Parish Foods has a little ‘dip’, a little ‘dat’

RAYNE - We’ve all been there, at least those of us who eat boiled crawfish. Thoughout the extensive process of finally getting those delicious mudbugs on the table and ready to eat, you’re missing that one thing — that perfect dip.
“The idea seemed so simple when it dawned on me,” said Blaine Gary, owner/operator of Parish Foods. “It seemed so simple, but hadn’t been done yet.”
Yes, you guessed it — that creamy and delicious dip to compliment that perfect bite of a crawfish tail.
“I think everyone who sits down to enjoy a crawfish boil makes dip,” Gary continued. “So, that’s what I did. I mixed up batches, made adjustments, and eventually ended up with a good product in a squeeze bottle.
“I was still working full-time and decided to give it a try part-time in 2010 with a little 16’ x 16’ building I pulled next to my parents’ house.
“We mixed and packaged some batches, filling bottles with a pitcher I borrowed from my mom’s kitchen,” he explained, smiling as he thinks back to eight years ago. “I hit the road one day with the intent of not coming home until every bottle was sold.
“I can honestly say that it didn’t take too long before every jar was sold. Everyone I spoke to were impressed with the packaging and I had more stores wanting it than not.
“Then I thought, I might have something here.”
From that time on, the wheels have not stopped turning — the wheels on the road and in his head.
“We’ve come a long way,” Gary continued from his new location one mile north of Interstate 10 on Highway 35. “We’re about to close the paperwork on this building. It’s kinda surreal how far we’ve come from that little building to this.”
“This” is the 17,000-square-foot processing plant formerly occupied by l’Ecrevisse. The larger building was needed due to additional orders from large stores, including Walmart.
“We moved to a Lafayette location for a few years, but we outgrew that, too. That brought us here.”
Not only does Gary bottle and ship his original three “Dat Dip” sauces (Cajun Boy, Lemon and Garlic), he’s also proud of additional creations he has produced including a barbeque sauce, “Troux Cajun.”
“It has a sweet, but tangy taste, like a cross between Jack’s and Sweet Baby Ray,” said Gary. “So far, it’s going well in all the sizes available.”
Like the original Dat Dip dipping sauce and other available items, Gary provides an array of sizes, from 2-ounce sealed cups to gallon jugs.
“Whatever the customer needs, we’ll package it for them.”
You name it, Parish Foods provides it for their customers, including dipping sauce, barbeque sauce, choux, beverages, frozen “ice bites,” seasoning mixes — and they can provide it in whatever size needed.
“Before we existed, these companies basically had to make their own items and ship them, which is very expensive,” Gary said of the companies Parish Foods now services.
“Actually, many companies were not companies until they came to us. We pretty much helped them from the bottom up.
“They, the company, call us, order what they need and how many, and we take care of the order. All they provide is the label. When they pick it up, it’s in a box ready to go.
“The bulk of our business right now is sauces and the wet products, but we’re slowing getting into doing different seasonings, blends, fish fry and dry seafood boil. We’ll get more into that next year. I’m more interested in bulk when we get into that aspect.
“Actually, we are about to come out with three new Bloody Marys, a cocktail sauce that we’re waiting on labels for right now, and a couple other new items I’m looking forward to.
“We have a lot of new projects that we’re about to get started with. Things are looking pretty good now.”