Speaker 1: And we returned to our American stories. In the heart
Speaker 1: of New Orleans, Louisiana. By the way, I got married
Speaker 1: in that beautiful city is a long standing tradition in
Speaker 1: the form of a coffee shop. If you're familiar with
Speaker 1: the New Orleans you know, of course we're talking about
Speaker 1: Cafe Dumont. The original Cafe Dumont was established as a
Speaker 1: coffee stand in eighteen sixty two and has since remained
Speaker 1: open twenty four hours a day, seven days a week,
Speaker 1: with the exception of Christmas Day or the occasional hurricane.
Speaker 1: Here is Emily Aeger with the story of this famous
Speaker 1: coffee shop, and this one we're doing on location, so
Speaker 1: you will have to be dealing with the sounds and
Speaker 1: the feel of being in Cafe Dumont.
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of people will pay some good
Speaker 2: money to go to a jazz bronch bed. You can
Speaker 2: come here in spendary seventy five and get just as
Speaker 2: good of an experience in my opinion. So I guess
Speaker 2: it's kind of a complicated answer about when I started
Speaker 2: working here. My mom's grandfather bought the business in nineteen
Speaker 2: forty two, so partly I've been involved since I was born.
Speaker 3: Both my parents work here and my brother and.
Speaker 2: My husband now so been around it my whole life.
Speaker 2: So what we're sitting here in right now is formally
Speaker 2: called the French Market. Before it was the French Market,
Speaker 2: it was actually a meat market and a mile of
Speaker 2: it was all open market. Obviously, it's very warm, so
Speaker 2: that couldn't last for a while, and the meat market
Speaker 2: slowly turned into closer to what it is at the
Speaker 2: end of the French Market building, which is like little
Speaker 2: stands that people would buy and vegetable, you know, produce meat, arts, crafts.
Speaker 2: We have a lot of different cultures kind of welded
Speaker 2: together here in New Orleans, so it's a lot of
Speaker 2: different arts and crafts that people sell in the market.
Speaker 2: And then they started to, you know, turn into more
Speaker 2: of like the formal retail stores in like the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 2: And so Kappey Deman was originally started in eighteen sixty
Speaker 2: two and we were one of the little coffee stamps.
Speaker 2: So Capit Deman is French for coffee of the world,
Speaker 2: and it was the coffee served in the eighteen hundreds
Speaker 2: and we've served it since then. The people that built
Speaker 2: this building, that's the Spanish, and then the French came
Speaker 2: shortly after this Manas, which was why we get those
Speaker 2: melts of culture here, and the French, specifically the Acadians
Speaker 2: brought the venne over. You know, everybody always asked about
Speaker 2: our coffee and chickory blend. That blend is due to
Speaker 2: the World War, so coffee was really hard to ship over,
Speaker 2: especially the French blend type coffee. And so they started
Speaker 2: blending chickory, which comes from the root of an end
Speaker 2: dog plant, and they started blending the chickery to add
Speaker 2: in because it has a similar coffee taste, but it's
Speaker 2: not coffee, so it was kind of a substitute to
Speaker 2: give it that coffee taste while kind of halfing the coffee.
Speaker 2: And now it's a lot of people's preference mine included.
Speaker 2: People love the coffee chickery taste. So we started with
Speaker 2: the coffee and they would have bread served with the coffee.
Speaker 2: Coffee and New Orleans is an all day, everyday thing.
Speaker 2: We start and end our day with coffee, and so
Speaker 2: it just kind of turned into the breads and stuff
Speaker 2: turned into the vegnet when the French brought it over,
Speaker 2: and it's now I would say the vegnet is the
Speaker 2: staple of New Orleans. So all of our venees are handmade,
Speaker 2: and as soon as they're made, they get fried, so
Speaker 2: we never we never refrigerate or freeze.
Speaker 3: Everything is made on the spot.
Speaker 2: And of course it's the only food item that we sell,
Speaker 2: so we're just constantly making it. That's all we do
Speaker 2: all day long, is make begnets. So the begnet started,
Speaker 2: I couldn't even give you an exact age. I want
Speaker 2: to say it was the early nineteen hundreds and it
Speaker 2: said that of coffee and begnets has just become the
Speaker 2: smart thing.
Speaker 3: To do in New Orleans. And obviously it's a very
Speaker 3: simple food. It's fried dough.
Speaker 2: With powdered sugar on top, and I think the environment
Speaker 2: brings a lot of what makes it great, but also
Speaker 2: that we handmake it every day and it's fresh and
Speaker 2: hot and comforting.
Speaker 3: This wasn't probably the best place for.
Speaker 2: Business if you'd asked somebody back in the eighteen hundreds before,
Speaker 2: when the river wasn't managed by engineers, and it's you know,
Speaker 2: our core of engineers here in New Orleans arrived and followed.
Speaker 2: It was pretty steady. So back in the eighteen hundreds
Speaker 2: when they built this building. If you would have told
Speaker 2: them that this is like the epicenter of tourism, they
Speaker 2: would have probably discourage that strong point. But with Jackson
Speaker 2: Square in the cathedral obviously there, you know, we have
Speaker 2: multiple things that are fun to see when you come
Speaker 2: to New Orleans. I think this is probably what we're
Speaker 2: best known for us is right right in the heart
Speaker 2: of the French Quarter, right here where we are. I
Speaker 2: feel like we just we give an atmosphere that's nice
Speaker 2: to come to. We take care of our customers. We truly,
Speaker 2: we truly like to see you know, people's first experience
Speaker 2: with beignets and coffee. Love to see people, you know,
Speaker 2: get their first beignet. It's exciting for us. So I
Speaker 2: think the magic isn't lost on us, and so we're excited,
Speaker 2: and I think it gives an exciting place to come to.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Obviously, we've put a lot of hard work. A lot
Speaker 2: of our family truly cares about the business and all
Speaker 2: of our employees, so it's it's been a lot of
Speaker 2: hard work. But also I think we're very lucky and
Speaker 2: fortunate that you know, people enjoy coming here and we're
Speaker 2: able to recover from them. You know, many things that
Speaker 2: do happen in our city that make it hard. We're
Speaker 2: we're look to a lot. When everybody closes after a hurricane,
Speaker 2: you know, when when are we opening back up? When
Speaker 2: is the city going to get started? And we don't
Speaker 2: take that responsibility lightly.
