Meet Lisa Benoit of Cajun Stop

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Benoit.

Lisa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I was a young girl, I always had this dream of owning my own restaurant. I’ve worked in restaurants throughout my childhood and high school years and it paid my way through college. From age 21 to 25, I left the business because I felt that maybe the restaurant business is not what I want to be in. In that time, I worked for Fortune 500 Companies, started up a small Title Company, found niche markets in Real Estate and even had a professional Nail and beauty license at one point. I was very successful in all these things but felt like I needed to be back in the restaurant. It was after all, the only business, if done right and the service was good, people would always leave happy.

I had lost my home during Hurricane Katrina. I moved around to several states and more than 11 homes over the years. In 2008, I came to Houston and started up the restaurant at 2130 Jefferson Street in March of 2009. Checked out the city and found that there were no authentic New Orleans’ style po-boys, so I made it my specialty. Over the years I have expanded the menu to meet the needs and requests of my guests. I’ve added daily specials, boiled crawfish and lots of specialty items like daiquiris to-go and a full-service catering menu.

I started this restaurant as a single mother with no real home except the restaurant.

To get to where I am today, I had to endure lots of hardships. I’ve been through lawsuits for names, name changes, personal hardships, challenges with the business, the building and employees. With lots of support from my guest base, I’ve survived till now. Cajun Stop has an amazing customer base. I’ve built great relationships and made many friends through the business over the years. I’ve also been lucky enough to have employees who care about me. In my time at the Cajun Stop, I met my husband who has helped pushed me through my challenges and supported me through the crazy life of a restaurant owner, cook, dishwasher, waitress, hostess, realtor, and mother.

With Everyone’s support, we’ve been recognized by the community for many things. We’ve won “Best of” awards, acknowledged for our crawfish and po-boys annually since we’ve started up, I’ve been lucky enough to be recognized as a hottest chef way back when and even a top Business Woman in Houston. I always think ” How Awesome is that?” for every acknowledgement. We get a couple of lucky slots in with the local news every now and then. All which we appreciate and has also helped get the word out about the restaurant.

I’ve always been grateful for the help we’ve received from the community so in return we do our best to help others. Once a year, we do a ball drive for CPS kids, Memorial Hermann Hospital Kids, and the Buddy Ball Program. During that drive, we also help local people who are in need. During the year, we try to donate when we can. My son and I, along with several restaurant customers once made goodie bags for over 300 firefighters who put out the huge fire in the Montrose and drove around and personally delivered them. That was nuts!!! During the floods, my son, my neighbor’s kids and a few others packed several hundred meals and delivered them to the shelters to help everyone out. We try to give back as much as we can.

I recently took maternity leave and will be returning on July 11 to both of the restaurants. For many reasons, I had to take more time off than I had hoped. While home, I practiced real estate. I am a licensed real estate agent and I do both commercial and residential real estate for my company. During my leave, I mentored new agents, worked with investors, new agents and buyers. I was able to do all this with ease from home as I tried to manage my restaurants via phone, short visits and all other means of communication. While on leave, I had to reanalyze my life and how I’m spending my time. For 8 years, I have put my heart into my business and I have spent countless hours, days, weekends, and holidays focused on the restaurant and have missed out many hours with my son and family. With a newborn and lots of time on my hands in the last 2 months, I took a step back and realized, I have accomplished that childhood dream and I’ve succeeded in one of the hardest businesses out there. With a few trademarks in hand, 2 locations, and a Franchise, I have nothing else to prove. I’ve made my point and now I need to move forward, focus on my family, build a career out of something I do with ease and make my own schedule again. I will be retiring from the restaurant soon. I hope to sell off the franchise or restaurants separately so I can go back to real estate and spend more time with my kiddos.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, it’s been rough.

Employees- being a restaurant owner requires you to deal with employee drama, different personalities and more drama.

Lawsuits, taxes, crazy people, a building that constantly falls apart, when the city forgets to turn the water back on after they’ve closed the hole in the ground. Personal obstacles. Attorney fees, audits, ex-employees, lack of employees.

Please tell us about Cajun Stop.
Cajun Stop specializes in po-boys, boiled seafood and homemade Cajun food. We’re known for being that “hole in the wall” place with its own personality and food. I’m proud to say I’ve survived 8 years in a tough business. We’re set apart because of the personal relationship we’ve built with our guests and customers over the years.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory is spending time with my family, most of whom I never see or spend time with anymore.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thecajunstop.com
• Phone: 713-222-8333
• Email: thecajunstop@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecajunstop/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCajunStop
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/TheCajunStop

Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.