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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.
When farmers’ markets reopened post-pandemic, the family carried their honey mead to the streets of Kansas City for distribution. A few years later, in 2024, another shift in life’s cadence drew the Depradines back to New England.
For Eric, familiarity and nostalgia filled the air; for the rest of the family, uncharted territory awaited. During this return, the co-founders stumbled upon a listing for a once-owned Subway location, and at that moment, they knew the time to expand the brand had arrived.
Honoring Roots Through Mead
Archaeological evidence places versions of mead in parts of Africa as early as 40,000 years ago, with the fermented spirit spreading across the globe in the centuries since. Depradine channels this history into Zydeco, using it as a throughline to explore both his ancestral roots in Trinidad and his wife’s Louisiana Creole heritage.
“The mead that we produce is Atlantic Creole. And that’s a recognition of our ancestors who lived on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean and created a new culture, blending elements of African and Native American cultures,” Depradine says.
In the Zydeco lineup, the New England native offers meads like Bayou Soleil, a fermented honey wine crafted through co-fermentation of Traminette grape juice and wildflower honey from Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, as an ode to his wife, and Carnival Rose, a hibiscus mead drawing on a sorrel recipe from Depradine’s grandmother Ena.
And, if you’re familiar with the sounds of Louisiana, the meaning behind the Depradines’ meadery name becomes clear. Zydeco, originating in the southwestern part of the state, merges traditional Creole rhythms with blues, soul, and, more recently, funk and hip-hop, creating a captivating groove. Depradine hopes his community taps into this energy while savoring his fermented honey mead libations.
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Expanding Zydeco Meadery
The family behind Zydeco Meadery spends their weeks in rhythm, carbonating and packaging hundreds of bottles of honey mead, each one a note in the growing melody of their brand.
In the production kitchen, a symphony unfolds. Depradine’s hands dance over the honey mead wine, batched and ready for carbonation. Zacherie steps into secure metal caps with precision, while Valentina, the youngest, pastes labels bearing their lineage crest, each one contributing to the creation of their legacy.
Depradine currently sits at the crux of expansion, presently retailing to only a few locations in New England, with hopes of expanding to more stores that sell spirits, as well as restaurants and bars.
This process requires tenacity, though. “It would be awesome if we could get picked up by a distributor because that would increase the consumer base to a much larger level,” he says.
For now, farmers’ markets offer a small solace in the long ferment of expansion. This summer, Depradine looks ahead with sweet anticipation, grateful to secure spots that anchor Zydeco Meadery in New England soil and open promising pathways for their mead to flow, each step drawing them closer to their next crescendo.
For more details on Zydeco Meadery, visit their website and Facebook page, where you can find information on current retail locations in Massachusetts and how to order the mead via Vino Shipper to try a bottle for yourself.
