Vaucresson’s Sausage Company has been a seventh-ward tradition since 1899. Vance and Julie Vaucresson have opened a brick-and-mortar, Vaucresson’s Creole Café and Deli, 1800 St. Bernard Ave., where they keep a cultural tradition alive. The café is currently enjoying its soft opening and its grand opening is scheduled for November 25th.
Vance Vaucresson is a 3rd generation sausage maker who has been making sausage since he was eight years old. Vaucresson’s Creole Café and Deli is a combination of two historical businesses. The café is a nod to Vance Vaucresson’s father, Robert “Sonny” Vaucresson, who opened Vaucresson’s Café Creole, the first business owned by a Black man on Bourbon St. post-reconstruction in the 1960s. The deli is an homage to Vaucresson meat markets which have been a staple in the neighborhoods of the seventh ward for 122 years.
Julie Frederick Vaucresson had no previous experience with sausage-making until she married into it. She formerly worked in specialty and senior housing and is now in the process of writing a cookbook and developing her own condiment line which will be sold at the café and deli after its grand opening.
Before Katrina, Vaucresson’s was a sausage-processing facility at the exact location on the corner of N. Roman and St. Bernard where Vaucresson’s Creole Café and Deli is located today. Robert Vaucresson wanted to open up a sausage plant rather than a meat market. Vance worked with his father at the plant and, when Robert died in 1998, Vance took over the business.
When Hurricane Katrina flooded the seventh ward, that was the end of Vaucresson’s sausage plant. However, Vaucresson’s continued to supply local businesses with sausage and operate a booth at Jazz Fest, the only vendor to do so steadily since the fest’s inception in 1970. They were also one of the original food vendors at the French Quarter Festival.
The Vaucressons are Creole, and their business is not only about serving delicious food but preserving Creole culture through food and education.
“Creole by its simplest definition is native-indigenous,” Vance Vaucresson explained. “If you are born of the colony, you are considered to be of the Creole culture. There are many influences in my family. We are of French, Polish, Native American, Spanish, East Indian, and Irish. We have these different ethnicities in our family and they have helped to contribute to our culture.”
Vaucresson’s Creole sausages are made from family recipes handed down for over 122 years. The offerings have also evolved, throughout the years, based on customer suggestions, and selections such as alligator, shrimp, and seafood sausage, and hog’s head cheese, boudin, and boudin balls have been added to the menu.
“A lot of what we do is to maintain what has been traditionally our food ways, but now, moving forward, we want to educate those about our cultural food identity and the history and socialization of our community,” Vance Vaucresson said.
Classic sausage selections at Vaucresson’s include Creole Hot Sausage, Creole Crawfish Sausage, Jerk Chicken Sausage, and Creole Italian Sausage. In addition, customers can enjoy sausage sandwiches and sausage platters at the new location.
The most popular sausage at Vaucresson’s is the Creole Hot Sausage or Creole Chaurice. Vance explained that “chaurice” isn’t a term often used to describe the Creole pork sausage, but that’s something he hopes to change.
“We’re going to be using that term more and centering it,” Vance said. “It’s similar to chorizo in the Spanish culture, even though there are different ingredients in it.”
In addition to sausage, the Vaucressons plan to offer foods in their deli such as hogs head cheese, pickled pork, and other traditional New Orleans foods that one would expect to find in a meat market.
However, Vance wants to make one thing clear.
“We aren’t a butcher shop,” he explained. “Even though my grandfather was a butcher by trade, I’m more of a sausage maker. We’re going to add items that are in our wheelhouse.”
Vaucresson’s Sausage Company returning to this area was a long-time coming. Vance, who was recently featured on Netflix’s Street Food: USA and is a Creole Historian, explained that the return is important for the neighborhood and Creole culture.
He said, “After Katrina there were a lot of businesses that didn’t come back. There was a lot of change in this area. One of the most important things about coming back was to come back to this neighborhood and put roots back where we, as a family, have existed for over 100 years. I also felt the need to educate. A lot of what we stand for culturally is misunderstood; part of my social mission is to engage in conversation with people who come in and teach them about what our culture is about and what being Creole means.”
For Julie, one of the most important aspects of the café and deli business has been her children’s involvement.
She said, “Our children have a renewed interest. They are working here and they see the vision. They understand it and they want to be a part of it. This fourth generation sees what the business is about and wants to see it continue.”
Vaucresson said Creole education is important, and he wants to spread a bit of history when he serves his food to customers.
“We want people to understand exactly what Creole is and we want people to be familiar with and participate in their culture,” he said. “We want to welcome them home.”
Vaucresson’s Creole Café and Deli is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
