Bayou Eats | SUFFIT

ARTICLE BY STARLA GATSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY MOORE CLARK

Gathered Grace
At Suffit, Clèlie Stone is serving far more than thoughtfully crafted meals—she’s creating a place where connection, purpose, and second chances gather around the table. In Lake Providence, this fresh food market blends scratch-made cuisine with a mission to nourish both community and calling.

Clèlie Stone says food is secondary. 
Such a declaration sounds unusual coming from a culinary professional. But Stone says it with conviction. She doubles down, adding, “It doesn’t matter how expensive or fancy the food is. The star [of the meal] is never the food.”

Who, in Stone’s eyes, is the star? When asked, her response comes quickly: It’s each person being served. 

“If your food is pretty darn good, [the people] are going to enjoy themselves collectively, and they’re going to open up and have a great time,” she says. “If the food is horrible and not good, then, suddenly, the food becomes the star — the star you don’t want it to be.”

The people-first approach Stone takes in her culinary career isn’t new. She’s done things this way since 2015, when she and her husband opened Stone House Eats in Rayville. They wanted to give customers a place to break bread together, a desire born of their shared belief that divine work can happen over food.

“I believe our world can be restored at the table,” she says. “A shared meal creates order, and you can experience security, provision, and love. It is important to come to the table.” 

The Stones and their team, including their daughter Zoë Webb, managed to keep the Stone House Eats tables open to the public for a few years. Financial strain eventually forced them to close up shop, but Stone’s desire to serve didn’t fade away with the lunch-only restaurant. Instead, it grew, becoming especially strong when she and her family moved to Lake Providence not long after closing Stone House Eats. 

Stone and her husband are pastors, and in 2018, the pair was appointed to a Methodist church in the East Carroll parish town. That, plus the fact that it’s Stone’s birthplace and hometown, gave Lake Providence a special place in her heart. She wanted to minister to the people who live there, to meet their needs however she could. But before she could do that, she needed to figure out what they were.

Living and working in the town allowed her to observe it closely. As she observed, the needs became apparent to her. The first one she noticed — a space where people can connect with and relate to each other — was one she knew just how to solve: Start a business.

“The only way that I know how to hang out with people who don’t go to church with me is to have a business where I get to interact with people who don’t go to church with me,” she says with a laugh. 

The second need Stone noticed came from observing a specific subset of the local population: Newly and soon-to-be-released prisoners.

“[Many of them] get out and have no place to go,” she says sadly. “I thought it would be awesome if I could figure out how to work with prisoners who are a year to 18 months away from release.”

As she considered both needs, the Lake Providence native realized that Suffit (pronounced soo-fee) could kill two birds with one stone. Located at 9598 Highway 65, Suffit promotes a sense of unity and strives to be a safe landing place for those eager to develop culinary and hospitality skills. A fresh food market offering take-home goods like frozen entrées and sides, salads, desserts, and homemade bread, Suffit, open 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, offers customers plenty of items to place on whatever table they choose to gather around. Yes, in Stone’s eyes, the people who’ll be eating the food are far more important than the food itself. But make no mistake: the food she and her daughter make is excellent. 

“We’re very conscientious about our ingredients, the way we make everything, and what we call food,” Stone declares. “We’re very conscientious about doing everything we possibly can to keep it as close to nature as possible. We use minimal things, if anything, from a can, and we do everything we possibly can from scratch because we think that matters.”

Stone’s favorite Suffit offering is the fresh-baked bread, and she’s confident most of their customers feel the same. 

“I think our bread is fantastic, and I’m a bread snob,” she says. “It’s a good, nutritionally sound bread. We have a few friends and family members with gluten sensitivities who can eat our bread.”

Next on her list of must-try items are Suffit’s pot pie and quiche, both of which frequently sell out in-store and at the pop-up markets occasionally held at venues like the Courtyard on Cotton Gallery in West Monroe.

“I’d put our pot pie up against whatever fancy blue-ribbon pot pie,” Stone declares proudly. “It makes the people you serve feel a little bit special that night. And my daughter’s quiche is the best I’ve ever had or seen.” 

Stone’s passion for cuisine and the entire culinary industry is evident as she tells BayouLife about the foods one can purchase from Suffit. That knowledge and respect are what she passes along to her current employees and what she’ll pass along to the prisoners she prays to one day work with and employ. She admits that her and her daughter’s desire to meet that particular need — helping newly released and soon-to-be-released prisoners get back on their feet — has been met with a few hiccups: “It’s been very difficult for me to break into those systems, but I do believe I’m supposed to be in this place doing what we’re doing.” 

The door to serve in that capacity may not have opened yet, but other doors have. Stone and Webb walk through them, eagerly using their market and catering services to impact whoever they can. One service opportunity Suffit is particularly excited about is a monthly community meal. Stone and Webb will lead the charge as Suffit and others in Lake Providence come together to feed those who live and work in their town.

If the community meals are anything like the one members of the Suffit crew — Stone, Webb, and Suffit’s bookkeeper and business manager, Ronnie Walker — prepared for BayouLife, they’ll be the talk of Lake Providence. When we sat down at the table in The Bernard House, an AirBnb where Suffit often provides meals for guests who choose to partake, we were served a feast for the palate, the eyes, and the soul.

Lunch began with a salad featuring locally-grown lettuce from the Mennonite farm, marinated artichoke hearts, and an umami vinaigrette dressing. A perfectly cooked chicken piccata served atop rosemary polenta and crowned with asparagus, capers, and a creamy romesco sauce followed. 

A gluten-free frangipane cheesecake with Cara Cara oranges and strawberries punctuated the meal. Webb gets all of the credit for this decadent treat topped with yogurt- and Chambord liqueur-infused whipped cream. She’s Suffit’s resident pastry and dessert master, responsible for the new and improved king cakes Suffit offered and repeatedly sold out of during Carnival season. 

Ours was just one example of a Suffit catering experience. Since the mother-daughter duo and their team tailor their services to fit the customer’s needs, you can enjoy a more upscale dining experience like the one we partook in or keep things simple with trays of sandwiches and sweets. Regardless of which route you choose, you can rest assured that Suffit will handle your catering needs with care and intention. Stone and Webb are delighted to serve their customers well, and so are the rest of their employees. 

A passion for service is sort of a prerequisite for a Suffit employee, and Nichelle Robinson is a prime example. Hers is likely the first face you’ll see upon entering the market, and it’s her customer service skills that make her an asset to the team, says Stone. She goes on, “Nichelle is The Killer because she totally kills it every day. She is smart, has a great attitude, and loves to learn.” 

People like Robinson — those who possess a genuine desire to make sure others are taken care of — are the ones Stone most loves working with. They’re the ones she trains in the culinary arts through Suffit, and they’re the ones she hopes to continue educating and employing. If they’ve got a servant’s heart, Stone says, they’ll fit right into the mission of Suffit. 

“A lot of people don’t want to serve; they want to be served,” she says. “When you find people who want to serve, it is such an incredible atmosphere. Those are the kind of people I want to be around. It’s this little piece of the kingdom of God on Earth when we come together from all different backgrounds, and we work together.”