After eight years as a pop-up and catering business, Sauler’s Cajun Nation opened its first brick-and-mortar location on Saturday.
“It’s been a dream of ours to have this,” owner Steven Sauler said.
Sauler has worked as a cook his whole life and loves exploring different foods. When his wife asked him to make her favorite food, a shrimp seafood boil with Cajun seasoning, Sauler was excited to take on the challenge.
As he made more and more seafood boils, Sauler shared them with family and friends. Seeing how much everyone loved his food, he decided to try selling it. Sauler started testing the waters by listing the food on Facebook Marketplace and was surprised to see it really take off.
“At first, it was just extra money, but it kept growing,” Sauler said. “More orders, more repeat customers, people telling their friends. That’s when I realized this could actually be something bigger than just cooking at home, it’s something that I can leave to my family when my time is up.”
Sauler officially started Sauler’s Cajun Nation in 2018 and has continued to grow his business ever since, garnering over 186,000 followers on Instagram.
Sauler has known since the beginning that he wanted his own space. Things started to fall into place when he found a restaurant space for lease on Facebook. As soon as he saw the spot at Third Street and Loma Avenue, he knew it was the one.
“It’s not the fanciest of the fanciest, but it’s great enough to start our legacy,” Sauler said.
Sauler said he’s most excited to be able to see customers’ reactions when they taste the food.
“It’s precious to see the people that you serve enjoying what you make for them,” he said.
At the new shop, Sauler’s Cajun Nation serves a range of seafood boils from one-pound bags to full trays with a mixture of shrimp, crab, lobster and mussels. Every option comes with sausage, corn on the cob and potatoes and is covered in Cajun seasoning and a house-made sauce.
Prices range from $20 for a one-pound bag with shrimp to $400 for the “Bangbang seafood tray,” which comes with two pounds of king crab, four snow crab clusters, two pounds of shrimp and four lobster tails.
Everything is made to order, and the sauce is made fresh daily.
In the future, Sauler hopes to be able to sell his signature sauce and seasoning, but for now, he’s just going to take everything one step at a time.
Sauler’s Cajun Nation, 301 Loma Avenue, is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.