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Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: COVID-19 Project

ORAL HISTORY

Melissa Martin

Mosquito Supper Club

Chauvin, Louisiana native Melissa Martin did not begin her career in the food industry, but you could say that she’s been doing what she does for a living from birth. Growing up in a family generations-deep in the legacy of fishing on Louisiana’s coast, Martin’s culinary interpretation encompasses more than just food, but what she considers and endangered way of life and the social ethic that underpins it all.

Martin’s earlier ventures included Satsuma Café and and the Curious Oyster Company, but Martin’s larger vision culminated in 2014 with the Mosquito Supper Club. Here she serves fresh, elegantly straightforward Cajun dishes in, under normal circumstances, in a family-style dining room. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Martin to adjust her unique restaurant model to accommodate distancing regulations, presenting a special challenge to present the communal, intimate experience that Supper Club regulars have come to love.

Date of interview:
2020-10-08

Interviewer:
Justin Nystrom

Photographer:
Justin Nystrom

Download Transcript

“

"Well, there's no other choice. I can't do family-style. In order to save the business, we unfortunately have to be open. In a perfect world, we would have been able to remain closed and figure out, financially, how to make it happen. We've actually never been closed. We shut down for two weeks, but then we re-opened; started cooking for hospitals through Feed the Frontline. Then, from there, we transitioned to to-go when the funds ran out for that. Then from to-go, we transitioned back into our tasting menu once we were allowed at 25% capacity. We started feeding twelve people at 5:30 and twelve people at 7:30. Then, from there, we've just been evolving." - Melissa Martin

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