just a block from the University of Houston and not far from TSU. The po-boys were tasty and easy to make, but the small establishment quickly decided to add fried chicken to the menu, mostly due to the success of the competing Church’s Chicken right across the street. Church’s only prevailed so long. Creuzot used an old New Orleans family recipe to season the meat, and added sides like dirty rice and jumbalaya—flavor that quickly blew the competition out of the water. At that time, unbelievable though it may seem, Southern Louisiana inspired cuisine was hard to come by—before Mr. Creuzot’s shop revolutionized the market.
The 3919 Scott location quickly blossomed into more and more franchises, totaling around 25 locations in Houston, Galveston, Dallas, Texas City and La Marque. The only trouble was, as his son Percy Creuzot, III told us, this expansion coincided almost perfectly with the mid 80s economic bust. Only a handful of those stores survived, but despite the setback, Creuzot remained well-off. His success gave him the ability to give back to the community, through a laundry list of philanthropic enterprises, including his support of the United Negro College Fund, the Urban League, The NAACP, the University of Houston, Texas Southern University, Xavier University, Hampton University and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, among others. As Percy Creuzot, III told us, his father “possessed a certain amount of business acumen, and he was a strong believer in education, for both his children and grandchildren.” Clearly he believed that education was important to all, as one can see from the universities he donated money to. He was also a man of great faith, a life-long Catholic who served on the board of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. Each issue we put a lot of thought into who we choose as Houston’s Most Noted. We can’t think of anyone who more truly deserves this distinction than Percy Creuzot, Jr. He gave so much to make this city what it is today and, as his son puts it, “he was a person that was wise, that would share a lot of good information about business and life,” and he shared it with the city.
“Frenchy”- successful entrepreneur, philanthropist and strong proponent of education
May 28, 1924 – June 6, 2010