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Amour De Cafe

New Orleans East resident Betty Brock enjoys running her own business, but entrepreneurship was not always in her plans.

After graduating from Walter L. Cohen High School, Brock attended Delgado Community College, then pursued certification as a nursing assistant. She worked at Children’s Hospital for six years before moving to West Jefferson General Hospital, where she was employed until after Hurricane Katrina.

After that, a Metairie cafe owner offered her a job.

“I began working at the coffee shop two or three days a week, and I fell in love with it.”

It wasn't long before the owner asked Brock if she were interested in taking over the business because she did not want to deal with the problems of owneship anymore.

Brock jumped at the offer; and although the cafe owner was willing to sign everything over to her, the property manager was not cooperative in transfering the lease. “She kept making excuses for not closing the deal,” Brock says.

With the recalcitrant manager an obstacle, Brock decided that perhaps being a business owner wasn’t in the stars, until she received a call from a friend informing her of a storefront available in Kenner’s Rivertown.

“I visited the space, found it suitable for what I wanted to do, signed the lease and began working to get my own cafe together with the help of friends and family,” she says.

“We moved everything from the cafe in Metairie into this space.”

After much thought, Brock named her shop Amour De Cafe, which she explains is love of coffee in French.

The cafe’s menu includes various hot, cold and frozen coffees such as cafe white mocha, vanilla malted latte, cafe caramel, as well as muffins, soups, wraps and sandwiches.

“The previous owner gave me all of her recipes for the coffees, even the chicken salad and I decided to add a few items like the smoothie and the club sandwich.”

Brock takes pride in offering her customers healthy choices. She uses fresh ingredients, and none of the items on her menu are fried.

“My tuna and chicken salads are always made fresh,” she boasts.

In addition to working hard to operate a successful business, Brock is involved in the community.

“My first year here, I had an Easter party for the neighborhood,” she says. “And for Christmas, I adopted a family and asked my customers to bring in gifts for them. I want to do more of that. I feel that a business should support the community it is in.”

Brock really appreciates the Kenner community for its patronage. “I have several regular customers who come in everyday to check on me and make sure I’m okay,” she says. “I think that’s amazing.”

Brock’s goal is to become stable enough to hire a few part-time employees so she can be more active in the community.

“I really want to get out into the neighborhood and work to make it better,” she says.

Brock says that being a first-time business owner has been difficult, but adds that despite the challenges, she enjoys what she does.

For more information on Amour De Cafe, visit 312 Williams Blvd or call
504-467-3101.