Revisiting restaurants covered years ago to see what’s changed, or what’s deliciously stayed the same.
It’s been more than 17 years since Chef Nathanial Zimet’s BBQ dreams made the jump from the celebrated “Purple Truck” (aka Que Crawl) into a side-hall cottage on Jeanette Street. In the years since, the restaurant moved around the corner to a space on S. Carrollton Avenue (currently Cafe Thomas), launched the fast-casual “Cajun smokehouse” Bourree with ‘que enthusiast Anthony Hietbrink right next door, and after only a few years jumped back to their iconic, pig-anointed cottage.
“It’s crazy. I sometimes look back and think ‘how did I do that?’” reflects Zimet.
The Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef first opened Boucherie with a mind to offer a “haute” barbecue dining experience at a reasonable price. By using more affordable cuts and seasonal, locally-sourced ingredients, diners were diving into bowls of watermelon and Creole tomato gazpacho with kaffir lime tuna ceviche, before enjoying an entree featuring their signature 12-hour roast beef po-boys served on Dong Phuong pistolettes with horseradish and pickled red onion.
In its early days the Jeanette Street restaurant was unassuming – a petite, silvery-gray cottage tucked behind the bustling streetcars and businesses on Carrollton Avenue. Neighbors and visitors alike quickly developed favorites, dishes that to this day remain on the menu from their grilled Romaine Caesar salad to the melt-in-your-mouth smoked Wagyu beef brisket with moreish garlic parmesan fries … and let’s not forget desserts such as the famous Krispy Kreme bread pudding. “A lot of my staples are still there,” says Zimet. “I think I’ve really been able to find the voice of Boucherie.”
When Boucherie moved into the old Cafe Granada space on S. Carrollton Avenue in 2015, the cottage on Jeanette was transformed into Bourrée, originally a fresh fruit daiquiri and chicken wing concept created by Zimet and his business partner James Denio. But in that same year, longtime neighborhood pizza parlor Cafe Nino closed up shop and the duo jumped on the opportunity, moving Bourrée into a larger space that allowed an expanded menu, butcher shop and outdoor dining.
On its 10th anniversary Boucherie returned to its home on Jeanette Street when owners quickly realized patrons missed the quaint, intimate dining vibe of their original location. The little cottage stamped with a lilac pig in its pediment had become an endearing brand, one diners were loath to relinquish.
The pandemic shutdowns in 2020 inspired Zimet to expand his school lunch program “Boucherie Feeds,” which now reaches over a dozen local schools from Westbank to the North Shore. “I started to have kids and I realized I wanted to be more present, but I was also thinking about how to give back to this community that has supported me so well.”
Late last year Boucherie took a vital, two-month break to avoid losing money during New Orleans’ infamous summer doldrums, but not before announcing the opening of The Gardens at Bourrée, a vibrant “outdoor sanctuary” featuring the best of both kitchens. “The Gardens is an artistic expression of the senses paired with exceptional fare and libations, a farm-to-fairytale dreamscape we built for our patrons and our community to enjoy,” says Anthony Hietbrink, manager of Bourrée.
Although the curated landscape began with brunches, the intent is for the space to evolve, offering the neighborhood an event venue hosting weddings and other private celebrations (booking up fast) to public events such as farmers’ markets and art bazaars. “I love catering and it offers me the opportunity to basically cater in my backyard, it’s dreamy,” says Zimet.
Chef Zimet and his partners also recently acquired a large riverside warehouse, a cornerstone to support their adorably-dubbed new initiative, Humble Bumble. In partnership with local farms (and Zimet’s own farm in Abita Springs), the program endeavors to grow produce for their school lunch program while simultaneously “creating a friendly space where neighbors can better themselves and improve their community through alternative methods of enrichment.”
Early in September 2025, Boucherie returned from their summer hiatus with a bang. “I opened with a chef’s tasting menu, a super-fine dining thing which has always been my passion, like my gold standard way to eat.” After renovations which included a shiny new paintjob transforming the charming cottage into a rich, boysenberry purple, Chef Zimet relaunched Boucherie as an uber fine-dining destination with a 9-course degustation menu.
For only $115 per person, remarkably reasonable given the ever-rising cost of food and current national economic policies, diners are transported with Ajoblanco, an Andalusian white gazpacho made with almonds, lump crab cakes featuring Cambodian pickled crab dolloped with caviar creme fraiche and Kabayaki-style Wagyu. There’s even an “intermezzo” course of dirty rice with foie gras and fried sweetbreads, and a palate-cleansing glacée is served before embarking upon crème brûlée donuts.
“To cook for people like that, you know the crescendo of multiple courses, not just having the elements on the plate marry and sing, but this whole idea of sitting there for hours and being able to be just taken away with food.”
Habitual fans of the purple shack need not fret if the fancy new tasting menu is not up their alley. Boucherie still offers a taste of the classics, so you can have your blackened shrimp and grit cakes and eat them, too.
*Article originally published in the April 2026 issue of Where Y’at Magazine
