Displaced business finds a new home at LSU AgCenter

Soon after Nick Villaume opened a store selling popsicles in Lake Charles a few years ago, he decided he wanted to add ice cream to his offerings — but he didn’t know how to make it.
He reached out to Chuck Boeneke, an LSU AgCenter dairy science professor and manager of the Dairy Store, who agreed to give Villaume lessons. With the expanded menu, Villaume’s Boombox Popsicles and Ice Cream proved a hit with local customers.
 Earlier this year, Boombox expanded again — this time with a franchise opening in Baton Rouge and plans in the works for another Lake Charles location. But 2020 has also brought challenges for many business owners, including Villaume — who is now temporarily working out of the AgCenter creamery on the LSU campus.
 “COVID hit, and then the hurricane hit Lake Charles,” Villaume said, referring to Hurricane Laura, which caused extensive damage to the area last month. “Our facility was kind of dead in the water because we had no power and we had no water. So I called up Gaye (Sandoz, director of the AgCenter Food Incubator) and Chuck Boeneke and said, ‘Hey, can we temporarily come and produce out of your facility?’
"And of course the Dairy Store is closed this fall, so Chuck’s like, ‘Yeah, come on over.’ ”
When Boombox first opened, “there was no ice cream in Lake Charles. We didn’t have any small-batch, artisan ice cream,” Villaume said. Boeneke’s instruction was instrumental in helping Boombox fill that void in the Lake Charles market.
 “It was a great educational experience,” Villaume recalled. “I learned a lot about the texture of ice cream and what makes ice cream high quality versus low quality.”