construction in Biloxi. It is three miles due east of our Gulfport store. And that should open in late fall.”

Rouses Markets and Sunkist Growers earned the official Guinness World Records title for the largest display of citrus fruits in January 2022. Shipped directly from California’s citrus groves, the display featured over 40,000 pounds of fresh Sunkist Navel, Blood and Cara Cara oranges, as well as Sunkist California mandarins, lemons, grapefruit and Minneola tangelos. All in all, the record-breaking display had more than 100,000 pieces of citrus. It was the third world record for Rouses Markets, which holds titles for the largest display of artichokes and the largest display of avocados.

In December 2019, there were 112,000 avocados from Mexico displayed at the Rouses Market in Uptown New Orleans. Rouses landed another record because of the display, which took up to 20 hours to build and prepare.

Great entrepreneur started it all, made transition into grocery store business

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. Here is his story.

Coming to America

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.

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,” said 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 added 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

Please see page 44

Anthony Rouse

From

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.”

The worker

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,” Donald said, “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 them that I started carrying boots in my truck.”

Said 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, agreed with that recollection of his grandfather.

“He loved everything he did,” he said. “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,” Cindy recalled. “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 Eschiette, 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 – remembered 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 said Anthony would stand around, or sit down somewhere, and just watch.

“You’re going to laugh at this one,” he said. “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.

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.

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, 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 going to last the longest.’”

Donald continued, “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 man

“He and my mom liked to go out,” Cindy said. “They went out every Saturday night dancing. They always told us they’ll babysit any night besides Saturdays. The thing is, they were going dancing and we weren’t. Boy, he liked to dance.”

Donald added: “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 first 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 recalled. “I was pretty young, and my dad’s friend and him 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,” Donald said.

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 said. “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, 8, 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 continued, “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,” Donald recalled, “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 recalled 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,” said Blake Richard, who is today a Rouses store manager. “It was about a week after Katrina, and Granny and 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,” Blake said, “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 laughed. “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

Please see page 46

GARBER FARMS

The Garbers carry on an Iota, Louisiana, farming tradition started in 1881.

Their 5,000-acre farm sits on a sandy ridge between Bayou Nezpique and Bayou Des Cannes in the heart of South Louisiana’s Cajun Country.

The gentle, moist breezes from the Gulf of Mexico, along with the rich sandy loam soil, provide an ideal natural environment for their sweet, golden Louisiana yams (sweet potatoes).

From page 45

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 said, “Now don’t do what I did and break the water line, but that’s how you fix everything else.”

Blake said, “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.”

Legacy of service

Anthony Rouse died in 2009 at the age of 79. Today, Rouses Markets has grown to more than 60 locations along the Gulf Coast.

“Toward the end of his life,” Cindy said, “he still went into the office every day, but he never had his own office. He never wanted one.”

Donald said, “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 said, ‘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,” said 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 didn’t hear that 5,000 times I didn’t hear it once. 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.”

And it all goes back to a hardworking, first-generation American named Anthony Rouse. “We are fortunate to be able to continue his legacy, and we are grateful for that. I think he would be pretty impressed but also say, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” said Chris with a laugh.

New immigration was drawn to Gulf

by Marcy Nathan / Rouses Creative Director

The Rouses were part of the New Immigration of Italians. That period between the 1880s through the 1920s saw the arrival in America of more than four million mostly Southern Italian immigrants who’d left their homeland in search of work and a better life. Many arrived wide-eyed and anxious, having left family back in their Italian homeland.

The Port of New Orleans was a major gateway for Italian immigrants. Sicilians had been coming to New Orleans in significant numbers since the 1830s, and New Orleans was America’s secondbiggest port for the Sicilian citrus fruit trade. Many immigrants were fruit traders who set up shop on Decatur Street, working as produce merchants and brokers. But the Sicilians and Sardinians, as well as other Southern Italians who arrived around the turn of the century, were not citrus traders; they were poor immigrants escaping not only abject poverty, but corruption and danger in a newly unified Italy. Some were financed by padrones (labor bosses) in Italy who served as middlemen for Southern plantation owners looking for inexpensive labor.

Nearly three-quarters of those who arrived during the New Immigration were farmers and laborers. Those whose passages to America were paid by padrones often went to work in the cane fields of South Louisiana.

