Our Story…

Big Rich & Chelle Courville began Courville’s Catering & Special Events over 20 years ago out of their family kitchen. With the support of his wife, Big Rich left his long career in the refineries of Southeast Texas to follow a passion that began during his childhood in the rice fields of China, TX with his great Uncle & Aunt. Growing up and learning all about authentic cajun cuisine from Mammie & Uncle Fatty on the rice farm, Big Rich learned first hand how to cook for a crowd and use what you have. This knowledge, talent and passion was further cultivated by his time spent going through the Boy Scouts, eventually becoming an Eagle Scout and planning scout trips that would include cooking many meals for large groups of people at a time. Big Rich & Chelle have built their business on the foundation of “love thy neighbor” and that is the way it is still managed today. Our family remains dedicated to taking care of our community and our neighbors, as they are the ones that continue to take care of us. This philosophy has led us down an amazing path these last several decades and we have continued to grow.

Together with his little brother & kitchen manager Bobby, Big Rich opened a catering kitchen and event venue that has become well known in Southeast Texas as Courville’s - a place to call for a great meal to serve at your wedding, retirement party, graduation celebration, birthday, baby & bridal shower, family reunion, backyard party, elegant corporate event, office safety luncheon, employee trainings, industrial turnaround work and much more. Courville’s has grown into an event headquarters that can assist in planning every aspect of your event. About 15 years ago the family further established Courville’s as a unique “Listening Room” in SETX and began hosting monthly dinner concerts that sell out nearly every month and are known for providing a great meal and legendary artists to grace the stage for memorable nights of magic.

Most recently, Bobby’s butcher skills have finally enticed these brothers to pursue Courville’s Meat Co. where you will be able to come order our hand-cut 1.25” Cut CAB Ribeyes, 1” Marinated Pork Chops, our legendary Smoked Sausage in all sorts of flavors such as regular, maple & jalapeño, our Smoked Boudain, Frozen Gumbo’s & Ettouffee’s and SO MUCH MORE!!! We are so excited to finally offer this market to SETX. In addition to the retail counter, we have opened our new Deer & Exotic Processing Shop to the public as well - creating excellent sausage and specialty cuts with YOUR harvest.

Today, Courville’s remains a family owned and operated company to now include Big Rich & Chelle’s daughters, Jesi Jones & Jami Abbo - along with several other cousins, parents, siblings, in-laws and friends. It is a joke in the family that everyone is an employee at some point or another - even the kids get recruited for brownie making duty at an early age around here. We all consider it a gift to be able to work together (most days) and grow this business that we love. We have exciting things on the horizon, both as a business and as a family. We are excited to be on this journey and grateful every customer, neighbor and friend that support us along the way.