You might think running a crawfish farm along with a distribution business would be enough to keep one person busy. Mikey Stutes thought there were enough hours in a day to also run a c-store.

So in 2019, he opened Mikey’s Seafood & Specialty Meats in Estherwood, Louisiana. The store offers traditional c-store items, a meat market and great Cajun food—including crawfish supplied from his farm.

“A friend told me that I should open up a meat market,” Stutes said. At the same time, a lot of people were dubious about the possibility of success in a town of around 630 people. “Everyone said ‘You’re not going to make it.’ Then Covid came,” Stutes said. “I didn’t have the money to do this. I was 28. I mortgaged my house. I had negative $200 in my account.” But then, things took off.

His vision of a one-stop destination with c-store items, great food sourced locally and a meat market was coming to life. There was just one more thing to do: “I bought my competition out in Estherwood in 2021. They had Krispy Krunchy Chicken and Hunt Brothers Pizza. When I bought the store, I got those contracts.” Both of those providers are still offered in the store alongside his homemade options. “We are really, really known for crawfish. You might say I’m the crawfish guy [in this area]. People know to call Mikey’s because we sell live crawfish and it comes from our own crawfish farms,” Stutes said.

Stutes figured out what his customers want for lunch after some tinkering with the menu: rice and gravy. “They want a cooked down, smothered meat,” he said, adding, “A lot of our customers are farmers, farm workers and laborers. They all appreciate a good home-cooked meal.” The focus on home-style food means his foodservice program is different than “anything that they could get down the road.”

Continue reading “Everyone said, ‘You’re Not Going to Make It’” in the February 2026 issue of NACS Magazine.