Preserve New Orleans' Calas Tradition with Brandon

Help Preserve an Untold Piece of New Orleans Culinary Heritage: The Calas Tradition

My name is Brandon Pellerin, and I am the founder of Calas Cafe, a project dedicated to preserving New Orleans' culinary traditions, with a special focus on the historic calas dish. Calas, a rice fritter with roots in West Africa, is a significant piece of New Orleans’ Black history, culture, and traditions. This dish symbolizes freedom, resilience, and the pursuit of economic security. Introduced to New Orleans in the 1800s by enslaved West Africans, calas became an essential part of the city’s cultural and culinary identity.

Your SUPPORT in this first phase of fundraising will enable us to strengthen Calas Cafe’s foundation. Funds raised will directly contribute to marketing initiatives, operational expenses, city permits, insurance, and preparing for our expansion into satellite locations. These efforts are essential to not only preserve the cafe’s legacy but to also share it with a broader audience, ensuring the calas tradition remains a vital part of New Orleans’ story.

Reconnecting New Orleans to Its Lost Food History

Calas Cafe is more than a preservation effort—it’s a bridge to the past, reuniting many New Orleanians with their lost food history. Each bite of a calas is a taste of resilience, a nod to the ingenuity and strength of the enslaved West Africans who brought the tradition to New Orleans during the transatlantic enslavement experience. The story of calas is one of survival and empowerment, and it continues to be a true source of pride for the Treme community and beyond.

The Impact of Your Contribution

By supporting Calas Cafe, you are:

Helping preserve an untold piece of New Orleans and American history.

Honoring the legacy of the women who used calas as a tool for empowerment and freedom.

Ensuring the cultural and culinary traditions of Treme remain a vital part of the New Orleans community.

Contributing to a community-driven initiative that celebrates resilience, culture, and heritage.

Your support will cement the history of Calas Cafe and the calas dish as integral parts of the Treme neighborhood and New Orleans’ story. Together, we can preserve and share this powerful narrative of hope and resilience for generations to come. Thank you for your support and belief in our mission.

Brandon Pellerin
Founder, Calas Cafe, CalasCafe.com