Most of life is a lot of the same — the same meals, the same friends, the same weekends...but sometimes things can change faster than you ever believed possible. I met Justin LeBlanc in the back of his Mid-City restaurant hoping to sell him crawfish. Just a few months later, he was trying to sell me the restaurant.

When you grow up between rice fields and dirt roads, you don’t realize crawfish are special. They’re just the strange, little, water bugs that make mud mounds in your yard when it rains. Even when I was old enough to ride in the paddlewheel boat with my pops, I still didn’t understand.

But once I was tall enough to join the family business at the ripe old age of twelve, I learned quickly: there’s something special — and powerful — about crawfish.

For the next seventeen years, I worked every job in the crawfish world: running boats, docks, and trucks; wholesale; washing; boiling; catering. All the while wondering what it was like on the other side — in the restaurant.

Being the oldest of seven means learning to cook for others. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with feeding people — and with the puzzle of how to make something more delicious every time it hits the plate. So we took a chance and opened a restaurant in the middle of COVID, but like the man says, better to be brave than smart.

Now we’ve built a community united by a love of the best crawfish anywhere — and BBQ that might just make you forget about Texas.

Inspired by the old Cajun phrase “Laissez les bon temps rouler” (Let the good times roll), Bon Temps Boulet’s is about putting fresh spins on the classics we love. It’s about a crawfish recipe that took eighteen years to perfect, 20-hour briskets we shred by hand, and famous artwork we’ve painted hip boots onto just to make you smile.

Most of all, it’s about sharing the passion we have for food, community, and celebration.

Come sit for a bite and leave with a warm heart, a happy belly, and a smile that lasts long after the meal.

— Steven & Chelsea Boulet