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 Ager 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 bronchpad. You can come
Speaker 2: here and spend three seventy five and get just as
Speaker 2: good of an experience in my opinion.
Speaker 3: So I guess it's.
Speaker 2: Kind of a complicated answer about when I started working here.
Speaker 2: My mom's grandfather bought the business in nineteen forty two,
Speaker 2: so partly I've been involved since I was born. Both
Speaker 2: my parents work here and my brother and my husband
Speaker 2: now so been around it my whole life. So what
Speaker 2: we're sitting here in right now is formally called the
Speaker 2: French Market. Before it was the French Market, it was
Speaker 2: actually a meat market and a mile of it was
Speaker 2: all open market. Obviously, it's very warm, so that couldn't
Speaker 2: last for a while, and the meat market slowly turned
Speaker 2: into closer to what it is at the end of
Speaker 2: the French Market building, which is like little stands that
Speaker 2: 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: So Kappey Deman was originally started in eighteen sixty two,
Speaker 2: and we were one of the little coffee stamps. So
Speaker 2: capit deman is French for coffee of the world, and
Speaker 2: it was the coffee served in the eighteen hundreds and
Speaker 2: we've served it since then. The people that built this building,
Speaker 2: that's the Spanish and then the French came shortly after
Speaker 2: this Manash.
Speaker 3: Which was why we get those melds of.
Speaker 2: Culture here and the French, specifically the Akkadians brought the
Speaker 2: Benne over. You know, everybody always asked about our coffee
Speaker 2: and chickory blend. That blend is due to the world work.
Speaker 2: So coffee was really hard to ship over, especially the
Speaker 2: French blend type coffee. And so they started blending chickory,
Speaker 2: which comes from the root of an endox plant, and
Speaker 2: they started blending the chickory to add in because it
Speaker 2: has a similar coffee taste, but it's not coffee, so
Speaker 2: it was kind of a substitute to give it that
Speaker 2: coffee taste while kind of halfing the coffee. And now
Speaker 2: it's a lot of people's preference mine included. People love
Speaker 2: the coffee chickery taste. So we started with the coffee
Speaker 2: and they would have bread served with the coffee. Coffee,
Speaker 2: and New Orleans is an all day, everyday thing. We
Speaker 2: start and end our day with coffee, and so it
Speaker 2: just kind of turned into the breads and stuff turned
Speaker 2: into the vegnet when the French brought it over, and
Speaker 2: it's now I would say the vignet is the staple
Speaker 2: of New Orleans. So all of our venues 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 to do in New Orleans.
Speaker 3: And obviously it's a very simple food.
Speaker 2: It's fried dough with powdered sugar on top, and I
Speaker 2: think the environment brings a lot of what makes it great,
Speaker 2: but also that we handmake it every day and it's
Speaker 2: fresh and hot and comforting. This wasn't probably the best
Speaker 2: place for business if you'd asked somebody back in the
Speaker 2: eighteen hundreds before, when the river wasn't managed by engineers,
Speaker 2: and it's you know, our core of engineers here in
Speaker 2: New Orleans arise and fall of it was pretty steady.
Speaker 2: So back in the eighteen hundreds when they built this building.
Speaker 3: If you would have.
Speaker 2: Told them that this is like the epicenter of tourism,
Speaker 2: they would.
Speaker 3: Have probably discourage that strong point.
Speaker 2: But with Jackson Square in the cathedral obviously there, you know,
Speaker 2: we have multiple things that are fun to see when
Speaker 2: you come to New Orleans. I think this is probably
Speaker 2: what we're best known for us is right right in
Speaker 2: the heart of the French Quarter, right here where we are.
Speaker 2: I feel like we just we give an atmosphere that's
Speaker 2: nice to come to. We take care of our customers.
Speaker 2: We truly, we truly like to see you know, people's
Speaker 2: first experience with beignettes and coffee. Love to see people,
Speaker 2: you know, get their first beignet. It's exciting for us.
