La Bete food truck owner Randy Boodram says he appreciates why there might be some confusion.

“If you’re looking at our menu and assume this is a Creole restaurant and then see Cantonese pepper shrimp, it may leave you wondering,” says Boodram.

The self-taught chef and his wife, Christine — who Boodram credits with handling all other aspects of the business — have poured themselves entirely into their new Bon Air brick-and-mortar, Bon Temps, located in the old Hang Space spot.

They launched La Bete food truck in 2018 and built a steady following with their Creole/Caribbean-centric menu.

“I don’t want to call it fusion, it’s just who we are,” says Boodram.

The Bon Temps menu — featuring favorites from the food truck and much more —represents Boodram’s Trinidadian roots, as well “everything in between,” says Boodram. “From my travels to where I’ve lived in the world.”

There are those pepper shrimp alongside pimento cheese and Edward’s country ham beignets, aguachile, po’ boys, steak frites and seafood gumbo. The cocktail menu is already fleshed out and tropical leaning, with a soursop daiquiri and an old fashioned featuring a simple syrup made with West Indian bay leaf.

“Trinidad and Tobago has been a melting pot for centuries,” says Boodram. The Caribbean nation has been home to indentured laborers from India and China, newly freed slaves from America, people from Africa, Latin America and more. “There is everything from Cantonese to Indian to African [flavors] that have assimilated into our cuisine but still shows their roots,” says Boodram.

Boodram traces his culinary roots back to childhood, where he competed with older brothers once he discovered they were into cooking. “We’d go camping and do boy stuff,” says Boodram. “When we caught fish, I’d bury it in charcoal to cook. Later, when I was in [New York City], I’d visit farmers markets and Chelsea Market. I got deeper and deeper into wanting to learn how to cook.”

Instead of opening a food truck in the 2010s in Brooklyn with no parking and fierce competition, Boodram and Christine decided to relocate to the River City.

In Richmond, “there was more room for growth,” says Boodram.

The food truck scene has changed vastly in the past five years, though, with some of Boodram’s “bread-and-butter” spots opening their own in-house concepts. The pandemic forever changed office lunches, with folks who once popped out of a cubicle for a highly anticipated food truck meal now heating up leftovers in the comfort of their own homes.

Boodram says while they are still running La Bete, he was ready with a “hell yes” when he heard the Hang Space building was available. “I was on vacation, I had literally just gotten out of the water when my phone started ringing,” says Boodram.

He didn’t hesitate, and two years after first securing the space at 8000 Buford Ct., investing time, energy and “a lot of personal funds,” Boodram says they’re here, “taking that big first leap.”

And just in time for Mardi Gras, a festival almost as drenched in delightful hedonism as Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.

“The are parties for weeks and weeks before Carnival starts,” says Boodram. “People party the Sunday night before [Ash Wednesday] into Monday and they don’t stop until Tuesday,” says Boodram. “It is days and days of reveling and Wednesday you just hit the beach.”

Laissez les bon temps rouler with the Boodrams on Feb. 17 (Fat Tuesday) from 4:30-10 p.m.

Bon Temps (8000 Buford Ct.) will start with walk-ins only 4:30-midnight Friday, 4 p.m.-midnight Saturday and 2-9 p.m. Sunday. Follow the restaurant on social media for updates on opening hours.