One of the annual highlights of the just completed New Orleans Wine & Food Experience is the Grand Tasting. The idea is to showcase wines from around the world with food from top New Orleans chefs.
Among the talented group this year was chef Terrence “Twins” Carroll, 37. The dish he submitted to the judges and served to hundreds of patrons at the event was his seafood gumbo, a savory simmer of Gulf shrimp, sausage and crab. He and wife and partner Krystal Carroll, 38, own Orleans Brothers, located in a shopping center in New Orleans East.
“Our customers told us about NOWFE,” Terrence Carroll says. “So we thought, why not? We aren’t thinking about winning the competition, but just to be included is exciting for us.”
The Carrolls, who first met as students at Paul L. Dunbar Elementary School in Hollygrove, didn’t exactly plan on opening a restaurant. But that’s how things worked out.
Although they went through school together, the pair didn’t start dating until they were in their twenties. “She was the smartest one in school,” Terrence says. “I was the one always being sent to the principal’s office.”
“I didn’t really see anything in him until we were older,” Krystal says. Now they’re married and have two sons.
Krystal started working at the convention center in 2011, moving her way up through the accounting department into management. Terrence was a surveyor on river barges, also working his way up to a supervisor’s position. They loved to cook together and host family for holidays, serving their seafood gumbo and crawfish pie.
In 2018, the couple took a trip to New York City for their fifth anniversary. “After seeing that city, we realized that we weren’t really living,” Krystal says. “We were stuck going to work, coming home, not really doing anything new.”
So they both quit their jobs and moved to Houston, where Terrence’s twin brother Terry lives. Krystal found a job in financial services, but Terrence didn’t want to get a job at the trucking company where his brother worked. “I didn’t want to feel stuck again,” he says.
They had the idea of making Krystal’s crawfish pies and selling them around town. Rising at 5 a.m., she’d make them before going to work. Terrence would load the still warm pies and go to his brother’s job and walk the dock. “Sometimes we’d make $400 in 30 minutes on crawfish pies,” he recalls. Between that and the money he was making driving for Uber Eats, “We were doing better than when I was on the river,” he says.
The pair came home to be close to family in early 2020. Then the pandemic hit. They doubled down, making large family-sized pies, along with pralines and the occasional special. “We’d post on Instagram and people would pre-order,” Terrence says. “Then I’d deliver them in our van all over — to Slidell, to hospitals downtown. I think people liked my attitude and kept supporting us.”
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Since making that much food from a home kitchen isn’t sustainable, they started looking for a storefront location. When they spotted the space at 5941 Bullard Ave., they knew it was right for the business, which they dubbed Orleans Brothers. They made a video of Terrence in front the building, talking about their goal and crawfish pie, and sent it to the number on the sign. It turns out the building was owned by New Orleans native Jesseca “Judy” Harris-Dupart, also known as BB Judy, founder of Kaleidoscope Hair Products.
“She told us, ‘Nobody ever roots for nobody. You can have it.’ We didn’t have to show financials, which is good since we didn’t have any,” Krystal says. “She gave us a chance.”
They opened their doors in early 2022 as a take-out only place. Their small space has bright red walls and a strong New Orleans vibe. The popular crawfish pies come from a recipe Krystal cobbled together using crawfish tails, onions, bell peppers, celery, breadcrumbs and garlic. They’re available in three sizes. The compact menu also includes seafood gumbo, beef yaka-mein, crawfish-stuffed baked potatoes and bell peppers and homemade pecan pralines in traditional or wedding cake flavors.
The word has been getting out. New Orleans rapper Birdman heard about the pies and brought an entourage in, not once, but twice. “He put us on his social media,” Krystal says. “I couldn’t even sleep that night, I was so excited.”
Chef Melissa Araujo is on the move.
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