Speaker 2: So I think the magic isn't lost on us, and
Speaker 2: so we're excited, and I think it gives an exciting
Speaker 2: place to come to.
Speaker 3: You know. Obviously, we've put a lot of hard work.
Speaker 2: A lot of our family truly cares about the business
Speaker 2: and all of our employees, so it's it's been a
Speaker 2: lot of hard work. But also I think we're very
Speaker 2: lucky and fortunate that you know, people enjoy coming here
Speaker 2: and we're able to recover from them. You know, many
Speaker 2: things that do happen in our city that make it hard.
Speaker 2: We're we're look to a lot. When everybody closes after
Speaker 2: a hurricane. You know, when when are we opening back up?
Speaker 2: When is the city going to get started? And we
Speaker 2: don't take that responsibility lightly.
Speaker 3: It means a lot to us.
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. We have that culture here that kind of
Speaker 2: welcomes everybody, and that has everything to do with the
Speaker 2: city itself. We definitely can ad take the credit for that,
Speaker 2: but we're happy to be a part of it. Because
Speaker 2: we're only closed on Christmas Day, we become a lot
Speaker 2: of people's holiday traditions. You know, people come every year
Speaker 2: from our to girl and they bring that next group
Speaker 2: of people that's ready to come to the city. Thanksgiving
Speaker 2: is a huge day for us. 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 was 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 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 next has been here forever, you know,
Speaker 2: so she was like, it.
Speaker 3: Was like, I'm back home.
Speaker 2: I'm sitting having my coffee in my mug.
Speaker 3: I played at Venetes.
Speaker 2: Who's like, I feel at home, which is you know,
Speaker 2: like that's such a gift to give somebody that's feeling
Speaker 2: I'm being home again. That was definitely a full experience.
Speaker 2: Of course, I love to see the toddlers kicking their
Speaker 2: feet in the green chairs awaiting the bag of Beignet's,
Speaker 2: you know, because it always results just eyebrows, hair clothes toes,
Speaker 2: 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 touch.
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.
Speaker 3: At least I hope it does. Like I said, I
Speaker 3: used to go to work with my dad and my
Speaker 3: mom when I was a kid, and Mom I helped,
Speaker 3: you know, the little duties. I know what he wants
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 3: It's it's special, you know, it's special to work with
Speaker 3: family can sit from called, 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
Speaker 2: you and along with people who've known my entire life
Speaker 2: because I was here as a toddler.
Speaker 3: We joked one of the ladies.
Speaker 2: It's Kim has been here, I think over fifty years,
Speaker 2: you know. So she saw me grow up, and now
Speaker 2: she sees my son come in here, and she's grabbing
Speaker 2: his cheeks, you know, and so excited. And she picked
Speaker 2: him up and she was like, you're gonna be my
Speaker 2: boss one day, you know, like.
Speaker 3: Which is just so funny.
Speaker 2: He's three years old, So so's funny, you know, to
Speaker 2: have that kind of environment.
Speaker 3: Work in that kind of environment.
Speaker 2: But of course, yeah, we would love, we would love
Speaker 2: for our family to be able to continue those wonderful professions.
Speaker 3: Wherever it's been a fun way to grow up.
Speaker 1: It must indeed have been a great way to grow up.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to Emily Yeger. Her family's been running
Speaker 1: an institution in New Orleans, a cultural institution, a culinary institution,
Speaker 1: Cafe Dumont, the original, and it's right across the street
Speaker 1: from Jackson Square and Write in the heart, right in
Speaker 1: the heart of the French Quarter, in one of America's
Speaker 1: great cities. And again, a special thanks to Emily Yeger
Speaker 1: for sharing her family story, the family business, and a
Speaker 1: terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling by our
Speaker 1: own Madison Dericott the story of Cafe Dumont, Emily Yaeger
Speaker 1: and her family story here on our American Stories