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Jack of All Trades Story courtesy of Bonnes Nouvelles- Evangeline Jack Miller developed his tangy sauce in his American Inn restaurant in Ville Platte. However, the story really started in Sunset, Louisiana. F our Miller brothers from Germany settled in St. Landry Parish in the 1800s. A descendant, Alexon Miller, married Alicia Leger. One of their sons, Dosite “Zick” Miller, married Olivia Faul, daughter of Phillip Valmon Faul and Eva Boudreaux. The Zick Miller family included 12 children: Charles, Lillian, Rose, Odile, Alice, Jack Dosite, Alexis, Simon, Louise, Eva, Phillip and Theresa. The Zick Miller farm produced most of the family’s food, fruits, vegetables and animals for meat. They operated a small store in Sunset. Zick and the boys tended the farm and the store while Olivia and the daughters kept house, cooked and sewed the family’s clothes. Jack worked in the store and enjoyed cooking when he got the chance. For the times, the Zick Miller family was well off. He loaned money to help others get started. When the Great Depression hit and money could not be collected and the sweet potato crop could not be sold, the family was in trouble. One son borrowed $25 and Jack began driving a delivery truck for Tony Chachere’s pharmaceutical company in Opelousas. In 1929, at age 19, Jack started hauling sweet potatoes in a Model A truck to the Houston Farmer’s Market, where a 100-pound bag sold for 45 cents. Soon Jack embarked on an entrepreneurial quest of many ventures. He traveled over 13 states going house to house in cities to buy and later sell old gold items. He even sold furniture. His desire to cook drew him back to St. Landry Parish in 1935, and he began his cooking career at the Dixie Cafe in Opelousas.

He managed the Acadian Inn and worked at the Cedar Lane Club, too. At those establishments he associated with several well-known chefs — Toby Veltin, Levi and Etienne Daigle, and John Mamalakis. In 1937, Jack married Joyce Chapman of L’Anse aux Pailles in Evangeline Parish. Joyce worked at the Cedar Lane Club as a hatcheck girl. Jack’s dream was to have his own restaurant so, in 1941, he opened the American Inn in Ville Platte. Jack and Thaddus Winfiele leased a building from Burke Coreil located on East Main Street named the Pig Stand. Jack borrowed $300 from his father to match Winfiele’s $300 to open the American Inn in Ville Platte. It was a drive-in like the Acadian Village Inn in Opelousas. Barbecue plates, hamburgers and hot dogs were the main fare. Hamburgers sold for 10 cents and labor was $3-$5 per week for a 12-hour day. In five years, Jack bought out Winfiele’s share. Jack’s dream had been to open a chain of drive-in food places, but World War II dashed those hopes. The menu had to change during World War II because beef and pork were being rationed. Those hungry GIs coming from Fort Polk were ordering hot dogs and hamburgers, and Jack could not meet their demands. The only meat he could obtain locally was chicken. He changed the menu to barbecued chicken and sent Joyce out to buy chickens from local farmers. Jack began to experiment with his own barbecue sauce. After three months, he had a sauce that pleased his palate. He knew it was good because his customers began asking to buy some to take home. In 1953, Jack relocated the American Inn to the east end of Ville Platte. People going to Chicot State Park would stop and buy barbecue sauce. Before long, the sauce sales were almost equal to those of the restaurant. In 1955, Jack obtained a license to manufacture and sell barbecue sauce wholesale. One-fourth of the American Inn building was closed off to create the sauce factory. When the sauce factory was opened, the sauce was cooked in 6-gallon pots on the restaurant stoves. Everything was done by hand — cutting onions, cooking, bottling and attaching labels. To market the tangy sauce, Jack and Joyce went on the road in Acadiana. They would put the sauce on a piece of bread and, after a taste, the store owner placed an order. After a restaurant fire in 1962, the American Inn was closed.

To satisfy Jack’s desire for cooking, he did a lot of catering in the 1960s. In New Orleans, he catered at Dominican College and De la Salle High School. Probably the largest function he catered was serving 7,000 barbecue sandwiches for a regional John Deere company picnic. In the late 1960s, Jack bought two 150-gallon stainless steel pots and a boiler

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