Tucked behind the shuttered doors of a former Subway kitchen in a North Attleboro mall, a narrow space hums from the quiet labor of Zydeco Meadery—a family-run venture stepping boldly into its next chapter producing mead.
Inside, the Depradines spend long hours carbonating mead in a cramped room barely wide enough for a Brite Tank and stacks of inventory. But nothing shakes their focus. The four-person household is chasing a deeper purpose, knowing this small beginning marks the first steps of something far greater.
Zydeco Meadery draws from ancestral heritage, carving out a niche in the fermented beverage realm by applying traditional practices with innovation and a vision for growth that stretches far beyond its current reach (and storage space).
“I know how to make wine in less than ideal places. So, yeah, I went ahead and signed the lease for this retired Subway space,” says Eric Depradine, the co-founder of Zydeco Meadery.
The Family Behind the Bottles
Zydeco Meadery, a family-run business at its core, began with Depradine and his wife, DeAundra. The two initially set their entrepreneurial hearts on producing riesling, but after facing setback after setback with sourcing muscadine grapes, they shifted to mead, with honey proving much more accessible.
“One of the immediate problems we encountered was obtaining grapes,” Depradine says. “So, honey was and still is easier to obtain because Louisiana is a big honey-producing state.”
Although Boston-born, Depradine spent most of his adulthood in the South, having left New England at age 17. He graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2006, where he met his now-wife, DeAundra—the mother of his two teenage children, Zacherie and Valentina.
As their bond deepened, and they balanced school with starting a family, at-home winemaking emerged as a way for the future mead makers to stay on budget while still enjoying themselves.
As their zeal for fermenting spirits intensified, the Depradines transformed their mead-making hobby from a leisurely pursuit into an entrepreneurial endeavor. Amid a lifestyle shift, the family relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, in 2015. Two years later, after settling in, the future co-founder enrolled in a winemaking class at the Highland Community College Viticulture and Enology Program.
Upon completing his studies, he joined the school’s incubator program, gaining access to the resources that enabled him to launch Zydeco Meadery in 2020.
Byline Ashia Aubourg
