111 Hollywood Dr
Lafayette, LA

Alexander’s sells two types of boudin: mild and hot — though a more fitting description might be “hot, hot, hot!” Unwrap the foil-swaddled hot links to unveil an immense boudin that is almost crimson in color. The meat and rice swim in a bath of cayenne-injected juices. Those links are well worth the drive to the Northside of Lafayette to find this nondescript lunch counter and soft-drink store, located in a bare-bones brick building that once housed LeBlanc’s meat market.

615 LA-93
Scott, LA

Open since 1986, the small meat market and grocery store’s red brick exterior and stop sign logo are iconic images down in boudin country. The Stop advertises that they churn out an unbelievable 2,000 pounds of boudin a day — that’s seven tons each week!

523 Apollo Rd
Scott, LA

In addition to traditional boudin links, Billy’s serves boudin pistolettes (fried, boudin-stuffed rolls) and boudin rollups (egg rolls). But it’s the boudin balls that have justly made Billy’s famous. Fried to a dense, Moon-crater crispness, the massive orbs come regular or stuffed with oozy pepper jack cheese.

1019 Albertson Pkwy
Broussard, LA

There might not be a more immaculate spot to purchase a link or two than Chop’s Specialty Meats. When Jeff Delahoussaye opened Chop’s in 2003 his customer base was primarily offshore oil field workers who would stop in for sacks of boudin, fresh sausage, and steaks. Look for the whimsical logo of a pig, sporting a yellow neckerchief and Paul Prudhomme hat, taking a cleaver to a pork chop.

730 I-10 South Frontage Rd
Scott, LA

Got Boudin? A veritable warehouse of meat, Don’s two locations can claim some of the most consistently crowded parking lots in Acadiana. Don Menard and Mark Cole opened the original Carencro location of Don’s in 1992 (Don left after a few years to open a grocery store, but his partner kept his name on the building).

713 LA 728-8
Lafayette, LA

Kirk’s showcases the diversity of boudin varieties. Here, the links are white in color. The meat and rice finely pulverized. The mixture austere, lacking green onion and the traditional cayenne kick. It’s a unique link and worth a try. Long known as Bruce’s U-Need-A Butcher, Kirk’s — named for its second owner Kirk Courville — is now operated by Blake Gallet, whose smiling, cartoony portrait — complete with aviator sunglasses, goatee, and Hawaiian shirt — advertises the business.

509 Lafayette St
Youngsville, LA

From small-town beginnings, NuNu’s has transformed into a verifiable boudin behemoth. It all started in 1953, when Arthé Broussard opened a bar and gentlemens hangout, the Blue Room Lounge, in the unincorporated, Cajun community of Milton. After selling sliced bread and sandwich meat to accompany the cold drinks, it became apparent to Broussard that a grocery was needed more than a barroom. His son Walter, affectionately nicknamed NuNu, eventually opened Walter Broussard’s Supermarket, alongside his wife Jeannette, in 1976.

1111 St John St
Lafayette, LA

In Cajun French, a “boucaniere” is a smokehouse, but more recently it’s a term synonymously linked, in and around Lafayette, to Johnson’s Boucanière, which specializes in pork, beef, and turkey sausages, tasso, jerky, brisket, and pulled pork. The roots of Johnson’s stretch back to the late 1930s, when Arneastor Johnson opened his eponymous grocery in the Cajun prairie town of Eunice. Johnson’s Grocery was one of the first, if not the first, establishment to commercially sell boudin in Louisiana.

1301 E Simcoe St
Lafayette, LA

“Home of the boudin with an attitude,” according to signage, which also features an accordion playing link, Guidroz Food Center has been in business since 1959. That was the year Joseph Guidroz started his own grocery after 20 years of working in meat markets (he quite school at the age of 12 to support his family delivering groceries by bike before graduating to cutting meat). Alvin Guidroz took over from his father in 1987, but Joseph kept making the boudin into his 80s.

111 E Main St
Broussard, LA

“Don’t Boo-Day, Eat Boudin,” read the billboards in Broussard, a play on the Cajun colloquialism meaning ‘to pout’ — boudé. Billeaud’s Meat & Grocery has been curing the boudin blues since 1990, when Billy Billeaud opened the lunch counter-slash-meat market in the back of a small grocery and gas station previously owned by his father.