Every state has a unique style that is influenced by its history, the people who make it their home, and the food it serves, but there is something special about Louisiana.
Long before its territory was claimed for France in 1682, indigenous tribes, including the Choctaw and Bayougoula, lived there. In 1719 the first slave ship arrived in New Orleans, and these enslaved individuals carried with them the language and traditions of West Africa. When France relinquished control of its territory west of the Mississippi to Spain in 1762, the state added yet another new ingredient to its cultural mix. By 1803, when the United States made the Louisiana Purchase, the state had been, like a spicy gumbo, simmering for over 100 years in a cultural mix that continues to pack a powerful flavor to this day.
It’s no wonder, then, that Jared Matthews’ parents fell in love with Louisiana and its cuisine when they lived there and passed along their love to their son, despite moving to Alabama and then Louisville. Like the long simmer of Louisiana culture, Matthews’ interest in food started long ago.
He had his first job in the restaurant business at age 15 when he worked at Dairy Queen, but his start there was anything but auspicious. “My first day I dropped a Blizzard on a customer in the drive through,” he says. “You would think that my restaurant career would be over.” When he was 16, he began working at Figaro’s Pizzeria and continued working in restaurants while he attended the University of Kentucky.
When he moved back to Louisville after college, he worked at Harper’s, but soon landed a job managing and bartending at the newly opened Diamonds in St. Matthews, where he was also able to satisfy his love of music.
At 25 years old he liked the income that went along with bartending and music, but he felt the pull of cuisine and restaurants. Still, he bided his time, not wanting to make a premature move before he was ready. He saved as much as he could to help finance his dream, and soon an opportunity presented itself.
“I was a regular at Cafe Lou Lou, and [former Owner] Clay Wallace was ready to get out of the restaurant business,” he says. “I took over in 2017 and rebranded it as Lou Lou Food & Drink.” He kept many of the staple menu items, but added some additional Cajun flavors and was rewarded by the restaurant’s success.
For most people, owning and operating one restaurant would be enough, but Jared Matthews isn’t most people. In 2018 he purchased Equus and Jack’s Lounge from Chef Dean Corbett; in 2022 he opened the Fox Den, a sports bar on Frankfort Avenue; and in September 2023 he launched Osteria Italian Seafood in Westport Village. He had plenty on his plate, but the siren song of Cajun and Creole cooking kept luring him.
He knew he wanted to eventually create multiple Lou Lou restaurants, so when he laid eyes on the building at 812 East Market Street in NuLu, he felt confident this was the place to do it. “It looked like something out of the French Quarter,” he says. The restaurant opened in December 2023, but initially some folks were a little confused because Lou Lou on Market wasn’t an exact duplicate of Lou Lou Food & Drink on Sears Avenue.
Creating an identical replica of the first Lou Lou was never something Matthews considered. “I don’t ever plan on franchising Lou Lou; I love the local restaurant scene,” he says. “It’s not something I’m into. I wanted to give a lot of the same flavors but have a unique experience at every Lou Lou you go to.”
At this point, if you’re thinking Matthews was on the runaway restaurant train, you’re not entirely wrong. “My wife was like ‘Alright, you’ve got to chill out,’” he says with a laugh. His businesses were keeping him busy, and he wasn’t actively seeking new restaurant real estate. But he had always wanted to open a place in Middletown, so when he got word that Great Flood was moving out of its building on Shelbyville Road, he made a call. “I definitely wanted that location,” he says. “I love the freestanding building, and a lot of our clientele lives out in Middletown.”
Lou Lou in Middletown will continue with many of the thematic elements of the other two Lou Lou restaurants, including bright colors and New Orleans-influenced decor, as well as some menu items, such as jambalaya, chicken carbonara and bayou dip. “Those are the top-three most popular items everywhere,” Matthews says. But there will be new menu items at Lou Lou Middletown that won’t be offered at either of the other two locations.
New dish ideas come from not only Matthews, but also from his entire culinary team. “If someone from my team has a good idea, we 100% listen to it,” he says. A focus on his staff and their input is critical, no matter how many restaurants he owns, and it is something Matthews takes pride in. “My executive chef at Lou Lou on Market started out as a dishwasher,” he says. “My director of operations who oversees [all the restaurants] started out as a server at Lou Lou St. Matthews. A lot of people have been with me for a long time.”
To those not in the industry, opening and managing restaurants can seem like chaotic work, and in some ways it is. “There’s easier ways to make a living than the restaurant business,” Matthews says. “You’ve got to really, really love it. It’s high stress, but I just feed off that. I love the aspect of cooking and that my job every day is to make people happy.”
In addition to the normal ebb and flow of business, the past several years have been a whirlwind for restaurants given the COVID pandemic and inflationary pressures that have changed people’s spending habits. Matthews notes how Uber Eats and DoorDash exploded during the pandemic and continue to do well, with many people having gotten into a habit during 2020 and 2021 of eating at home.
Even though Matthews has been largely successful in his restaurant ventures, they haven’t all been self-sustaining or businesses he hangs on to. “We opened a street food concept at the old Mellow Mushroom in St. Matthews right before the pandemic, but we never could get our bearings there,” he says. He sold Equus & Jack’s Lounge, which had been renamed The Black Rabbit, in the spring of 2024 to his colleague.
There is always change in the restaurant business – a fact that keeps business journals on their toes and food lovers constantly exploring new, flavorful options. If the past eight years are any indication, though, what we can count on is that Jared Matthews will be influencing Louisiana-inspired Louisville foodie culture for years to come.
