You might think running a crawfish farm along with a distribution business would be enough to keep one person busy. Mikey Stutes thought there were enough hours in a day to also run a c-store. 

So in 2019, he opened Mikey’s Seafood & Specialty Meats in Estherwood, Louisiana. The store offers traditional c-store items, a meat market and great Cajun food—including crawfish supplied from his farm. 

“A friend told me that I should open up a meat market,” Stutes said. At the same time, a lot of people were dubious about the possibility of success in a town of around 630 people. “Everyone said ‘You’re not going to make it.’ Then Covid came,” Stutes said. “I didn’t have the money to do this. I was 28. I mortgaged my house. I had negative $200 in my account.” But then, things took off. 

His vision of a one-stop destination with c-store items, great food sourced locally and a meat market was coming to life. There was just one more thing to do: “I bought my competition out in Estherwood in 2021. They had Krispy Krunchy Chicken and Hunt Brothers Pizza. When I bought the store, I got those contracts.” Both of those providers are still offered in the store alongside his homemade options. “We are really, really known for crawfish. You might say I’m the crawfish guy [in this area]. People know to call Mikey’s because we sell live crawfish and it comes from our own crawfish farms,” Stutes said.

Stutes figured out what his customers want for lunch after some tinkering with the menu: rice and gravy. “They want a cooked down, smothered meat,” he said, adding, “A lot of our customers are farmers, farm workers and laborers. They all appreciate a good home-cooked meal.” The focus on home-style food means his foodservice program is different than “anything that they could get down the road.”

Unlike other places that offer plate lunches in the area, Mikey’s Seafood & Specialty Meats serves them seven days a week. On Sundays, it’s all about barbecue. 

“We offer half chicken, pork steak, baby back ribs or sausage plate lunch,” Stutes said. On the side, customers can choose from cowboy beans, rice dressing, potato salad, coleslaw and more. “People don’t get [coleslaw] a lot, but I love it,” he noted.

The store’s most popular barbecue meal is its chicken plate. Stutes said that for the barbecue chicken, employees will season and smoke the meat over hickory, after which they put on a basting sauce.

One interesting menu item is mac and cheese balls, which Stutes said he makes mainly for the kids. He also noted that he’s trying out a boudin mac and cheese meal on Saturdays, because “we get a lot of people asking for it. We’ll serve it with a pork chop.”

Stutes has his staff post a photo of the store’s plate lunches every day. “I notice if I don’t post, I have less business. A lot of people are successful because they have a Facebook and Instagram presence. It’s critical,” he explained. “I tell my employees that people eat with their eyes. I say, ‘Show them the color of the gravy. Get a good picture.’ If they post something I don’t like, I’ll call the store and have them take a new picture. I want people to see our posts and think they are professional.”

A second Mikey’s Seafood & Specialty Meats opened in Crowley, Louisiana, in 2024. A popular meal the Crowley location serves is chicken tenders with cream cheese wrapped in bacon: “I do that for the kids,” Stutes said. He noted that he’s still trying to find a customer favorite at the store, like the rice and gravy in Estherwood. “It’s hard. Crowley is bigger. We have a bigger customer base. We have to figure out what customers want.”

In addition to the c-store, a restaurant, Allons Mangé, was built adjacent to the building in the back area. “It’s a Cajun seafood restaurant. The name essentially means, ‘Let’s go eat.’ We serve boiled seafood, rib eyes, a little bit of everything,” Stutes said. 

“There’s a lot of competition in Crowley. It’s tougher, but we do a better job than other stores,” he explained.

As for what’s next, Stutes said he’s looking into adding fuel at both locations. “If I can service customers and get them what they want, they’ll come here. Now that I have people running my markets, I need to make sure they understand my vision. I am where I am because I make the right decision nine out of 10 times.”