Seventeen years after graduating from LSU, an alumnus and his wife are bringing a taste of Louisiana to Liverpool, England, with the opening of their New Orleans-style restaurant. Reggie and Cassie Pullman plan to open SuSu’s in June, naming it after Pullman’s mother, whom his children call “SuSu.”
SuSu is originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but she moved to Gulf Shores, Alabama, near Pullman and his wife, five years ago. If Pullman could smell his mother cooking while growing up, he knew it would be a good day. Whether it was his family, friends or neighbors, he said everyone was blessed with his mother’s cooking, so a lot of the restaurant’s menu items will be her own recipes.

“It’s a real honor to bring that upon her and share her recipes and food with the world,” Pullman said.

Customers at SuSu’s will be able to choose from a range of Louisiana-style menu options. Whether it be boudin balls as an appetizer, chicken and sausage gumbo as an entree or pralines for dessert, there will be plenty of options to choose from. Every meal at SuSu’s will be served with a set of Mardi Gras beads, bringing the spirit of New Orleans to the table.

“It’s never hot over there, so it’ll always be good to eat gumbo,” Pullman said.

One of the biggest obstacles throughout this journey was finding stores in England that sell the vital ingredients included in many of Louisiana’s dishes. Pullman said that items such as French bread are not as big in England, but after heavy research he ran into Plattsville Bakehouse, which will be his French bread provider.

After touring many meat processing companies, customers will also be able to get a taste of freshly smoked andouille sausage. Pullman is also working on shipping over two thousand pounds of red beans to Liverpool to make sure restaurant-goers get the full New Orleans experience.

SuSu’s will be decked out wall to wall in Jazz Fest and Blue Dog posters, with the sound of jazz music heard from every room. Its website will feature the history behind each dish served, the music played and the cultural heritage of Southern Louisiana.

This will be the only restaurant in Liverpool to pay all its employees a living wage, Pullman said. This income will allow workers and their families to afford basic needs such as adequate housing and food, and the restaurant will share 10% of its profits with employees. After its initial opening, the owners plan on franchising the business across the United Kingdom.

Liverpool is a town of around 500,000 people and brings in 16 million visitors a year, with many similarities to New Orleans, Pullman said. Both cities have major ports with a deep history, especially in regards to music, since New Orleans has its jazz and Liverpool has icons like The Beatles.

“From the day we arrived in Liverpool the first time, we were instantly in love,” Cassie Pullman said.

The Pullmans had been travelling to Liverpool for years before fathoming the idea of opening a restaurant there. Pullman planned these trips to watch his favorite “lovable losing” soccer team, Everton. It wasn’t until a trip to Italy in 2024, after a few glasses of Prosecco, that the couple began mapping out their restaurant’s menu on a bar napkin. That napkin eventually made its way with them to Liverpool.

The couple would always stay at the same hotel in Liverpool during their trips. Over the years, the two formed a good relationship with a concierge named Davy Patrick Lane. After Pullman found out that Lane was a huge Lynyrd Skynyrd fan, he would bring Lane merch every time they visited. During one visit, the couple brought up their restaurant idea. Lane told the Pullmans that the people in Liverpool would love it.

“He said locals would eat it up. Literally,” Pullman said.

Though Pullman and his wife were set on the idea of opening a Louisiana-style restaurant in Liverpool, there were many unique signs and coincidences that gave the couple that final push towards officially opening the restaurant.

“The universe was yelling at us to open a restaurant across the pond,” Pullman said.

Pullman was once waiting outside of the Everton store in Liverpool when he was approached by the Everton Twitter (X) photographer who asked to take a picture of him and his new merch. Little to his knowledge, that post had gained 30,000 views.

The following day was match day, and Pullman and his wife were approached by two men at a beer garden outside the stadium. One of them told Pullman that he recognized him from the post. The conversation then turned to Pullman’s restaurant idea, and by the time he and his wife left, they had contact information for a local attorney and accountant.

After their conversation, Pullman made his way to the bar where he would meet his first employee, Charlie Patterson. In a Scouse accent, she asked if he ate Southern food after hearing he was from Alabama.

“Look at me lady, there isn’t a lot that I don’t eat,” Pullman said to Patterson.

Patterson went on to tell him that she makes a good jambalaya, without tomatoes, so he also told her about the restaurant idea. She loved it and offered to be his first employee.

One week later, Cassie Pullman took an uber to the airport back in America, and of course, her driver was from no place else other than Liverpool. The two took it as a sign and decided that they would finally open a restaurant.

“When Reggie brought up the idea of opening a Cajun restaurant in the U.K., I thought he was a little crazy,” Cassie Pullman said. “But everything that happened while we were in Liverpool in 2024, it just seemed like God wanted us there.”

The two started to look for a restaurant location after deciding to go for it. That’s when the couple came across an Irish pub and kitchen that closed during the pandemic. The pub is located in one of the main hubs Liverpool Centre, which Pullman compared to Bourbon Street.

The official opening date for SuSu’s isn’t set in stone; however, the Pullmans are pushing for an early June opening date. Until then, more information on SuSu’s and its menu can be found here.

“We want to have people learn the culture, the ways, the menus, the recipes, and just bring Louisiana to the UK,” Pullman said.