If you’re road tripping along I-10 in south Louisiana, you might find a little culinary treasure when you take Exit 115 and head north to Cecelia. It’s a fun rural ride to a cute town on the Bayou Teche and a c-store called T’ Cochon, which means “little pig” in Cajun French.
“At the time I built the store, there were no convenience stores in Cecelia. The hardware store had shut down and you had to drive to Breaux Bridge to get hardware,” said Dayne Green, owner of T’ Cochon. Because of that, the c-store is also a full hardware store.
Green owned Cecilia’s Piggly Wiggly grocery store, so he felt it made sense to build T’ Cochon next door. “I had 1,000 square feet of hardware in the grocery store. We increased the inventory when we moved it to T’ Cochon,” he explained.
T’ Cochon has almost anything customers might need in the way of hardware. “We have all the PVC you need, collars, connectors. We have shovels, pond dyes, tools, hand tools, cordless tools, frog lights,” he said. “We have every nut and bolt you can imagine, including Grade A bolts. This is a stronger bolt for bolting plows. I have cane farmers who have charge accounts at my store.”
Of course, the food is the main event. Cracklins are a c-store staple in Cajun Country, and it’s no surprise that they are the most popular menu item at T’ Cochon. They are made with hog fat that’s cut into small pieces and deep fried in hog lard.
“I cook 420 pounds a week,” Green said. “They come out of the pot like popcorn.”
The profits don’t stop there. A byproduct of the process is hog lard, and customers want it.
“We can’t keep up with the hog lard. We cannot make enough to put on the shelf. We sell them in gallon jars for $40. In one batch of cracklins, we get four gallons of hog lard and 21 or 22 pounds of cracklins. It takes about two and half hours. It’s clear like vegetable oil.”
It’s not all pork here. The chicken burgers get a lot of attention from local folks.
Continue reading “T’ Cochon Brings Food and Hardware to Cecelia” in the September 2025 issue of NACS Magazine.