Restaurants everywhere are contending with higher costs, more competition and a changing business climate. At one long-running New Orleans restaurant, the answer is to stop operating as a conventional restaurant.
Boucherie (8115 Jeannette St.) has been a fixture in the Carrollton neighborhood for nearly two decades, but it will now shift to events and catering.
Chef/owner Nathanial Zimet has a new business model that cuts out daily service, at least most of the time, to instead focus on hosting parties and private dinners in the cottage restaurant and around the lush outdoor spaces Boucherie has gradually developed around it.
The last day of regular service is scheduled for Oct. 17.
“It hasn’t been working, and it hasn’t been working for a long time,” Zimet said of the normal business model. “This has been a long time coming. It’s a depressing reality that we lose money every single month. So to continue, we need to cut out the unknowns, and the big unknown is who’s coming in today.”
An outdoor event space and garden is under development in the lot connecting the restaurants Boucherie and Bourree from chef Nathanial Zimet. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Boucherie will resume something like regular service during spans that have been busy, namely in December with its Reveillon prix fixe menu and August for Coolinary menus, as well as for certain holidays, like Valentine’s Day.
Essentially, Zimet will run Boucherie as a restaurant for the times when that has proven financially viable.
Going casual, keeping events
The chef’s second restaurant, Bourrèe (1510 S. Carrollton Ave.), located around the corner and connected by an L-shaped garden space, continues as usual. It’s a fast/casual, counter-service eatery for sandwiches and wings and smoked Cajun meats. This is a much “lighter lift” than the demand of the more upscale Boucherie, the chef said.
Bourree in New Orleans has a patio and beer garden for outdoor cooking and live music. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Zimet came up through New Orleans fine dining. He started a food truck in 2006, serving late-night food with a chef’s touch. It was perhaps the first manifestation of the modern food truck trend in New Orleans, and the truck is still part of his operation today.
In 2008, the food truck led to the restaurant Boucherie, staking out ground for midrange upscale/casual dining, with elevated versions of his food truck fare. Wagyu brisket, blackened shrimp on a grit cake, smoked scallops and Krispy Kreme doughnut bread pudding became signatures.
Zimet has tried other tactics to manage the business, including closing outright for the slowest months of summer and adding a five-course chef’s tasting menu.
Closing for regular dining room service means shifting Boucherie, not ending it, he said. In Cajun culture, a boucherie implies a party held around a shared feast. He foresees parties and art markets and other events around the Boucherie and Bourrèe spaces.
“We’re not disappearing; it’s the same chefs, the same space, the same staff, but with a safer approach for us,” Zimet said.
