Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Burton.
Hi Nicole, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My family has been in the restaurant business since 1975 in Oakland, CA when my dad and my two uncles opened Ivey’s Ribs & Spirits in downtown Oakland. They went on to open Ivey’s south in the space which is now Traders Joes in the midtown promenade here in Atlanta. My brother Brandon Ivey and I have always been told that this was our destiny and what we were meant to do. Of course neither one of us wanted anything to do with it since we saw how hard it could be on your family life and your life in general. Fast forward 30 years and we both had moved on with life until personal issues brought us together under the same roof. We started talking and decided that maybe we should investigate how we could carry on our family legacy.
We then launched our first “al fresco” bbq spot in El Dorado Hills, Ca, which was house in the parking lot next to a consignment store. Within 3 years we had opened two additional brick and mortar spaces and Boucanes BBQ was on the map.
But of course life has a funny way of making you re-evaluate things and when the housing market took a turn and business started to suffer, we had to make tough decisions on whether to continue or save our brand and shut everything down. We chose to shut our two restaurants down, sell our house and move to Atlanta, GA to gain a new perspective on life and regroup.
So with that in mind we were here in Atlanta for two years before we decided we wanted to relaunch our business but not on the large scale we did in California. Especially not really knowing the areas or the clientele. So one day we came upon a little spot on Washington Road in East Point that would serve our needs. Mind you it needed a lot of TLC, but what is reward without work? Of course, life struck again and decided that we need a global pandemic to delay our progress to open, But finally after almost two years of delays we opened Boucanes BBQ in late January and have been moving along great ever since.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I can’t say anything about the restaurant business is ever a smooth road. You never know when life will throw curve balls at you and you have to adjust on the fly. Having to shut down our previous two restaurants really gave both me and my brother shrapnel and we didn’t know if we wanted to ever reopen our place again. You put your heart and soul into your business with the hopes that everything you do will be well received and bring rewards. You cannot prepare for the heartbreak when it does not. Then moving to Atlanta, we did not know how the city of East Point moved and that proved to be one of the biggest challenges we could have ever faced. To the point we had to hire a professional to navigate us through the permit process. We had to learn patience, perseverance and the art of calling in help.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Well, I would have to say that within our business, it is myself my brother and my husband. We all have different parts to play and it works well for us. I am the cook and organizer, my brother is the artist and all around fix all do all and my husband takes care of the financials for the business. We named our corporation Tribus which is 3 in Latin because it has always been the 3 of us and it works well. Where as most people that set out on this journey have to make most of these decisions on their own or pay for them, we have each other to rely on and make things happen. We are most proud of the fact that when it comes to working together we seem to do that seamlessly and it makes for a wonderful working relationship. Don’t get me wrong we don’t always agree and we have had our share of arguments, but at the end of the day, we know how to get the job done.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I am a very shy person so you will not see me in the front very often, even though most people will assume I am the more outgoing one of the group. I am also a vibe-oriented person and usually pick up on the vibe of my atmosphere and other people around me to help decipher how to handle a situation. My brother Brandon is an accomplished artist and is very shy about putting his work out there. All of our designs for our restaurant were either created or build by him as well as paintings that were housed inside.
Contact Info:
- Email: boucanes.atl@gmail.com
- Website: www.boucanes-atl.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/BoucanesBBQ