Sugarcane was the main crop in Louisiana, but the lumber business was significant in areas like St. Tammany. And there was money in vegetables. Italian truck farms operated all over the West Bank of New Orleans, Harahan, Little Farms (now part of River Ridge) and St. Bernard Parish, growing herbs, beans, peas, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and cardoon, which are similar to artichokes. The produce was trucked to New Orleans public markets, where Italian farmers sold them wholesale.

Lauricella Family Farms and Picone Family Farms were two of the larger tracts in what is now Harahan. Kenner was mostly farmland. Produce grown in Kenner’s “Green Gold” fields was ferried to the French Market via the O-K Rail Line, an interurban streetcar line that ran between New Orleans and Kenner from 1915 to 1930. Many Italians settled in Kenner, buying land and raising families in the farming community on the outskirts of New Orleans. The city of Kenner still has a large Italian population and still celebrates St. Rosalie, the patron saint of Palermo, with a procession every September. During these years, a teenage J.P. Rouse got a job at a truck farm in Marrero

raising potatoes and cabbages.

The railroads helped immigrants establish Italian communities all over the Gulf Coast. The New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad went straight through Tangipahoa Parish, the heart of Louisiana’s strawberry industry. Newcomers settled in cities and towns like Ponchatoula, Independence, Amite and Hammond. By 1910, so many Sicilians inhabited Independence it became known as “Little Italy.” The name still resonates today – nearly one-third of Independence’s residents have Italian heritage.

There was other work to be had besides farming. Businesses placed ads in the New Orleans L’ltalo Americano seeking Southern Italian immigrant labor for the South’s coal and steel industries, Please see page 48

From page 47

railroads and plantations.

A burgeoning seafood industry along the Gulf Coast also drew immigrants east to cities like Biloxi, where oyster and shrimp canning factories and raw oyster dealerships operated. A live fish market flourished on Reynoir Street. Vestiges of the area’s seafood businesses remain in Biloxi today. Desporte & Sons Seafood Market & Deli on Division Street is the oldest family-run seafood market on the Gulf Coast.

But for most immigrants, agriculture was the main attraction. One entrepreneur who capitalized on that was Alessandro Mastro-Valerio, who in 1888 established an agricultural colony on the Eastern Shore of Baldwin County, Alabama. Mastro-Valerio bought land in the area now known as Belforest. After subdividing the property, he went in search of would-be landowners, running ads in Northern newspapers to lure immigrants who came mainly from Central and Northern Italy via Ellis Island. Mastro-Valerio’s plan was a success. His agricultural roots run deep in Baldwin County at farms like A.A. Corte and Sons in Daphne.

Francesco “Frank” Manci also helped create Lower Alabama’s agriculture industry. Manci opened the area’s first cotton gin in 1900. In 1901, its first sawmill. Manci shipped the first potatoes out of Baldwin County. Other Italian immigrants built processing facilities in Loxley on the rail line to make shipping produce north and northeast more feasible.

Italian French market

Like farming, produce vending was a common livelihood for Italian immigrants who settled around the Gulf Coast. In 1923, having saved enough money working at the family truck farm in Marrero, J.P. Rouse and his wife, the former Leola Pitre, moved to Thibodaux, where he opened City Produce Company. He bought fruits and vegetables from big farms in nearby Chackbay and Choctaw, then trucked them to the public markets including the French Market.

Many budding Italian entrepreneurs had stalls at the French Market in New Orleans, where business was almost all wholesale. The Chisesi Brothers, now famous for their hams, started in the French Market selling live chickens from a basket. Other immigrants peddled food from horsedrawn carriages and later trucks. Each salesman traveled the same route each day, so people knew when and where to look for him.

The Dole Fruit Company traces its roots back to the early French Quarter fruit carts. The Vaccaro brothers, who peddled fruit, joined another immigrant family, the D’Antonis of Baton Rouge, to form the Standard Fruit & Steamship Company. They dominated the banana business and helped make New Orleans the world’s largest fruit importer in the early 19th century. Dole acquired 55 percent interest in the Standard Fruit & Steamship Company in 1964. It later acquired 100 percent.

Giuseppe Uddo, the founder of Progresso Foods, also started as a peddler, selling olives, cheeses and tomato paste in New Orleans, first from a horse-drawn carriage – his horse was named Sal – and later from a truck. Eventually, Uddo purchased a small warehouse on Decatur Street. After World War I, Uddo bought a tomato paste factory owned by the Vaccaro brothers in Riverdale, California, and business expanded from there.

