By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Although the sign on the front door of Jacob’s World Famous Andouille in LaPlace still read “closed” on Wednesday, the familiar smell of pork slow curing in the smokehouses wafted through the air out back. By Thursday, the sign had been turned around, and the shop was open for business, if not quite as usual.

“It’s slowly getting back to normal,” said owner Aaron Lions. “People who heard we were open came out to give us a little extra support.”

On Monday, Lions as well as the local community as a whole received a little scare when one of the smokehouses caught fire, prompting firefighters from LaPlace and Reserve to come out to battle the flames. The fire was extinguished in less than an hour according to LaPlace Fire Chief John Snyder.

Still, as firefighters tended to the smoldering remains in the smokehouse area, it seemed unlikely the facility would be returning so soon.

“I thought the cleanup would be a lot more (involved),” said Lions.

He said the help of members of the community including Boyscout Troop 312 helped expedite the process, although Lions still had to spend much of Thursday tending to fire-related matters.

When he went to turn on the business’ computer, for instance, he found it would not boot up, possibly as a result of power surges that happened during Monday’s incident. The alarm system also had to be tended to.

While Lions described the inventory as sufficient, Jacob’s will be somewhat limited in its production capacity for the time being. Two of their four smokehouses were in operation, and a third was being repaired. The fourth will have to be rebuilt.

Also, the door to the cooler was ripped off its hinges during Monday’s confusion, so storage space is likewise limited.

“We’re doing our best to make sure customers won’t get turned away,” said Lions, adding, “It will take months to totally rebuild.”

Luckily, one of the smokehouses Lions managed to save was the original, which dates back to 1928 when the operation was run out of the home of his great-grandparents, Nelson and Camille Jacob, on River Road.

Jacob’s moved to its present location in 1978 to take advantage of the traffic traversing Airline Highway. Lions inherited the operation from his mother in 1994, and while the location and name of the owner may have changed through the years, the recipe for making andouille has remained constant.

“It has been the same seasoning blend since the beginning,” said Lions. “If you like it today and you liked it yesterday, you will like it tomorrow.”

And tomorrow seems to be where Lions is continually looking. Since Monday’s fire, he has repeated these words often; “We’re here to stay.”