Revisiting restaurants covered years ago to see what’s changed, or what’s deliciously stayed the same.
Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski effectively made elevated Cajun magic when they launched Cochon Restaurant in 2006 – and Butcher, which opened three years later, was a citified answer to a back-country boucherie.
While the sit-down restaurant on Tchoupitoulas Street offered bowls of pork and black-eyed pea gumbo and pork cheeks with crispy feta and sauerkraut cakes, the tiny Butcher around the corner on Andrew Higgins Boulevard was selling the core of those pork-tastic dishes. It was like a meat market from Southwestern part of the state was plunked down on the edge of the Warehouse District.
Unlike the markets in Lafayette or Scott, Butcher upped their game. Not only could an everywoman like myself walk in and purchase quality, housemade and cured pork products like beautifully brown links of andouille, small slabs of spiced and dry-cured tasso, Cajun rillon (caramelized pork belly), and boudin, the case also featured meaty, Kurobota bacon, and charcuterie such as soppressata, pancetta, mortadella or capicola.
When Cochon Butcher first opened in 2009, it was a relatively tiny space – only 800 square feet – which mainly served as a butcher shop with gleaming white tiled walls and stainless steel surfaces. But it also was an ideal place for busy workers to grab a sandwich-to-go and, if you were lucky, a seat at one of only a few high tables or the bar.
Surrounded by cases displaying cured salumi, duck pastrami and dry-aged country ham hungry patrons could enjoy selections from a small chalkboard menu such as a pastrami on rye with sauerkraut (pickled on site), their award-winning Muffaletta with housemade mortadella, salami and pickled peppers or a highly coveted bundle of hot boudin, a lunch guaranteed to go down well with an ice-cold Abita Amber.
After nearly 17 years in business, the Warehouse District meat market has certainly grown. An expansion in 2014 added 2000 square feet of space, increasing the seating from 30 to 120, a larger kitchen and a full bar. Like many restaurants trying to survive during the pandemic, Butcher stretched its outdoor tables into the street, an impromptu patio that has seemingly become permanent.
House meats, charcuterie and specialties such as duck confit and pork rillon can still be purchased at the counter, but from hook to hang, the process has become more streamlined. According to Stryjewski, their skilled butchers break down over 2,000 pounds of meat in house every week, supplying all eight restaurants and event spaces in the Link Restaurant Group, including Butcher.
What’s more, the hogs supplying all of their pork products are sourced from a terminal cross breed of Berkshire Blue hogs, a feat accomplished in cooperation with the proprietors of Ryles Quality Pork, a high-quality hog farm in Georgia. “There are different ways we break them down, some of the parts are for retail sale, some of the parts we use for the restaurants, and then some of them we do for production,” says Stryjewski.
Since its inception, Cochon Butcher (and the entire restaurant group) has always been about quality, and that hasn’t changed, whether it’s the free-range, well-raised and fed chickens sourced from Greener Pastures to the greens from Perilloux Farm in Lake Charles. “We’ve spent a long time developing relationships with farmers and trying to source the best possible products that we can.”
The Link Restaurant Group’s commitment to quality and its employees has garnered both local and national accolades over the years, included a combined total of six James Beard awards. But just recently, Cochon Butcher achieved a Bib Gourmand rating from the prestigious Michelin Guide, a distinction which denotes a restaurant offering both high quality and value.
With its expanded capacity and larger kitchen, including a hood, Butcher’s menu has indeed grown over the years. The Cubano and Cajun pork dog (now on a pretzel bun) currently share menu space with a Moroccan-spiced lamb-stuffed pita with tzatziki and chili oil, and the infamous “Le Pig Mac” with all-pork patties which claimed a permanent spot circa 2015.
The fresh, hot boudin and mac & cheese are now “small plates” alongside Cajun-fried ribs, grilled salmon belly and black-eyed pea chili. Plus Cochon Butcher flaunts its curing cred with customer-curated charcuterie and sausage boards including coppa, country terrine, head cheese and daily fresh links and deer sausage respectively.
When I visited recently, I was a little disappointed to discover their incredibly stellar BLT was no longer on the menu. I later found out the sandwich wasn’t a big seller, though for the life of me I can’t figure out why. Toughing it out, I opted for the Buckboard Bacon Melt instead, and suffered through every meaty bite layered with Swiss and tangy collard greens.
As it should be, Cochon Butcher is mostly about meat, but since day one they’ve attracted incurable sweet tooths with their bacon pralines and unusual cookie flavors (PB&J and Rocky Road). While their sweet stuff is coming out of Pastry Chef Maggie Scales’ domain at La Boulangerie these days, for over a decade Butcher is the only Link spot in town to score their famed “Elvis” king cake, filled with peanut butter and banana and topped with house-cured bacon, marshmallows, and traditional purple, gold and green sprinkles – an annual Mardi Gras must, whether it’s a slice at the restaurant or a full-sized cake to take home to share – or not!
Pro-tip: Cochon Butcher is only a block from the end of the parade route at St. Joseph and Tchoupitoulas streets, a spot sometimes rumored by locals to have both smaller crowds and excess throws. Either way, you can tough it out with bacon, beer and king cake at the restaurant!
*Article originally published in the February 2026 issue of Where Y’at Magazine
