New Orleans to Hampton Beach: Ragin’ Cajun opening North of NOLA ‘swamp bar’

HAMPTON — Every Tuesday will be Fat Tuesday on D Street as one local bartender is opening a new restaurant in the style of his hometown New Orleans.

“I’m going to get them out of their chair second lining,” said Sonny Vasquez in his new restaurant North of NOLA. “This is going to be my swamp bar.”

Vasquez, 47, is working with his wife, Cassy, to open North of NOLA by July 5 at 3 D St. It is the former Cascade Café location next to the Casino Ballroom. He moved into the space a few weeks ago and is looking to serve up po’ boys and grits in a town where lobster and seafood chowder are more common fare.

It is the second restaurant his family has opened since coming to Hampton three years ago, Cassy being co-owner of Ginger and Clove on Route 1. Sonny Vasquez has worked in the kitchen there and has already acclimated some northerners to his southern style.

“When we first opened, I couldn’t sell a grit to somebody. They weren’t willing to try them,” Sonny Vasquez said. “Now I run out of grits daily.”

North of NOLA will be the next step in bringing his southern cooking to the Seacoast. Menu items include his Zydeco pasta, fried green tomatoes, hush puppies, blackened chicken and Louisiana-style fried fish. At the bar will be classic New Orleans beverages like strawberry daiquiris and frozen hurricanes, popular on the bayou where temperatures can reach 108 degrees. Breakfast will also be a specialty, according to Vasquez.

“The beach needs breakfast,” he said.

For those looking for lobster, Vasquez said people can go to plenty of other places on the Hampton strip. That doesn’t mean they won’t find good seafood at North of NOLA, even in a beignet.

“Stuff ‘em with seafood, cream sauce and potatoes,” Vasquez said. “I’ll blow your mind.”

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Vasquez raised in NOLA, gets new start in Hampton

Vasquez calls himself the “ragin’ Cajun” when running a bar or pumping out food from a kitchen. He has worked in restaurants around Hampton since coming to the area three years ago. Those include JB’s Seafood, the Boardwalk Café, Bogie’s, Santiago’s and Shane’s Texas Pit.

Vasquez said his mother and grandmother ran their own eatery and he's been working in hospitality since the age of 9. He met his wife in the industry, as well.

“I’m ‘who dat’ born and raised,” Vasquez said, referring to the New Orleans football chant “Who dat sayin’ dey gonna beat them Saints?”

Vasquez’s journey away from the bayou began when family drew him, his wife and children to Washington state about 15 years ago. There, they set up an ice cream shop and raised their children.

“We stayed there for 12 beautiful years,” Vasquez said. The best part of running an ice cream shop was making people smile.

“You can’t cry with ice cream in your mouth,” Vasquez said. “I just brought joy to families, bringing families back together.”

The ice cream career was put on hold when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the United States. The first confirmed case in the country was in Washington, not far from where they lived.

With so much uncertainty around the ice cream shop’s future, Vasquez said it was time to sell it, along with their two cars, and they moved to where his wife’s brother lived in Hampton.

The following May, Cassy Vasquez and her sister Angelica Spinelli opened Ginger and Clove, named in part after Sonny’s mother Ginger. Meanwhile, Sonny Vasquez worked there along with his various restaurant jobs.

“I’m kind of like Spider-Man,” Vasquez said. “I’m your friendly neighborhood bartender.”

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Opportunity comes at former Cascade Café space

Three weeks ago, Sonny Vasquez said he got a call from Boardwalk Cafe owner Jimmy Trainor and his longtime manager Traci Schaake, who also run JB’s. They told him the former Cascade Restaurant had left the building at 3 D St. They encouraged him to talk to the landlords and the Casino management, he said, about opening his own restaurant.

“I got a call saying, ‘They (the Cascade) are not opening. I would love to have you as our neighbor,’” Vasquez said.

Vasquez said his family had been looking for opportunities to grow since his wife and sister opened Ginger and Clove. He said they have also talked to the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce about opening another Ginger and Clove in the next few years in that city.

“We’ve always been searching,” Vasquez said.

Vasquez agreed to what he called a “five-year handshake” with his new landlord. Now he is plans to grow North of NOLA’s menu and hospitality in the coming years. He said the new place will take up his time, so he won’t be working his usual bar shifts around Hampton, including for Trainor and Schaake.

“I was like, ‘I’m your bartender throughout the season,’” Vasquez said he told his bosses. “They said, ‘Yeah, it sucks for us, great for you, plus we’re getting a great neighbor.’”

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Vasquez to expand North of NOLA offerings overtime

Vasquez said the first season for North of NOLA will be a “dumbed-down” version of what he hopes to do once he is fully staffed and gets his footing at Hampton Beach. He said he is keeping the menu simple enough to train his staff to produce it well from the kitchen, allowing him to eventually step on the floor and engage with customers.

“What I do on the front is I tap dance for everybody,” Vasquez said. He said restaurant work is a grind he is willing to endure but that he truly loves spending time with people.

“I like being on the floor and getting people’s party started,” Vasquez said.

He said Hampton has been a welcoming place to his family since he arrived and he hopes to give that back in the form of his hometown’s best hospitality.

“The minute you unlock that door, you are inviting the world to your house, and you want them to be part of something beautiful,” Vasquez said. “That’s what we’re going to do.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: North of NOLA ‘swamp bar’ coming to Hampton Beach NH