Rouses Debuts Shrimp Season With Flair

ROSEANNE HARPER

THIBODAUX, La. — Rouses Markets celebrated the opening of Louisiana's spring shrimp season with a festive event this month at its Royal Street store in New Orleans' French Quarter.

The 35-unit chain made New Orleans' traditional Bonne Crevette, or “good shrimp,” first-catch celebration its own this year by attracting people to its store where Donald Rouse, one of the owners, helped serve up more than 200 pounds of boiled shrimp from pots outside on the sidewalk. Bloody Marys and Abita beer, a local brand, were given out free of charge as well.

It seems appropriate that Rouses is in the epicenter of the Bonne Crevette celebration because offering fresh Louisiana shrimp — in addition to other locally caught seafood — has been a hallmark of Rouses for years.

“We sell more Louisiana shrimp than all of the other groceries around here combined,” said Rouse.

Another Rouse official pointed out that the family-owned chain has for a long time held mini-celebrations at its other locations as the shrimp and crawfish seasons arrive each year, but celebrating shrimp season's arrival downtown is a first for the company.

Rouses' recent acquisition of several of A&P's Southern division stores brought the company into downtown New Orleans, a city characterized by a year-long repertoire of festivals, events and impromptu celebrations, especially in the French Quarter.

Traditionally for the Bonne Crevette celebration, a box of just-caught shrimp wrapped in gold paper is delivered with great pomp, via horse and buggy, to a location in the French Quarter. Last year, the box of first-catch shrimp went to the kitchen of the Royal Sonesta Hotel. This year, with a procession that included a locally revered New Orleans band and added hoopla, which was orchestrated by the Louisiana Seafood Marketing Board, the much-anticipated box of shrimp was delivered by buggy to the Rouses store where some of New Orleans' best-known chefs also came to celebrate the arrival.

Rouses also was a major player in the French Quarter Festival in April, the annual event that kicks off the local festival season. There, Rouses' “Bayou Boys” boiled over 25,000 pounds of Louisiana crawfish. It was the first time in the festival's 26-year history that anyone had served boiled crawfish.

“People went crazy for our crawfish,” Rouse said. “We had customers lined up 10 deep at each of our stands.”

Indeed, huge crowds, including people from neighboring states, who make a special trip to attend the French Quarter festival got a taste of what Rouses has to offer.

“It's part of our marketing strategy,” said Scott Miller, an assistant to Donald Rouse. “We want to emphasize the fact that we're the local supermarket. It makes sense for us to sponsor local festivals or get tied into them in some way. It's good for everybody involved.”

In addition to partnering with the Louisiana Seafood Marketing Board to sponsor local seafood festivals, Rouses has committed to sponsoring other events such as the Creole Tomato Festival in June.

In the meantime, the company will have sponsored the Royal Street Stroll, which is tied into the New Orleans Food & Wine Experience, another local annual event.