[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13858]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               RECOGNIZING LASYONE'S MEAT PIE RESTAURANT

 Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, down in the Bayou State, our 
generations-old recipes are well regarded and in high demand. This week 
I would like to recognize Lasyone's Meat Pie Restaurant of 
Natchitoches, LA, as Small Business of the Week, for their commitment 
to supporting the local economy and keeping the tradition of southern 
cooking alive and well.
  In the 1950s, James Lasyone was the butcher for the Live Oak Grocery 
and began experimenting with a meat pie recipe. In the years that 
followed, Lasyone's recipe became a local favorite, which led to the 
1967 opening of Lasyone's Meat Pie Restaurant in historic downtown 
Natchitoches. A few years later, the editor of House Beautiful Magazine 
dropped in, and Lasyone's Meat Pie Restaurant soon began receiving 
national recognition.
  Today Lasyone's original recipe is a well-kept secret, but Chefs 
Angela Lasyone and Tina Lasyone Smith continue to share meat pies with 
the community, along with several other staples of Southern cuisine, 
including crawfish pie, red beans and sausage, dirty rice, southern 
fried catfish, bread pudding with rum sauce, and chicken and dumplings. 
In their nearly 50 years of operation, Lasyone's Meat Pie Restaurant 
has been praised in national newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune 
and the New York Times, major television shows On the Road with Charles 
Kuralt and Good Morning America, and even in international publications 
from France, Italy, and Spain.
  Congratulations again to the Lasyone's Meat Pie Restaurant for being 
selected as Small Business of the Week. I look forward to my next visit 
to Natchitoches to have another one of your delicious meat pies and 
wish the entire team at Lasyone's continued growth and success.

                          ____________________