Owner,Tiger Deaux-nuts and Barbecue 5162 Government St. In Mid City since: 2012 (Smokin Aces BBQ) and 2015 (Tiger Deaux-nuts)
Jeff Herman has seen what Government Street looks like at all hours. Back in the early days of Tiger Deaux-nuts, he’d start prep at 3:30 a.m. to ensure customers could get a doughnut or two (or 10) before work. And with a recent merger of his other business, Smokin Aces BBQ, guests can now get a smoked brisket breakfast burrito, too.
Why did you want to open your business in Mid City?
It was obvious even back then that there was just a lot going on, and what I was trying to do with my brand just felt like it was a fit for what’s going on here. It’s a central location—people can get here from downtown, people can get here from the LSU area, and people can get here from Bocage.
Earlier this summer, you closed Smokin Aces BBQ and reopened Tiger Deauxnuts and Barbecue under Tiger Deaux-nuts’ roof. What made you decide to combine your two Mid City businesses?
CliffNotes version: I was tired of killing myself, running around like a chicken with its head cut off between two completely separate businesses. We outgrew our space at Smokin Aces, just for the capacity of what we were doing and how we were built. We had lots of economies of scale here—the dining room and the parking. Moving it here just solved a lot of problems.
Lack of parking was one of those problems for Smokin Aces. Especially now with the road diet changes, how do you think your current location and other Mid City businesses will be impacted by parking?
I think that it’s just going to continue to take people time to understand how the street’s going. Change doesn’t come easily. I think eventually, it won’t be an issue, but there’s no question that in the short term, parking’s going to affect things.
During the [start of the road diet] construction, obviously, we had issues. I had people tell me that they just drove by, they were planning to stop, looked and were like, ‘Aw, I’m not messing with this. I’m on my lunch break.’
Thankfully, here we’ve got a great parking lot in the back with like 30 spots. I realize that not all of the businesses on this street have that fortune.
What are the pros of owning a business in Mid City?
The momentum that the area has going on right now is the big thing. This is just a place where people want to be. All the businesses that have come up work to support each other, so it feels like you’re in this community. … The businesses thrive and build each other up, which is really cool.
And how about the cons?
Crime. We’ve never had any main incidences, but I’ve watched other businesses have incidences.
Government Street itself, with or without the lane changes, is an absolute murder on my vehicle. I have murdered the suspension on my vehicle driving up and down the street, even just patronizing other places. I live downtown, and I work here, so Government’s my main route. The street itself was in really poor condition. I know they’re fixing it, and it will be better, but legitimately that’s a con.
You mentioned the momentum Mid City is experiencing. What do you think caused that?
As more and more [young] people started staying in Baton Rouge instead of leaving, they didn’t want to live in the suburbs—Shenandoah was too far for them. They wanted to be part of this more historic neighborhood. As the neighborhood started changing and once [new] people started living there, they started to demand amenities. Government Street needed to be a place where people could eat, drink, shop and take their families.
Where do you see Mid City in the next few years?
I know a lot of people are saying this is going to be the equivalent of Magazine Street, but I disagree completely. Being originally from New Orleans and having family members who have owned a small business on Magazine Street, this is not Magazine Street. Government Street will always be a vital connector for people. It’s going to be much more of what Old Metairie and Metairie Road is, where you have these nicer, local businesses that are doing things—the food, the beverages, the design studios, apartments—and then the neighborhoods help support that.
Read more on Mid City’s rapid growth in Baton Rouge from our October 2018 cover story.
