The Bayou Beast is officially famous. This morning Axios New Orleans ran a story by Chelsea Brasted about our pandan iced latte: where he came from, how he became the most popular drink we make, and the Mardi Gras shoe he inspired along the way.
If you have never met him, here is the short version of the origin story. Every August the fall menus start landing while New Orleans is still sitting in the middle of hurricane season. Nobody here wants to wrap their hands around a hot latte in ninety-something degree heat. So a few years back we built a fall drink that runs cold: iced coffee, milk, and pandan, a sweet Southeast Asian leaf that tastes a little like vanilla and coconut and turns the bottom of the glass that unmistakable green.
He caught on fast. Regulars started planning their falls around him, and at some point a Muses rider loved him enough to decorate a shoe in his honor. That shoe was gifted to our Magazine Street shop, and it is still one of our favorite things we own.
Chelsea's story also gets into the stranger chapters of the Beast's biography, including how he ended up with the name Bayou Beast in the first place. We will let Axios tell that part. It is a better story in her words, and honestly, we are still laughing about it.
Read the full story at Axios New Orleans. And if all this reading makes you thirsty, the Bayou Beast is pouring right now at Magazine Street, Old Metairie, and our stall inside St. Roch Market, every day through Halloween. After that he heads back to the bayou until next summer.
Thanks to Chelsea Brasted and Axios New Orleans for the story. We are proud of the little guy.