One could say that Wisconsin is well known for its beer, brats, cheese and football.
One could also say that what does not come to mind, in regards to Wisconsin, is the southern cuisine known as jambalaya.
Platteville is home to Zan Shields, also known as the “Jambalaya Lady,” a woman who sells her grandmother’s recipe for jambalaya on the historic, bar-clad Second Street.
Shields was born and raised in New Orleans, and left at the age of 17 to attend school in Alabama and from there to California where she later found herself interested in fashion and retail sales.
Now married with three children, Shields was on a job assignment in Chicago, which eventually led her to helping her sister move to Platteville.
The drastic cultural change from New Orleans to cities such as Chicago inspired Shields.
“I looked around and I said we could use some good food around here,” Shields said.
Unfortunately, her sister become ill, which prompted Shields to make to Platteville in 2003. She quickly found herself owning a restaurant.
However, Shields realized after watching the students go back and forth between the bars that business was not receiving as much traffic as usual, so she decided to bring her restaurant outside of the building.
“We would have French Market Thursdays where we would set up by my store and we would have red beans, jambalaya and gumbo and they [students] would come by and buy it,” Shields said.
The store was open for a total of eight years, until she decided to gear her business towards the students instead of having them come to her.
Shields said that she is set apart from the typical status quo of a business because she views the students as honorary children.
Moreover, she recognizes that having had her own children leave for college, it helped influence the way she cares about the students at UW-Platteville.
“They [students] never get a good meal and around here most of the people look at them as business and just business,” Shields said. “When my kids went away from home they always found someone that was really nice to them.”
Shields also helps shape the community of Platteville as she keeps the peace between rowdy students who are out late at night.
The Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity has offered Shields a helping hand by occasionally taking over her food stand when she is not able to make her usual appearance.
In turn, Shields helps them raise money for the fraternity by cooking and preparing food for them to sell. The profits are used to better the community.
“She [Shields] is one of the nicest women I’ve ever met in my entire life, she is really concerned about the campus and the community, and all of the profits earned are donated towards either the campus or the community,” Kendal Kendrick, president of Delta Sigma Phi said.
Shields can be found in the early mornings of Friday, Saturday and Sunday on Historic Second Street outside of The Camaraderie.
With as recognizable of a last name as Shields, one would consider a family relation with Chancellor Dennis Shields, but it is simply a coincidence.