When Cane River Pecan Company CNO (Chief Nut Officer) Jady Regard looked at the old Stage building in historic downtown New Iberia as a place to move his business, he saw the potential for growth for both the company and the downtown business environment.

Plans for a pie bar and cafe, a museum as well as the move of the entire corporate staff to the nearly 25,000-square foot building are well underway. With these plans expected to be complete in the spring, Regard hopes to spur business growth and tourism in the extended downtown area.

“I want it open as soon as possible because now the clock is ticking,” Regard said with a chuckle. “We’re spending money, we want to be able to recoup that investment. And we’re trying to do it so we’re not fighting all this during the fall when our busiest time of the year is with our pecan shipments.”

First on the list of tasks is finishing the construction on the front end of the building, which is currently occupied by a small gift shop. Work is proceeding on the planned cafe and a small pecan museum flanking on either side of the gift shop. The original plan was to have that phase of construction work done by the first of April, but Regard said it’s looking closer to the first of May as the completion date. Additional corporate office space is under construction as well, with glass walls along Main and Jefferson streets opening up the view from both the pie bar and the office space.

Cane River has about a dozen full-time employees, which swells to about 40 seasonal employees in October, November and December – the height of pecan season.

The building’s size gives the pecan company the versatility to have consumer-facing parts of the business – the gift shop, cafe, and museum – as well as a separate area for catalog and website fulfillment.

Regard hopes other businesses are inspired to take over empty buildings in the downtown area as well.

“It takes care of some blight. It will definitely increase some jobs. It’s definitely going to draw some tourism here. And it’s definitely going to create some tax opportunities for the city here,” Regard said. “And I like the idea that there’s a tourism component here because getting tour buses down here is extraordinarily important. And not only is it important for us, it’s important for McIlhenny and places like that because if we can convince buses to spend an entire day in New Iberia, we get a chance to get more buses to New Iberia.”

He said he encourages people to see multiple places when visiting Iberia Parish.

“Come to New Iberia and go to McIlhenny, then come to New Iberia and go to the Shadows and the Bayou Teche Museum, stop at Konriko, then come over here, get a piece of pie and a cup of coffee, and leave,” Regard said. “That’s what we’re trying to encourage people to do.”

Pie Bar and Pecan Museum

The restaurant will be called the Cane River Pecan Company Pie Bar, though it won’t feature only pie.

“I tell people the pecan pie is to pecans as the bikini is to the beach,” Regard said. “They go together. We need to have a place where we can come together and have good quality pecan pies.”

But pecan pies aren’t the only pies on the menu. The Pie Bar will also be serving up a variety of sweet pies, savory pies, and seasonal pies.

A pastry chef has already been hired and started in January.

“Every week she’s been rolling out some of her creations, and I’m telling you, New Iberia is going to be shocked by some of the stuff we’re going to be serving in this place,” Regard said. “She has come up with some wonderful stuff. Just the other day we were trying some Steen’s butter pecan ice cream. We sampled brown butter bourbon pecan cookies. I could go on about that, but we’re going to have a really diversified menu that’s going to have a lot of pecans, but not everything is going to be pecans. It’s going to have a lot of pie and coffee but not everything’s going to be pie and coffee.

“We’re really trying to create an eclectic menu that attracts people to come here on a daily basis.”

Plans for the pecan museum include artifacts from the pecan industry, a short film to watch and an area where people can give cracking and shelling pecans a try.

Lantern Award

Cane River Pecan Company was the 2021 recipient of the Louisiana Economic Development’s Lantern Award for the Acadiana Region. While the honor shines a light on his company, it also puts a spotlight on the opportunity for growth in New Iberia, Regard said.

“It’s nice to have new businesses on the outskirts of town, and we’ve seen a lot of new businesses come to New Iberia,” he said. “That’s great, and we need all that. But we also need the inside of New Iberia to be strong. We’ve got a lovely, desirable, historic downtown that we need to preserve. I’m glad that we can be a part of it, and I’m hoping that with our success, some other person might come downtown, see a vacant building and say, ‘You know what, I’m going to put my business down there.’”

L.E.D. held a private reception in Baton Rouge on Feb. 9 honoring Cane River and the other regional recipients of the 43rd annual Lantern Awards. L.E.D. annually recognizes companies in seven regions across the state for community service and business excellence with its Lantern Awards, created in 1979.

Regard said the best part of the recognition the company received was that it highlights the dedication and hard work of the Cane River employees.