Speaker 3: It means a lot of time.
Speaker 2: So I would love to say that, you know, we
Speaker 2: did that solo, but that's definitely not true. You know,
Speaker 2: it's those guys right there on the street playing music
Speaker 2: and all these people in here bringing you know, they're different,
Speaker 2: different parts of themselves. Hyping New Orleans just makes people
Speaker 2: feel welcome.
Speaker 3: We have that culture here.
Speaker 2: That kind of welcomes everybody, and that has everything to
Speaker 2: do with the city itself. We definitely cannot take the
Speaker 2: credit for that, but we're happy to be a part
Speaker 2: of it. Because we're only closed on Christmas Day, we
Speaker 2: become a lot of people's holiday traditions. You know, people
Speaker 2: come every year from our to grow and they bring
Speaker 2: that next group of people that's ready to come.
Speaker 3: To the city. Thanksgiving is a huge day for us.
Speaker 3: People are in town.
Speaker 2: They want to bring their family from all over the
Speaker 2: world and have them come experience Beignet's. And that's so
Speaker 2: cool to us, you know, we love seeing that. I
Speaker 2: think just being here for so long has given us.
Speaker 3: The opportunity to see that.
Speaker 2: There was a woman who lives here who got displaced
Speaker 2: after Katrina and came back recently, and I was talking
Speaker 2: to her while she was winning at line, and she
Speaker 2: was saying.
Speaker 3: That, like, it didn't really feel like she.
Speaker 2: Was back home because so much of her neighborhood has changed,
Speaker 2: so much of her friends and family have moved in
Speaker 2: other places, but she has been here forever, you know,
Speaker 2: so she was like, it was like, I'm back home.
Speaker 2: I'm sitting, I'm having my coffee.
Speaker 3: In my mug. I played at Bennette.
Speaker 2: She's like, I feel I'm home, which is you know,
Speaker 2: like that's such a gift to give somebody.
Speaker 3: I'm feeling I'm being home again.
Speaker 2: That was definitely a cool experience. Of course, I love
Speaker 2: to see the toddlers kicking their feet in the green
Speaker 2: chairs awaiting the bag of Beignet's, you know, because it
Speaker 2: always results in just eyebrows, hair clothes, toes.
Speaker 3: Fingers covered and powdered sugar and it's adorable, you know.
Speaker 3: So I love that. But hearing those other stories. You know,
Speaker 3: it's tocual.
Speaker 2: So one fun fact about us is, not only does
Speaker 2: our family have a lot of history and a lot
Speaker 2: of a lot of I guess, hands in the pot,
Speaker 2: you'd say here, but we also have a lot of
Speaker 2: families that work alongside our family. We have families that
Speaker 2: have two and three generations that work together both here
Speaker 2: and at some of our branch locations. And they've been
Speaker 2: with our family, you know, some of them over forty years.
Speaker 2: So I think having that family atmosphere makes a huge difference,
Speaker 2: you know, I think it makes her a great place
Speaker 2: to work, at least I hope it does.
Speaker 3: Like I said, I used to go to work with
Speaker 3: my dad and my mom when I was a kid.
Speaker 2: And Mom i'd help, you know, the little duties.
Speaker 3: I know what he wants to do.
Speaker 2: I mean, now my dad and I sit, our deaths
Speaker 2: are right and cross with each other. My first cousin
Speaker 2: sits ten feet from me, and I have you know,
Speaker 2: six others that work alongside me. It's it's special, you know,
Speaker 2: it's special to work with family you can sit from called.
Speaker 3: Of course, but.
Speaker 2: I think it's definitely a privilege to work so close
Speaker 2: with her. You know, all all the people that love you,
Speaker 2: and along with people who've known my entire life because
Speaker 2: I was here as a toddler. We joked one of
Speaker 2: the ladies that's Kim has been here, I think over
Speaker 2: fifty years, you know, So she saw me grow up,
Speaker 2: and now she sees my son come in here, and
Speaker 2: she's grabbing his cheeks, you know, and so excited. And
Speaker 2: she picked him up and she was like, you're gonna
Speaker 2: be my boss one day, you know, like, which is
Speaker 2: just so funny. He's three years old, so so's funny,
Speaker 2: you know, to have that kind of environment, work in
Speaker 2: that kind of environment. But of course, yeah, we would love,
Speaker 2: we would love for our family to to be able
Speaker 2: to continue those wonderful professions.
Speaker 3: Wherever it's been a fun way to grow.
Speaker 1: Up, it must indeed have been a great way to
Speaker 1: grow up. You've been listening to Emily Yeger. Her family's
Speaker 1: been running an institution in New Orleans, a cultural institution,
Speaker 1: a culinary institution, Cafe Dumont, the original, and it's right
Speaker 1: across the street from Jackson Square and right in the heart,
Speaker 1: right in the heart of the French Quarter, in one
Speaker 1: of America's great cities. And again a special thanks to
Speaker 1: Emily Yeger for sharing her family story, the family business,
Speaker 1: and a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
Speaker 1: by our own Madison Dericott. The story of Cafe Dumont,
Speaker 1: Emily Yaeger and her family story here on our American
Speaker 1: Stories