By David Taylor / Managing Editor
Devillier’s Boudin and Cajun Meat Market No. 2 has received the final permit for occupation and is set to open its doors at 715 South Main Street in Highlands, just a couple of miles off Interstate 10.
“Our grand opening will be on June 30 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., then our regular hours after that will be daily hours from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” said Ivy Devillier.
The journey to opening this new location has been a long and challenging one for owners Ivy and Kent Devillier. At one point, they thought they might have to walk away from the building contract and let go of their dream of opening a second location.
Kent was born and raised in Krotz Springs, Louisiana, who loves to hunt and cook. Following graduation, Kent spent the early part of his career working in the tank industry, often driving long distances to work. Ivy was an immigrant from Vietnam who loved to travel and cook.
“My work to require me to be on the road all the time. I would drive all over the country to build storage tanks for different refineries and chemical plants as a contractor. Sometimes I had to drive all the way to Texas, Florida, or Mississippi,” Kent said.
“We moved to Texas because most of my work was in Texas.”
While Ivy worked for one of the world’s top chemical manufacturers and Kent worked for the largest tank construction company in the United States, their friends, family, and co-workers encouraged them to take the leap and start their own business.
The Devilliers relocated to the Liberty County area and continued making sausage from home.
After moving to Texas, Kent and Ivy missed the real Cajun food with all the spices so they began making their own Boudin, a traditional Cajun sausage, and bringing it to work.
“Both my wife and I were taking the boudin along with our other homemade Cajun dishes to work to share with our co-workers, and they liked the food so much that they would want to buy some,” Kent said. However, the original recipe was too spicy for many people, so they adjusted the seasoning four times until they found the perfect balance.
“That’s why our Devillier’s seasoning is named #4, because we adjusted our seasoning four times. It was too spicy for the folks here,” Kent said.
“We would spend the whole weekend making the boudin, packaging it, and putting it in the freezer,” Ivy said. They used the extra product to help at different events as their side business continued to grow.
“While it was stressful at first because neither one of us have any experience of running a business, it is much better now with systems in place,” Ivy said. “We still learn new things daily.”
Finding a location for their business in Baytown was a struggle.
“Everything was a struggle,” Ivy said. “The bank wouldn’t give us a loan, everything was coming out of our own pocket, we just couldn’t get any help.”
“We were trying to get open and we thought we were going to lose our contract with the landlord because it was taking forever,” Ivy said. Kent decided to quit his job and use his 401K to help fund the business.
Ivy took on the task of drawing out the floor plan for the first and later the second location and worked with the builders until Kent quit his job.
On July 1, they celebrated the fifth anniversary of their first store.
“We began building it out in November of 2019 using our own money to start the construction and when the pandemic hit, we thought we were going to lose everything because restaurants were being forced to close their doors,” Ivy said. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, they managed to keep the business afloat.
“If you look at our original paperwork, we were going to open a restaurant, but we converted to retail to stay in business,” Ivy said.
They opened on July 1, 2020, while COVID-19 was still raging, working from daylight to dark. They closed just two days later on July 3 to restock the shelves because of the amount of support from the community.
“It was a great problem!” Ivy exclaimed. “We are so grateful that our community came and show their support to our small business and bought out all of our food in two days.”
With Kent working full-time at the store, they can stay ahead of the demand. Everything they sell is fresh and made daily, including their pork cracklins, chicken cracklins, beef jerkys, sausage, which comes in various flavors like cheese, green onions, beef and pork, Andouille hogshead cheese, boudin balls, meat pies, crawfish pies, cracklings, etouffee shrimp, gumbo, chicken and sausage gumbo, beef tips, and seafood gumbo. Also on the menu are side dishes like cabbage, homemade mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, and more, all available fresh or frozen.
Their love for Louisiana culture is evident in their logo and throughout the retail area.
There is also a small area for restaurant seating, serving lunch plate daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“We cook all our food with seasoning without having to add to it,” Ivy said.
In their five years of business, Ivy, now working full-time with the business, said they’ve had some bumps in the road.
“If there was a bump, we hit it, maybe a couple of times, backed over it and hit it again,” she laughed. She works at the front of the house while Kent handles the back.
After four years of trying to get permits, they are finally able to show off their new location to the eastside community. To reach the Devilliers, on Facebook at http:// facebook.com/DevilliersBoudin or call the store at 832-838-8264.
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