January 21, 2019 marked the first day opened for the new We Dat’s on the West Bank. The new Marrero location is one of three We Dat’s New Orleans Chicken and Shrimp, one is located on Canal St., and another at Old Gentilly Rd. A New Orleans’ favorite, locals are glad to see the restaurant expand.

Gregoire Tillery started the popular food chain from the ground up. This local, who was raised in the 7th ward, knows the benefits of hard work. Coming from a single parent household his mom worked two jobs to keep food on the table. After college, Tillery began his career with a national food brand but soon had a “spiritual awakening.” The national food brand company he was working for started to lay off many employees. After prayer and reflection, Tillery decided to venture out on his own in the food industry.

“It really affected me,” he said. “It didn’t affect me financially because they didn’t lay me off, but it affected me mentally and spiritually.”

While watching “The Great Food Truck Race“, Tillery got the idea to open up a food truck. With prayer and ambition he opened a food truck on Tulane Avenue in 2013 and now his food truck is followed by 225,000 people on Instagram.

“I can’t depend on someone else to keep a roof over my head and keep food on my table, so that’s when the whole food truck thing came about,” Tillery said.

We Dat’s popularity opened up two more restaurants and if that isn’t enough, the restaurant on Canal Street was featured in a Netflix documentary.

“I just about went crazy,” he said of seeing his Canal Street shop on Netflix. “I said, ‘This can’t be real life.’”

When entering one of his restaurants, you sense the pride of his native New Orleans’ roots. Each restaurant is painted bright purple (Edna Karr High School colors) and murals are painted by a local artist depicting scenes from the New Orleans Community. Local favorites are served like shrimp, chicken, catfish and loaded fries. Local desserts made by his mom Lori Shepard are served at each location as well as a local beverage called Element Beverage.

“Greg was one of the first people to feature the product in his restaurant,” said Cleveland Spears III of the Spears Group in New Orleans. “Other beverage companies asked him not to carry it, but he said no, I’m supporting these young African American boys who started this business in high school.

As for the new West Bank location, it is already a local favorite. The counter-service restaurants has four TV’s and the murals in this restaurant focus on historically black colleges and universities.

“I have a lot of college logos on the wall, which is going to be a focus for me going forward,” he said. “We have so many of the youth that come into the restaurants and I want them to keep college in mind and keep education in mind.”

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New Orleans will see a new affordable housing project which is slated to open this fall off of Broad Street. The project, called the St. Peter, will offer housing to military veterans.

The $7.4 million dollar project is the second part of a four phase development plan. The SBP (St. Bernard Project) will build a three-story building that will house 50 apartments that include 29 affordable and 21 market rate apartments. There will be a mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom units which will also include full accessibility apartments for veterans with disabilities.

The complex will also include amenities such as a community room, outdoor areas and a wellness center for yoga and meditation. Veterans will also have the conveniences of public transit (bus stops, Canal Street streetcar and the Lafitte Greenway) nearby.

The majority of the affordable units will be rented to families making 60% of the median income for the New Orleans area. There will be a handful of apartments that will be available to residents making 30% of the median income and residents who have Housing Authority of New Orleans vouchers. Rent for affordable units will range from $400 – $1,000 a month which is based on 2018 income estimates from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The market rate apartments will still be on the affordable end renting on average for about $1,100 a month.

The building will be energy efficient with rooftop solar panels and energy storing batteries. It will be a “net zero property that will generate all the electricity it uses through renewable means on site.”

“A big part of the vision was that we wanted this to be as energy efficient as possible,” said Liz McCartney, SBP’s chief operating officer, who is overseeing development.

The new development will be financed by low-income housing tax credits incurring 70% of the cost of construction. The remaining will be backed by a $1.1 million dollar donation by Entergy New Orleans. David Ellis, Entergy New Orleans CEO, says that 15% of the Entergy Corp. employees are veterans which hits home for the company.

The project’s general contractor is Broadmoor Construction, the architect is Eskew+Dumez+Ripple. Other partners for St. Peters include Boston Financial, Louisiana Housing Corp., Home Bank and Toyota.

“The city is not going to be whole until everyone has humane, decent housing,” Zack Rosenburg, SBP’s co-founder and CEO said.

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