We recently connected with Cara Benson and have shared our conversation below.

Cara , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

After graduating college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I majored in Political Science, but law school seemed daunting, and a life behind a desk didn’t excite me. One day, my mom called after reading an article in the paper about a culinary institute and encouraged me to look into it. I had always loved cooking and baking, so I decided to apply.

In August of 2002, I moved to New York to study pastry at the French Culinary Institute. After graduation, I worked for a couple of years in New York before moving back to New Orleans. I married my roommate from culinary school, and he came with me. I worked as a pastry chef at a catering company and a high-end restaurant.

After returning to work following the birth of our first child, I realized I wanted more flexibility in my life and decided to go out on my own.

In February of 2010, I rented an old hair salon and converted it into a casual counter-service French café where all breads and pastries would be baked on site. All soups, dressings, pâtés, etc., would also be made in-house. I was French-trained, and my grandmother was from Luxembourg—her parents were French—so the idea kind of naturally took shape.

As a child (and even now), we always had tartines at my grandmother’s house for breakfast—toasted baguette with brie, butter, and jam. So I named the restaurant Tartine and opened in June 2010.

It was more of a hope and a prayer than anything else. I learned everything as I went. I found handymen to do the work and figured out the permit process. I worked harder than I had ever worked in my life, for a long time, with little to no profit. It took years to grow my business into something sustainable.

In the first few months, I would ring up $50 some days. I cried a lot in my tiny little office. I’m glad I didn’t know how hard it would be. I wrote a business plan to get a loan from the bank before opening, and in it, I said I would expand to five restaurants in ten years. I thought we would be able to afford for my husband to join me in one year. I thought I could close on Sundays and holidays.

I had all these ideas about what being a business owner meant, but I quickly learned about the many hats I would have to wear. I did eventually open those five restaurants, and my husband ended up joining me seven years later instead of one. All of the restaurants are open on Sunday- it is the busiest day of the week. We do close some holidays.

Today, I have five restaurants and handle most of the behind-the-scenes work. I do payroll, paperwork, keep up with the numbers, look for opportunities, and start new endeavors. I also bring my kids to school and pick them up, chaperone field trips, and take care of them when they’re sick.

Entrepreneurship is no joke, but the rewards are immeasurable—the employees who have been by my side from the beginning, the customers I’ve known for years and watched their kids grow up, the vendors we’ve built relationships with, and the other business owners I’ve met along the way to celebrate and commiserate with.

It has been a wild ride, but all worth it.

Cara , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Cara Benson. I grew up in New Orleans, LA, and graduated from Loyola University. I then went to New York to study pastry at the French Culinary Institute. After a couple of years working in New York City, I moved back to New Orleans, where I worked as a pastry chef for a catering company and later a high-end restaurant.

In 2010, I opened my first restaurant, Tartine. Tartine is a casual counter-service eatery serving breakfast and lunch. Our bakers arrive at 3 a.m. to start preparing all of the breads, quiches, and scones for the day. We are nestled Uptown, near the park and the universities. Our clients range from neighbors to students to nearby workers—and the occasional tourist. We strive to create a clean, comfortable, and happy experience.

After Tartine had been open for about three years, a café nearby came up for lease. Almost immediately, the idea for Toast came to me.

Toast would be a breakfast restaurant with more local offerings, while still keeping some of the European charm. While we serve biscuits, grits, sausage, and bacon, we also offer French-style omelettes, crêpes, and aebleskivers. As we expanded to more locations, we added individual spins to each restaurant.

The one in Mid-City has a more rustic feel, and we put a burger on that menu. We also added a waffle sandwich with pimento cheese, as well as chicken and waffles. French Toast came next, featuring—of course—a French toast menu. One version is a riff on our Tartine King Cake: king cake-stuffed French toast. Another is stuffed with coconut cream.

We opened Toast Gretna and added a playground for the kids, along with some Louisiana favorites like crawfish toast and oyster toast.

Our most recent restaurant is Hen House, a mostly gluten-free café. All gluten-free breads and pastries are baked on site every morning. Our breakfast and lunch menu is served daily. In addition to our large breakfast menu, we serve a variety of sandwiches, salads, and soups.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

On March 17th, 2020, we got word that our restaurants would have to shut down. We tried takeout and curbside service, but we couldn’t make it work. Employees were scared, and the world was shutting down.

I stayed up all night, freaking out about what to do. I started writing menus—family-style meals that could work on a large scale and be delivered across the city. Each meal would include a main course, sides, bread, and the option to add dessert. Luckily, my husband had been a catering chef for 10 years, so he was a natural.

We kept everyone on who wanted to work and/or couldn’t get unemployment, and we immediately started organizing and getting these meals out there.

My husband had a crew at one restaurant making the main and side dishes. I had a crew at another restaurant baking the breads and desserts, making salads and dressings, organizing, and delivering.

We were feeding about 300 people a night and continued this for 13 weeks.

It was hard. It was stressful. I had two little kids at home being babysat by their grandmother via iPad for eight hours a day. (I will say this is still one of their most cherished memories—they had a lot of fun.)

I learned a lot about myself, my husband and my team during those hard times, and I am forever grateful for what we were able to accomplish.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met my business partner in the summer of 2002. I had moved to New York City to attend The French Culinary Institute. The dorms were co-ed and located on Roosevelt Island. Really, they were just three-bedroom apartments with a shared living room and kitchen.

The program was six months long, and new students started every three months, so people were constantly moving in and out. When I moved in, my roommate Evan had already been in the savory program for three months. We met and were immediately inseparable.

We would take the subway to school together and meet after class at Toad Hall—the unofficial school watering hole. We worked on projects together and even skipped school a couple of times to get lost in Central Park. I brought him home for Thanksgiving that year, and we moved back for good just in time for Katrina.

We married in 2006 after canceling our first wedding because of the hurricane. I opened Tartine in 2010, and he was the chef of a large catering company. He worked crazy hours but would still find pockets of time to help—working the line, prepping, running errands.

In 2017, he joined me full time—the best move we could have made. We’ll be married 20 years next spring, and he’s the best husband and business partner I could imagine.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tartineneworleans.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartinenola/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tartineneworleans/