Holly Bergeron Toups, a Cajun Navy wife from Metairie, Louisiana, thought up an idea while her husband, Nicholas Toups AKA Scootie, was stationed in San Diego. She went to Golden Corral in Gulfport, Mississippi one time & thought that the food was SO bland & nasty! She always had an entrepreneurial spirit. She teamed up with her former high school best friend & current coworker, a Creole, named Dijonet, to form their own buffet restaurant. Dijonet is already popular & very creative on TikTok, YouTube & Instagram with her creative spin on New Orleans dishes, & she LOVES to eat, yet stays so voluptuous & slender. Holly, on the other hand, can gain weight by just looking at a grain of rice. They secretly thought up this idea behind Scootie's back. They wanted to surprise him.
They decided to have the buffet restaurant located right on Canal & Broad, on the Streetcar line, where the Family Dollar used to be. That way, it can be easy access & lucrative business for the tourists. Even the natives & locals were eagerly anticipating the ribbon cutting ceremony & grand opening event!
A week passed since the 1st day of the restaurant opening. You would've thought the Essence Festival was going on, or you would've thought Denzel Washington was in town or something. So many people came by, that traffic looked like an Endymion parade during the Mardi Gras season. The restaurant was always packed with long lines. They even feed the homeless humans & stray animals.
There were 2 local Black men, who were customers. Their names were Noah & Eric. Once they sat down to eat, they were gossiping while sucking the heads of some BIG crawfish, saying that the buffet items taste so good that the restaurant would put EVERY New Orleans metro area food place out of business. This restaurant was getting ALL the business. Owners from other restaurants were becoming jealous & trying to plot on ways to sabotage the new restaurant. They were unsuccessful because the food of this new restaurant is untouchable. Undefeated.
Wow! Breakfast, brunch, lunch, snack, dessert, dinner, late night bite, whatever. 24/7 & NEVER closing! Happy Hour is 1/2 off of the breakfast bar on Saturdays & Sundays from 11 AM - 2 PM.
There is:
-a salad bar, fruit, jello & pudding section. Not your traditional, boring salad bar. Fresh dandelion & arugula. Stuff like that. Forget just spring mix, iceberg lettuce, spinach or romaine! A WIDE variety! Fresh stuff. Nothing canned.
-a soup & stew bar, which also includes gumbo
-a section with Cafe du Monde beignets, calas, buttermilk drops, donuts, French bread, king cake or whatever else New Orleans style pastries.
-a section with your red beans & rice, jambalaya, crawfish, shrimp, &/or chicken etouffee', stuffed bell peppers &/or mirlitons, pasta jambalaya, white beans & andouille sausage, BBQ shrimp & grits, Cajun Mac & cheese, etc.
-a yaka mein & Vietnamese pho soup bar, being it's OWN unique section away from the other soup & stew bar because Dijonet & Holly wanted it to stand out & be set apart.
-a seafood boil bar (like when you go to a seafood store to buy crawfish, crabs, turkey necks, boiled red potatoes, boiled corn, boudin, pigs feet, etc.)
-a DIY Po' Boy bar (Aww, man! Like the fixings for choices between a fried crawfish po' boy, turducken, oyster, shrimp, roast beef, alligator, fish, ham, rabbit meat, turtle meat, frog leg meat, possum meat, nutria meat, Patton's hot sausage, etc. + muffalettas. Did I spell that right? Lol! & even a customized gourmet New Orleans style pizza.)
-a dessert section with pecan pralines, pound cakes, bananas foster, sweet potato pies, apple pies, cherry pies, pecan pies, petit fours, buttercream cakes, Chantilly cakes, doberge cakes, bread pudding, Creole cheesecake, peach cobbler, ice cream, candy apples & caramel apples
-a non-alcoholic, as well as alcoholic huckabuck, snowball & daiquiri section
-an International section with Vietnamese, Japanese, Jamaican, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, & even a little Cuban
-a baked potato & BBQ section with both beef & pork ribs, pulled pork, pulled chicken, beef brisket sloppy joes, hot dogs, hamburgers, coleslaw, potato salad, baked beans, etc. Food that resembles a 4th of July family get-together or Dickey's BBQ Pit
-a soul food section with your typical Black folks Sunday dinner. You know. Oxtails & rice, fried chicken, macaroni & cheese, pork chops, smoked turkey legs, collard greens, cornbread, yams, etc.
