On a regular day you may not notice the small café in Carencro, but on a Sunday with the line wrapping around the block it’s hard to miss.
That’s where What’s Your Story took us this week, Veronica’s Café, which has been run by Veronica Alexander for the last decade.
"I was cooking for a school in Lafayette, Lafayette Christian Academy, when this became available," Alexander said.
Serving the best in home style cooking and plate lunches, cooking for a crowd is nothing new for Veronica. Growing up in a large family, one of ten, it was part of her responsibilities to make sure dinner was on the table.
"Forever, since I was about 10, forever, we'd have big family meals when we were kids," Alexander said
Helping out with the cooking kept her out of some of the more demanding tasks such as working out in the field alongside her siblings. Instead she used this time to learn how to cook from her grandma, watching her do everything from preparing a roux to chopping onions.
"I didn't want to go in the fields, I'd faint pretend I was fainting, and when I saw them moving into the fields I'd pop up and go help grandma chop onions," Alexander recalled. "She'd say I thought you were sick and I'd say oh no I feel better."
Now, though, she helps pay back all those missed chores out in the field by running a true family business, telling us that everyone working there is a family member.
"How many of the people who work here are family? Everybody is. Children, cousins, nieces, even the grandchildren." Alexander explained.
She has passed on the techniques and the recipes she learned on to her daughters, and making sure that cooking stays in the family.
"Made my girls start cooking when they were 10 or 11 and I would send them a fax with my menu on it and all the ingredients and they'd have my dinner ready for me when I got home." Alexander said.
It's her pride in cooking the homemade dishes at Veronica's Cafe that keeps the line outside the door.
"If I won't eat it, I won't serve it to you."
