Longtime fans of Southerns food truck now have a new sanctuary at which to worship. The popular feedery has a new brick-and-mortar location in Metairie at 4620 Veterans Memorial Blvd. Co-founders Anthony Cruz and Gene Colley opened their new spot in August and are serving up the same fried chicken sandwiches, burgers, and specials that made their food truck popular at festivals throughout the city.
Cruz has a background in fine dining, having worked at NOLA, Bayona, and with the Besh Group under Steve McHugh before briefly pivoting to behavioral health after ten years in the food business. Colley was working for a family warehousing business when he teamed up with Cruz in their first venture, Gulf Tacos, and began working the local market and festival circuit.
When the fried chicken sandwich craze hit, Cruz and Colley decided to take a shot at their own concoction. They struggled at first, but in 2019 Southerns won “Best Use of Fried Chicken” at the National Fried Chicken festival for its Otis Redding Nashville hot chicken sandwich: A piece of fried boneless thigh meat cooked spicy and topped with housemade pickles and yuzu aioli. From there, Cruz pushed Southerns on social media, and the business took off. The pair soon abandoned Gulf Tacos to focus full-time on their newly popular chicken business.
Cruz and Colley first began looking for brick-and-mortar locations right before the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, they settled for a food truck when a good deal came their way. While other restaurants were forced to shut down for COVID precautions, Southerns was taking off, rolling their truck into locations, and setting up contactless transactions.
“Our saving grace is that we knew how to pivot during Covid,” Cruz explains. “Then I joined Instagram and I was able to let people know where we were going to be and set up to-go orders.”
Within a year, Southerns had two food trucks, with Colley building out a third soon after. With three trucks firing on all cylinders, opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant was a leap. The pair didn’t want to take out a large loan, and when they saw the spot that used to be home to Gogi Korean, they thought it was perfect because it didn’t need a lot of work. Southerns still has two food trucks that work events all over the city for those who can’t make it out to Metairie.
As for the food, the menu includes eight items, including the Southerns Original Chicken sandwich with boneless chicken thigh, Yuzu aioli, slaw, and housemade pickle; the Southerns Fish sandwich with beer battered fish, special slaw, housemade pickle, and special sauce; and Southerns Queso Burger, a six-ounce beef patty with pickled jalapeno, queso, and crispy onions. The restaurant also runs regular specials, including smoked oxtails that draw lines and sell out in about two hours.
Since opening the Metairie location, the Southerns team has collected more accolades including prizes for “Best Shrimp Poboy” and “Best Beef Poboy” at the 2024 Oak St. Po-Boy Festival. At this year’s Top Taco event they won judges’ choice and fan favorite awards for top vegetarian taco.
Southerns’ Metairie location is taking off and Cruz and Colley have big things planned for next year.
“We’re planning on doing more smoked stuff and running more specials.” Cruz says. “We just upgraded to a new smoker and we’re going to focus more on barbecue.”
Southerns is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
