by Webb Williams
Dairy farming. Fruits and vegetables. Pumpkins. Crawfish, crabs, shrimp and Cajun lobsters. Beef jerky. Steaks and fried turkeys. Snowballs. Christmas trees, firewood and fine jewelry.
The ever-tenacious “Mister” Richard does it all. He’s led his family to an entrepreneurial empire that’s become a northshore shopping place of legend. Charles Darwin, eat your heart out.
The fact that Richard Capdeboscq named his first Mandeville enterprise “French Market Produce” was no accident. As he cuts into a fresh peach with his knife and shares a piece, he reflects, “When my dad’s father landed in New Orleans from France at the turn of the century—when he was twelve years old—he made his way from the ship’s terminal straight to the French Market, and that’s where he stayed. He did odd jobs around the French Market until he could afford to buy his own place, raise his own produce, and sell it at the market. My mother’s father was an Italian produce farmer who also supplied fruits and vegetables to the market. As a kid, I used to go to the French Market every morning for years, handling and selling produce with him, learning all about how to do it right—and, most of all, what not to do wrong.”
Before starting up his Mandeville venture, Richard and his wife, Lovey, raised their two boys and two girls on the family dairy farm between Franklinton and Amite. The dairy business soured after about 30 years, and they switched to truck farming, raising their own produce. Richard had majored in agriculture at Southeastern and figured the produce business would be something he would naturally enjoy. Plus, he thought it might really work well on the booming northshore.
“I came here in June of ’93, purchased this piece of property and started building, contracting it myself. We started operation in November of ’93.” It’s always been a family affair, Richard recalls. “My wife, our sons Richard, Jr. and Aaron, and our daughters Yvette and Jenean were our only employees.”
Soon, the budding empire on Florida Street in Mandeville began to grow. Richard says, “After a year, we saw a summer opportunity and opened Lovey’s Snowballs. It went over big time. Then we saw a need for a good seafood market, so I started working on an addition; we opened in 1996.” With an already fully operational kitchen, a restaurant seemed like a natural extension; it was completed at the end of 1997.
Over time, certain products have become customer favorites. Halloween brings one of the state’s largest pumpkin patches, stocked with an average of four 18-wheeler loads of pumpkins, and complete with scarecrows and other fall decorating items. Fall also brings beef jerky season. Richard says, “It’s my son’s recipe, using meat from St. Tammany Parish that we process ourselves.” Cajun fried turkeys are a Thanksgiving/Christmas specialty. “Christmas features beautiful premium-grade Fraser fir trees out of North Carolina. We specialize in big trees. Our split hardwood firewood’s in full swing then, too.”
After the holidays, the crawfish season starts, lasting all the way through July. “We feature Belle River and Atchafalya Swamp crawfish whenever they’re available,” Richard explains. He ships seafood all over the lower 48 states, Alaska and even Canada.
Forget location,
location, location
“People say that the main ingredient for a good business is location, location, location, but that’s not really true. It’s quality, quality, quality.” And Richard zeroes in on his sources of that quality, pointing to the trays of fresh fruit and vegetables as an example. “We buy as much local product as we possibly can for our produce and seafood markets: Ponchatoula’s strawberries, Plaquemine Parish’s Creole tomatoes and outstanding citrus, watermelons from Washington Parish, peaches from Ruston, and all sorts of fresh vegetables from our local area.” He also features local jams, jellies, sauces, spices, marinades, and even some popular locally made pralines.
The next generation
“Cap’s” is the Slidell produce store that is solely owned by Richard, Jr. Richard says, “He helped me start this business and stayed about three years. When we succeeded, he moved over on Highway 11, leased a piece of property, contracted it all himself and built a real fine produce business over there.” He’s a chip off the old block.
The crowning achievement of the Capdeboscq Mandeville empire is Deboscq’s Jewelry. Located on the corner that the snowball stand occupied for years, it is a unique addition to the business mix. But, as do all of these family enterprises, it thrives—for all the right reasons.
“Our other son, Aaron, has been a jeweler and a gemologist for about nine years after graduating from jewelry school. After four years running a jewelry business in California, he built the jewelry store—his design—next door to our other family businesses, and we contracted it ourselves. Notice there’s a lot of wrought iron work and gate work, which makes the whole place look nice. He did that, too.” Not only does Aaron have a flair for precious metals and gems, but he can work with the big stuff, as well.
“We had a gravel parking lot for ten years, and when we built the jewelry store we decided to give the place a general facelift by paving the entire market lot and the lot behind the jewelry store to make a better appearance. No more dust, thank goodness.” Of course, the family did the work and contracted out the work they couldn’t do themselves.” If you want it done right—and you can do it right yourself—do it,” says Richard.
Richard’s
school of hard knocks
Kids in my neighborhood—and one of my own daughters, in fact—have worked for Richard and Lovey, learning valuable life lessons while they learned how to successfully deal with serving the public. “We believe in hiring local young people that are in high school and in college. Once we get them here, they often wind up staying with us the entire tour of high school. We’ve even had a couple that have worked through four years of high school, four years of college and only after they graduated from college and found a job did they move on. We believe in giving jobs to local young people, and we try to instill values in them.”
One sign displayed prominently for all to see says, “Rudeness Is a Weak Person’s Attempt at Strength.” Says Richard, “We don’t tolerate rudeness from our employees, or our customers, for that matter. We like to work hard, make a living, and have fun doing it.”
Future expansion?
I’ve kidded Richard for years about my expectation to drive up one day and find he’s selling cars or insurance.
“No, I think we’ve maxed out. I’m out of property, and I don’t plan on doing anything else for a while.
“When we started this market, both of my daughters worked here. Yvette and Jenean stocked produce, worked in the kitchen and as waitresses, and played a real integral part in our business. Our younger son, Aaron, meanwhile, still maintained the dairy farm. We sold all of our cattle in 1996, and just recently planted all of our property in pine trees. In about ten or eleven years, I’ll be a tree farmer. Probably in four more years I’ll be thinking about retiring. I’m 58 now. So, I suppose it’s time to start hanging stuff up in three or four years.” I’ll believe that when I see it.
Shrewd businessman?
I asked Richard if he thought of himself as a shrewd businessman. “Me? Not at all. I consider myself just a hard worker and lucky being on the receiving end of great loyalty by the people of Mandeville, Covington, Madisonville, and customers from all over St. Tammany Parish. I can’t tell you how nice the local people have been to us. … we love the good folks of West St. Tammany.”
It’s not been without struggle or heartbreak, though. Richard Capdeboscq, with his soft-spoken charm and look-you-right-in-the-eye honesty, is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever known—and one of my most admired. For years, there was a cartoon on his humble office wall that depicted a crane eating a frog, but the frog was choking the crane, refusing to be devoured. The caption: “Never Give Up!”
“That’s me,” he says, “I’m that frog who never gives up.”
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