Spaghetti district

The Lower Quarter was also home to several macaroni manufacturing factories. In 1902, Giacomo “Jacob” Cusimano built the largest macaroni factory in the United States at the corner of Barracks and Chartres. The factory was capable of churning out 10,000 pounds of pasta a day. Cusimano’s pasta plant manager, Leon Tujague, was a founding partner in the Southern Macaroni Company, which created Luxury Brand pasta in 1914.

Orleans – there were nearly 400 by the late 1930s. Beans, rice, flour and sugar were kept in large barrels and measured out for each customer. Almost all of the proprietors lived upstairs or in back of their stores.

The Solari family started with a small grocery on the corner of St. Louis and Royal Street in 1864, and new groceries sprung up to serve Sicilians working in the French Market and the enclave of immigrants in the lower French Quarter christened “Little Palermo.” Central Grocery and Progress Grocery both opened on Decatur Street. Biaggio Montalbano started a delicatessen and grocery on St. Philip Street around the corner. One of New Orleans’ longest-operating restaurants also began its life as a grocery store. Sebastian Mandina, a Sicilian immigrant from Palermo, opened Mandina’s in Mid City as a grocery store in 1898. The family lived upstairs. Mandina’s evolved into a pool hall and sandwich shop, then in 1932 it became a restaurant, which is still serving seafood and Creole Italian food today.

“Spaghetti houses” (red gravy restaurants), serving what today is called Creole Italian cuisine, rose to prominence on the restaurant scene in the French Quarter and beyond. But they were not confined to the French Quarter. Manale’s Restaurant, now known as Pascal’s Manale, opened in 1913 in a former corner grocery store at Napoleon Avenue and Dryades Street.

Italian grocers

The grocery business proved popular with many first-generation and second-generation Italian Americans. Italian-owned corner groceries, dry goods stores and fruit markets proliferated in New

Italian-owned stores and markets also opened in Shreveport and Monroe, Louisiana, in the Mississippi Delta around Natchez and Greenville, and across the Gulf Coast in Biloxi, Gulfport and Ocean Springs, Mississippi. But outside of New Orleans, nowhere were Italian groceries as popular as Birmingham, Alabama.

By the mid-1930s, over 300 Italian-owned groceries were operating in the Birmingham area, which had the largest Italian population in the state. Italian immigrants, many from Bisacquino, a small Sicilian village near Palermo, were drawn to Birmingham’s coal and steel industries, railroads and plantations. They settled around Birmingham in the suburbs of Bessemer, Thomas and particularly in Ensley, Alabama’s own “Little Italy.” Joseph Bruno, whose parents were Sicilian immigrants, opened Bruno’s in Birmingham in 1932 during the Great Depression. At the height of its success, his company had more than 300 stores.

Rouses Markets

J.P. Rouse expanded his City Produce Company from serving public markets to shipping produce to stores and supermarkets all over the country. In addition to buying from local farmers, he also planted his own acres for cultivation.

His son, Anthony Rouse Sr., and nephew, Ciro Di Marco, worked at the company’s packing shed in Thibodaux. When J.P. died in 1956, the two cousins took over. But the era of the truck farm was coming to an end. Trading on the tradition of quality established by the City Produce Company, they opened the family’s first grocery store, a modest, 7,000-squarefoot store in Houma, Louisiana in 1960.

They didn’t have big wholesale suppliers like there are today. But the two men found ways to sell groceries cheaper. They made their own Cajun specialties and dried all of their own spices. The butcher cut meat to order. Farmers delivered their produce directly to the store, while Rouse’s young sons were sent to the local dairy to get milk for the store.

As supermarkets became more and more popular, and grocery stores began adding more fresh goods, Anthony J. Rouse Sr. began yearning for a larger store where they could prepare food and have a full-service bakery and deli. Ciro Di Marco preferred to retire and sold his shares to his nephew, Donald. Rouses No. 1, a supermarket, opened in 1975. Family members helped the new partners – father and son Anthony J. Rouse Sr. and Donald Rouse – operate both stores.

There have been many milestones since, including more than 60 stores across the Gulf Coast. A third generation led by Donny Rouse is now managing the company. And a century after J.P. Rouse immigrated to America, his Italian heritage is still being honored on every aisle of every Rouses Market. You’ll find a taste of the family’s history in everything from the San Marzano tomatoes, “00” flour and balsamic creams, to the Pecorino Romano cheese from J.P. Rouse’s home of Sardinia.