This Award-Winning Louisiana Meat Market Is The Ultimate Stop For Filling Your Freezer
More than 2,500 pounds of boudin leave one Cajun meat market every single day.
Read that again and do the math on how many links that is. Now tell me that isn’t worth knowing.
That little operation started back in 1986 in a vacant parking lot.
The economy was rough, and the founders bet everything on specialty meats anyway. Their gamble grew into a brand that now ships frozen Cajun goodies across the country.
Here’s the fun part for your freezer. The shelves hold stuffed pork chops, marinated rabbit, tasso, hog head cheese, and seafood pies.
It all sits in a town Louisiana proudly calls the Boudin Capital of the World.
A Little Red Brick Building With A Very Big Reputation
The little red brick building has become a familiar landmark for anyone exploring the Cajun food traditions of Scott.
The Best Stop Supermarket started as a small country store in 1986. Over the decades, that modest building became the original home of a Cajun specialty meat business with products distributed far beyond Acadiana.
The red brick exterior remains part of its identity, although a colorful mural added in 2023 gave the storefront a fresh personality.
Inside, the selection goes far beyond an ordinary grocery run. There’s a counter devoted to boudin and cracklins, refrigerated cases filled with prepared meats, and shelves carrying seasonings and regional pantry staples.
Opening hours are especially useful for early travelers. The supermarket operates from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with Sunday closing at 6 p.m.
For anyone exploring South Louisiana food traditions, the red brick storefront offers plenty to discover before reaching the freezer section.
The original shop stands at 615 Highway 93 North, Scott, LA 70583, conveniently accessible from Interstate 10.
Two Founders And A Gutsy Bet In A Vacant Parking Lot
November 1, 1986, was not an obvious time to open a business in South Louisiana. The mid-1980s economy was difficult, especially for families connected to the region’s changing oil industry.
Robert Cormier and Lawrence Menard, known as Uncle Brud, went ahead anyway.
Their idea began with a conversation in an empty parking lot in Scott. They envisioned a small supermarket specializing in Cajun meats, with recipes rooted in the cooking traditions of their community.
The original store had a gravel parking lot and gas pumps out front. Boudin and sausage were prepared behind the butcher counter, while cracklins cooked in a large pot beneath a nearby carport.
Mrs. Jerry Prejean Hovatta also played an important role in developing and preparing the early recipes. The operation began with relatively simple offerings: boudin, cracklins, and smoked sausage.
Over time, demand brought larger production facilities, additional products, and a growing distribution network.
In 2020, the business opened a USDA-certified wholesale manufacturing facility to support that expansion.
The Best Stop celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2026, a considerable achievement for a business that began with two men discussing a possibility in a parking lot.
The Boudin Case Is Where Your Willpower Goes On Vacation
More than 2,500 pounds a day. That’s how much boudin The Best Stop now reports selling, and it’s a remarkable amount of sausage.
The original recipe combines pork, a little pork liver, onions, bell peppers, rice, green onions, and Cajun seasonings. The ingredients are cooked, mixed, and stuffed into natural casings to create the familiar links.
That preparation has been central to the store since its earliest days.
The lineup goes beyond one style. You can choose original, smoked, mild, chicken, or crawfish boudin, each offering a different combination of flavors.
Boudin balls bring another twist. The original version has a crispy coating surrounding the seasoned filling, while the pepper jack variety adds melted cheese.
There are even boudin egg rolls, which wrap the familiar Cajun mixture in a crunchy exterior.
Recognition has followed the specialty for decades. The business has received repeated honors in regional boudin competitions and food publications.
For your freezer, a selection of different links makes it easy to experiment with several meals. A little variety also means that deciding what to cook for dinner becomes considerably more interesting.
Crunchy, Salty, And Very Hard To Stop Eating
Cracklins are the boudin’s loud, crunchy sidekick. At this Scott market, they share top billing with the links that made the business famous.
Traditional pork cracklins are made from pieces containing pork skin, fat, and meat. The Best Stop fries them carefully, then finishes them with its house seasoning blend.
The result combines a crunchy outer layer with the richer texture of the pork beneath it.
The preparation follows an old Cajun food tradition, where different cuts of pork were cooked together during community gatherings.
Today, cracklins have become a specialty of meat markets across Louisiana, particularly in Acadiana. The Best Stop has even reported selling thousands of pounds of these seasoned bites each day.