-a breakfast section with grits, eggs, sausage, bacon, oatmeal, pancakes, cereal & milk, waffles, French toast, omelettes, etc.
One Thursday morning, Scootie picked up his phone to check his messages. He was missing his baby. His favorite & only wife. Missing his family & feeling homesick. Lo & behold! He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw a nola.com article & videos on his YouTube feed from WWL-TV & WDSU about the successful restaurant. It went over his head. It didn't dawn on him until he was in the middle of making some coffee. He nearly choked on his coffee when he realized that it was his OWN wife! The children didn't even tell him. None of his friends told him. His wife put NO information on Facebook that he could see. He was set to retire soon from the Navy with 24 years of service. He wondered if this was a surprise retirement gift. He cried tears of JOY!
There was a surprise retirement party for him at the restaurant. He felt like he was drunk in a dream. He REALLY thought that he died & went to heaven, but no. That was his real life experience! He didn't know that his wife could THROW DOWN like that!
His wife, Holly, wanted to keep the business local. She only wanted that ONE location to be opened, but she put the restaurant up on DoorDash, UberEats & GoldBelly nationwide. Her husband created his own similar food delivery app, called "Scootie Roux". Almost put all the other delivery apps out of business. Scootie bet that he could get his drivers to get to your door faster than DoorDash, UberEats, or the others, or you get delivery & service fees waived. If the driver gets your food quicker than the others, then he gets a bonus, & you get a lagniappe item. Everyone loved that idea.
THE END
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Usually, I would put this information at the top, but I guess I need to start putting it at the bottom. Some people may be interested in just getting to the point with the short story. Others may be interested in reading everything & clicking EVERYTHING. I know the stalkers are. They falsely "claim" that no one is interested in reading, but they search EVERYTHING!
This is my 1st fiction short story written in the year 2024. If I was away from New Orleans, then writing this short story would only make me feel even MORE homesick! With the perps wanting me to feel SO unwelcome here, I'm sitting here, feeling homesick WHILE @ home here in New Orleans!
My 1st blog post for this year.
1st Blog Post Of 2024 - No Room For Me
on January 14, 2024
https://gangstalkedcreoleauthor.blogspot.com/2024/01/1st-blog-post-of-2024-no-room-for-me.html
It took almost 2 years, but I FINALLY fulfilled my promise to write the short story, based on this blog post. I didn't realize that I wrote it that long ago.
A New Orleans Style Buffet Restaurant Idea
on April 15, 2022
https://gangstalkedcreoleauthor.blogspot.com/2022/04/a-new-orleans-style-buffet-restaurant.html
Here's another New Orleans fiction short story based on a restaurant.
CreMexiJun Fusion Restaurant
on January 24, 2022
https://gangstalkedcreoleauthor.blogspot.com/2022/01/cremexijun-fusion-restaurant.html
So now, I need to add to this list.
Compilation Of My Short Stories Located In My Hometown New Orleans
on May 05, 2022
https://gangstalkedcreoleauthor.blogspot.com/2022/05/compilation-of-my-short-stories-located.html
The Conference
on December 30, 2021
https://gangstalkedcreoleauthor.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-conference.html
No Timberwood In The Hood
on March 18, 2023
https://gangstalkedcreoleauthor.blogspot.com/2023/03/no-timberwood-in-hood.html
The short story, with the link above, was based on this blog post.
A New Orleans Food Truck Idea
on April 15, 2022
https://gangstalkedcreoleauthor.blogspot.com/2022/04/a-new-orleans-food-truck-idea.html
My Sentiments About New Orleans
on April 08, 2022
https://gangstalkedcreoleauthor.blogspot.com/2022/04/my-sentiments-about-new-orleans.html
Why I'm PERMANENTLY Quitting Employment
on June 18, 2022
https://gangstalkedcreoleauthor.blogspot.com/2022/06/why-im-permanently-quitting-employment.html
Why I Could Never Be A Food Reviewer
on June 14, 2022
https://gangstalkedcreoleauthor.blogspot.com/2022/06/why-i-could-never-be-food-reviewer.html