Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

AUNT SALLY’S
PRALINES
Top: Diane and Pierre Bagur.
Bottom: Iola “Baby Doll” Thomas.
Sweet pralines bubbling in an old copper
pot. The click-clack of a horse drawn carriage
on a cobblestone street. Jazz drifting from an
ancient doorway. The rich taste of gumbo.
The first bite of a hot, fresh beignet. The smell
of sweet pralines still warm from the kitchen.
These are the sights, sounds and flavors that
make up New Orleans. These are what the
founders of Aunt Sally’s Pralines wanted to
share with the world.
Aunt Sally’s was founded in the tightly-knit
French Creole community of New Orleans in
the early 1900s. In 1935, newlyweds Pierre
and Diane Bagur opened the first Aunt Sally’s
Praline Shop in a commercial strip of the
French Quarter known as the French Market.
They sold handmade pralines, along with a
collection of retail merchandise representing
New Orleans’ culture and Creole traditions.
Over several decades the family opened more
stores, created new recipes, and modernized
their production facilities, evolving into an
iconic New Orleans brand. In addition to
retail stores, Aunt Sally’s developed successful
mail order, Internet, and wholesale channels,
while maintaining family ownership and a
solid commitment to the City of New Orleans.
Today, as New Orleans celebrates its 300th
anniversary, Aunt Sally’s headquarters is located
just blocks from the Mississippi River and
the Louisiana Superdome. Every day the
sweet scent of pralines bubbling in copper
pots permeates neighborhood, as the St.
Charles streetcar rumbles by, art lovers shop
the finest galleries in New Orleans, and locals
and tourists alike drink and dine in popular
neighborhood eateries.
Aunt Sally’s flagship store is still located at
810 Decatur Street, welcoming hundreds of
people daily from around the world. At the
stores and online, Aunt Sally’s sells New
Orleans gifts and souvenirs, including excellent
cookbooks, specialty foods, housewares,
and local art. But the heart and soul of Aunt
Sally’s is the praline, made in two varieties.
The Creole Praline is made every day, using
the original family recipe, cooked and poured
entirely by hand, with no preservatives. It is a
thin, slightly crisp candy with a perfectly balanced
nutty sweetness, made in original and
chocolate flavors.
The Creamy Praline follows a recipe invented
by Aunt Sally’s in 2000, and it is a thicker,
fudge-like candy in five flavors. While the delicate
Creole candy is best enjoyed within two
weeks of being made, the Creamy varieties
have an eight-month shelf life.
All of Aunt Sally’s pralines are certified
Kosher and one hundred percent gluten free
and delicious!
The vision, history, and tradition of the
Bagur family are an American success story.
What a young couple started over eighty years
ago in the French Quarter, is now a multi-million-dollar
business, delivering the highest
quality and most-recognized brand of pralines
to customers around the world.
The exact history of how the Praline came
to be is unknown, but we do know that in the
1600s, French Chef Clement Lassagne created
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