Freshly prepared cracklins are available at the counter, while packaged versions allow customers to enjoy them later.
If you’re planning a long drive, consider getting a bag for the journey and keeping your refrigerated purchases in a separate cooler.
Stuffed, Marinated, And Ready To Make You Look Like A Pro Cook
Dinner gets a lot easier when the preparation is already done. That’s the magic of the specialty meat counter here.
Shelves and coolers carry stuffed pork chops, stuffed chickens, and marinated meats. Marinated rabbit is available too, for anyone interested in preparing something different.
Stuffed pork tenderloin, seasoned roasts, and deboned chickens offer convenient options for family meals.
Some chickens come filled with cornbread dressing or broccoli and cheese casserole.
Others feature crawfish étouffée or seafood dressing, bringing Cajun flavors into the main course before cooking even begins. Sausage fans have choices as well.
The store offers smoked sausage, andouille, and other seasoned varieties. Andouille is especially useful in gumbo or red beans, where its smoky flavor becomes part of the entire dish.
Then there’s hog head cheese, a traditional Cajun preparation made with seasoned pork, vegetables, and gelatin. It’s served chilled, often with crackers or bread.
This is where the shop’s enormous selection really earns its reputation. You can bring home several different meals without spending the afternoon mixing fillings and seasonings.
Just follow the cooking directions for each product, particularly when thawing and preparing frozen meats.
Grab A Seat Because Lunch No Longer Happens In Your Car
For years, hot food here often meant eating in your car. Plenty of steering wheels probably wore a little gravy back then.
That changed as The Best Stop Kitchen expanded.
In 2021, the business enlarged its kitchen and added equipment that made a broader cooked-to-order menu possible. A subsequent renovation introduced an enclosed dining room where customers could sit down for a complete meal.
The menu covers breakfast biscuits, hamburgers, and po’boys, alongside Cajun dishes such as gumbo and crawfish étouffée.
Morning options include biscuits with eggs, sausage gravy, and other familiar breakfast fillings.
The burger selection offers another surprise. One house combination brings beef and boudin together in the same patty.
Visitors stopping for lunch can choose from smoked sausage po’boys, chicken sandwiches, and other hot dishes.
Having tables inside changes the experience considerably. You can enjoy breakfast or lunch before browsing the refrigerated cases.
It’s a convenient arrangement for anyone making a Louisiana road trip and planning to fill a cooler before heading home.
Your Spice Cabinet Is About To Get A Cajun Upgrade
Meat is the star here, but seasoning plays a strong supporting role. The store makes its own Cajun Seasoning, Garlic Seasoning, and other signature blends.
Those mixtures are used throughout its prepared foods, helping connect the flavors of the boudin, sausages, and specialty meats.
You can bring the same seasonings home for your own cooking.
The grocery shelves also carry sauces, marinades, and regional pantry ingredients. Dark roux, cane syrup, pepper jelly, gumbo filé, and Cajun-style condiments are among the items offered.
That selection makes the shop useful for anyone planning gumbo, red beans, or other traditional dishes from scratch.
There’s more than savory food, too.
Pralines and other sweets appear among the packaged treats, adding something for the dessert side of a shopping trip.
The range gives this market a personality beyond the meat counter. You might arrive thinking about sausage and leave with a jar of seasoning, a bag of rice, and everything needed for another family meal.
Family Runs The Show, And Customers Get Pulled Right In
Plenty of businesses talk about family traditions. At The Best Stop Supermarket, the founding family’s next generation has helped transform a small store into a much larger Cajun food business.
The founder’s children gradually became involved in different parts of the operation, from daily supermarket management to financial planning, manufacturing, and nationwide distribution.
That expansion eventually brought a wholesale facility, additional markets, and a shipping operation serving customers across the United States.
The original Scott supermarket remains an important part of the business.
There’s something especially fitting about that continuity. Recipes developed for a neighborhood meat counter now reach kitchens far beyond Acadiana, while the original red brick building continues selling the products that started everything.
In 2012, the state legislature designated Scott as the Boudin Capital of the World, recognizing the importance of its numerous specialty meat markets.
That title is celebrated through the annual Scott Boudin Festival, which brings together Cajun cooking, music, and community traditions.
For anyone exploring Louisiana’s culinary heritage, this shop offers plenty to enjoy.
