About Big Easy Roasting
Our Story
New Orleans runs on coffee. For more than two centuries, this city has woken up to the smell of dark roast and chicory drifting through the French Quarter, poured strong from a chipped café cup alongside a plate of beignets. Coffee here isn't just a habit. It's a vital part of our heritage and the essence of Gulf South coffee culture.
Big Easy Roasting carries that heritage forward, and we come by it honestly.
Our principal owner, Mike Bearden, spent his career running the plants that built New Orleans coffee culture, from the Folgers plant in Gentilly to Vice President of Operations at Reily Foods, the New Orleans institution behind French Market Coffee. If you've sipped coffee in this city, chances are Mike had a hand in roasting it. Decades inside the biggest names in American coffee taught him something simple: great coffee starts with operational excellence.
Mike's wife, Kim, shares that same hands-on instinct. The two met as cheerleaders at the University of South Florida, long before coffee ever entered the picture. Kim picked up the habit later, after their twin boys arrived and she needed the fuel to keep up with them. These days she runs point on cupping, grinding, and packaging at the roastery, tasting and refining every batch before it reaches your cup.
Then there's Lionel, the guy telling you all this. He grew up on coffee milk down Bayou Lafourche, then graduated to drip coffee with chicory and café au lait like everybody else's grandmother made it. Now he handles the marketing and spends his time experimenting with new blends and telling their story one bag at a time.
That's Big Easy Roasting. We specialize in small-batch coffee, roasted with big-plant expertise and Gulf South soul. Every blend we craft honors the city that taught us how, from the neighborhoods we name our roasts after to the chicory tradition we refuse to let fade.
Welcome to the Big Easy. Pull up a cup.
Giving Back to Our Community
Hospice House Crawfish Cookoff
The Landing Crawfish Cookoff for STARC
The Landing Crawfish Cookoff for STARC
Every spring, our boil team fires up the burners at the Louisiana Crawfish Cookoff in Slidell, proudly supporting the Hospice Foundation of the South while showcasing a bit of Big Easy Roasting. We boil hundreds of pounds of crawfish, over a dozen sacks, and feed a crowd in the name of a good cause. The Foundation operates the Hospice House, the only home of its kind in St. Tammany Parish, where terminally ill patients spend their final days in comfort and dignity at no cost to their families. As we season our pots, swap stories with neighbors, and pour a little Gulf South hospitality into our efforts, we also celebrate the rich Gulf South coffee culture, enjoying small-batch coffee that energizes our community and brings local families peace when they need it most.
The Landing Crawfish Cookoff for STARC
The Landing Crawfish Cookoff for STARC
The Landing Crawfish Cookoff for STARC
You'll find our crew back behind the boil pots at The Landing Bar & Grill Annual Crawfish Cook-off, where we compete to benefit STARC of Louisiana. The Landing happens to be our favorite local bar, so this one always feels like home. STARC serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities across St. Tammany and four surrounding parishes, offering a lifetime of services, job training, and community connection that help people grow toward greater independence. As we bring our own flavor and the spice of the Big Easy Roasting tradition to the event, we also enjoy the camaraderie that reflects the vibrant Gulf South coffee culture. The real win belongs to the folks STARC supports every day, and we’re proud to contribute to this cause alongside our small-batch coffee enthusiasts.
The Redfish Roast Fishing Tournament
The Landing Crawfish Cookoff for STARC
The Redfish Roast Fishing Tournament
We host our own event too. Each fall, usually late October or early November, we run the Big Easy Roasting Redfish Roast out of Delacroix, Louisiana, with every cast benefiting STARC. Anglers chase redfish and speckled trout through some of the richest marsh in the state, and the boats fill up with friends from the Gulf South coffee culture. Good fishing, great people, and a cause worth showing up for. That's the small-batch coffee way of the Big Easy.