Amanda Carter built Grapies Nola from an unexpected pandemic idea into a business with a permanent location and products sold around New Orleans. Now, Chicken’s Kitchen is giving her and other local entrepreneurs another place to reach customers without charging them for the space.

By Kim M. Braud | September 18, 2026

HARVEY, La. - Inside Chicken’s Kitchen, where customers regularly arrive for the restaurant’s popular plates and sides, local entrepreneurs are getting an opportunity to put their own products in front of those same customers.

Marlon “Chicken” Williams recently announced the initiative on Instagram, inviting local businesses to use space at his Harvey restaurant to showcase and sell their products at no charge. After seeing Williams’ post, Evans Cutchmore Press went to Chicken’s Kitchen to see the initiative firsthand and meet one of the entrepreneurs taking advantage of the opportunity.

That entrepreneur was Amanda Carter, owner of Grapies Nola, who had set up inside the restaurant with bags of colorful candied grapes. During the visit, Carter moved easily between talking about the journey behind her business and serving customers who stopped at her table. She offered samples, explained the assortment of flavors and completed sales, sometimes interrupting the interview to greet another customer.

“Each bag is going to include all of those flavors,” Carter told one customer before offering a sample of green apple.

For small business owners, those interactions matter. Getting a product in front of new customers can mean paying vendor fees, attending festivals, securing retail placement or absorbing the expense of maintaining a storefront. Chicken’s Kitchen is eliminating at least one of those barriers by providing the space at no charge.

The effort is an extension of the community focus Williams has built around Chicken’s Kitchen. The restaurant identifies supporting local businesses as part of its community mission, along with initiatives that include providing free meals to children.

An unexpected business takes off

Carter did not set out to build a candied-grape business. During the pandemic, she began making masks when demand for them surged. Then she posted something she had made at home on Instagram, and someone asked whether she was selling it.

That question sent Carter in a new direction. At the time, she said, she did not even realize candied grapes had become a business category.

“I didn’t even know candy grapes was a thing, actually,” Carter said.

Once she discovered there was a market, she began researching what other businesses were doing. She and her husband then started brainstorming ways to make their product distinctive. Carter developed her own approach to wrapping and packaging the grapes, eventually creating the product and presentation that became Grapies Nola.

Customers responded quickly. Carter remembers one early pop-up where the line stretched approximately two blocks, and she said some pop-ups sold out in about 10 minutes. The demand continued for roughly a year and eventually caught the attention of Rouses Markets.

From pop-ups to building a customer base

As Grapies Nola gained attention on social media, Carter began receiving opportunities to bring the product directly to customers through pop-ups at local retail locations. What began as an online business was increasingly reaching people in person, and Carter said the response remained strong. For roughly two to three years, those pop-ups became an important part of building the Grapies Nola customer base, sometimes drawing lines of people waiting to purchase the product.

Although Carter initially hoped the opportunity might eventually lead to permanent placement on store shelves, that did not happen. Still, she considers the experience valuable. The exposure introduced Grapies Nola to new customers and gave her an opportunity to continue growing the brand beyond social media.

When the pop-up arrangement eventually ended, Carter and her husband began thinking about what should come next. Rather than retreating, they moved toward establishing a space of their own. They eventually found a permanent location at The Lot, a collection of small commercial spaces on Oretha Castle Haley Blvd in New Orleans, where Carter said Grapies Nola will mark three years in November.

The move represented another step in the evolution of a business that began with a single Instagram post. Grapies Nola has since expanded beyond pop-ups and its own location into wholesale distribution, with Carter saying the product is now carried in approximately 10 stores around the city.

The business has also become a family endeavor. Carter said her husband was not working when they began building Grapies Nola. Once businesses reopened and returning to traditional employment became an option, he stayed with Grapies Nola instead. What began during an uncertain period became something the couple could build together.

One business creating space for another

Carter’s journey shows why access to customers can matter so much for a growing business. Her years of pop-ups gave Grapies Nola exposure even when a hoped-for grocery store placement did not materialize. A permanent location gave the business a home, and wholesale relationships expanded its reach further.

Now, Chicken’s Kitchen is providing another kind of access. Instead of requiring local entrepreneurs to absorb another vendor expense, Williams is using the audience his restaurant has already built to create room for other businesses to be seen.

Chicken’s Kitchen followed its own unconventional path to a permanent location. Williams expanded his catering business during the pandemic by operating a home-based drive-thru promoted through social media before opening the Harvey restaurant in 2020. As the restaurant has grown, Williams has used some of that visibility for community initiatives and to support other local entrepreneurs.

For Carter, a table inside Chicken’s Kitchen represents another chance to put Grapies Nola in front of someone who may never have tried them before. Her own business history is evidence of what can happen after one introduction.

Grapies began with an Instagram post and a simple question from someone who saw what Carter had made: Was she selling them? She was, and she has been building the business ever since.

Friday’s pop-up marked the first installment of what Williams plans to make a weekly initiative at Chicken’s Kitchen. Each Friday, the restaurant will provide space for local Black-owned businesses, as well as advertising space on the wall for allies of Black-owned businesses, to showcase and sell their products to Chicken’s Kitchen customers at no charge.

The effort is expected to feature different entrepreneurs as the weeks continue, creating a recurring opportunity for small businesses to gain exposure without taking on the additional cost of a traditional vendor space. Evans Cutchmore Press plans to follow the initiative and introduce readers to more of the participating businesses in future installments.

Follow Grapies Nola on IG at https://www.instagram.com/grapiesnola/

Kim M. Braud is the Founder & Editor of Evans Cutchmore Press, an independent newsroom covering Louisiana and the Gulf South. Her reporting focuses on government accountability, infrastructure, business, culture, and the public policies that shape communities.

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