A coffee brand founded in a small Louisiana town and now available in grocery stores, on LSU's campus and even in Washington, D.C., is working on a new venture: its first cafe.
French Settlement Roasting Co. was founded by Billy and Shannon LaGrange, of French Settlement, over a decade ago, using a popcorn popper to roast coffee.
Now, the couple operates a full-scale roasting facility in Holden, supplies more than 20 locations with their product, has a mobile coffee truck and are currently preparing to open their first brick-and-mortar cafe.
The coffee business, known for its "Bloody Angola" and "Jet Fuel" blends, expects to start building the store at the beginning of 2026 and open it by the summer.
The location in Maurepas, next to Diversion Pizza and Sarita's restaurants, plans to serve coffee, tea and breakfast food.
"It took off. Everybody wanted the coffee. Everybody who tries it buys it. That's still the model," Billy LaGrange said.
Parish President Randy Delatte, in August, named the coffee brand the
"It's a veteran-owned, homegrown success story that brings pride to Livingston Parish. When something made right here in our community is being enjoyed on the Senate floor in Washington, that's worth celebrating," Delatte said in the August proclamation.
Delatte was to U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who has supported the local coffee business for years and has even brought it to Washington, D.C., during Senate meetings.
From popcorn popper to full-scale coffee roaster
French Settlement Roasting Co. began when Billy LaGrange, while working at a nuclear power plant, sought a cup of coffee that actually tasted good to him.
"I used to hate coffee," he said.
French Settlement Roasting Co. owners Billy LaGrange pulls up one of his first coffee roasting machines at their roasting and packaging facility in Holden on Wednesday, December 16, 2025. LaGrange said he never thought he’d spend so much money on a coffee machine before spending lots more money on commercial size roasting machines as the business grew.
Eventually, he realized he could make it himself and began roasting coffee with a popcorn popper. People around him also wanted the coffee he made, so he eventually decided to upgrade to a small roaster and then, eventually, the full-scale roaster the business uses now.
The LaGranges began selling the coffee grounds at local farmers markets and have now expanded to grocery stores in Livingston and Ascension Parishes and cafes in Baton Rouge like City Pork LSU.
"That's probably one of the biggest ones, I think. When we got it, it was like, 'Oh, cool!'" Shannon LaGrange said about serving their coffee on LSU's campus.
Shannon LaGrange said a lot of the feedback they receive comes from people who originally couldn't drink coffee due to taste or other factors.
She said one customer who was going through chemotherapy couldn't drink coffee because the medicine changed her taste buds.
"She found us when she was going through chemo … nothing tasted good. But she could drink our coffee all day long," Shannon LaGrange said.
The couple runs every aspect of their business, from roasting the coffee to making deliveries, all while they still keep their day jobs working at an Entergy plant and in health care, respectively.
Along with keeping their jobs the same, the LaGranges have also never changed the price of their coffee to remain affordable.
"Everything in the world went up, and coffee, in general, in the last six months, went up double. But yet we're still at the same price," Billy LaGrange said.
