Road Tips

Buzzard Billy's - La Crosse, WI

La Crosse, WI continues to be one of my favorite small market cities to visit (Fargo, ND, Manhattan, KS, and Springfield, MO are also right up there) and I've been chasing a dealer in the area for the past few years to come on board with our company.  I'm closer than I have been and that makes me happy because that means more trips to La Crosse in the future.  One of the reasons why I like La Crosse are the number of interesting restaurants in the area.  One of those is a place I've eaten at three or four times in the past, Buzzard Billy's.

Buzzard Billy's is part of a group of restaurants under the MSD Innovations, a Waco, TX-based restaurant partnership between brothers Andy and Dan Massoth, Chris Mayo and Tracy Maughan.  The group opened the first Buzzard Billy's Armadillo Bar and Grill-o in 1993 as part of downtown Waco's revitalization.  The restaurant was named after fictitcious cowboy named Billy and his untimely encounter with a buzzard.  

Three years later, the MSD group was looking for another restaurant to open in a community that was working to restore their downtown area and that brought them to La Crosse.  They found a building in downtown La Crosse that had been built back in the 1860's as a hotel, but was slated to be demolished in 1996.  The group bought the building and refurbished it into a restaurant on the main floor with a bar on the second floor.  Buzzard Billy's Flying Carp Cafe with the Starlite Lounge, a 50's-style lounge, opened in September of 1997.  Two years later, a Buzzard Billy's location in Des Moines' rejuvenated Court Avenue district opened in the basement of a building that was also slated to be demolished.  A year later, a fourth Buzzard Billy's opened in downtown Lincoln, NE in an area that was also going through an urban renewel.  

The group became enamored with Des Moines and the number of possibilities that the city had to offer for restaurants and bars.  Along with three workers at the Des Moines Buzzard Billy's location, they formed a new company - Full Court Press - to develop and run restaurants and bars in the downtown Des Moines area.  Some of the restaurants they're famous for are the Highlife Lounge (click here to see my entry on the Highlife Lounge), Hessen Haus, El Bait Shop, Fong's Pizza, and the Royal Mile, just to name a few.  

I had eaten at the Buzzard Billy's in La Crosse about two or three times previously, and I had eaten at the Des Moines location a couple times before.  (The Des Moines location just moved to a new building just south of the Wells Fargo Arena after the original location was flooded in 2008 and the group did not reopen right away.)  Actually, I had stopped into Buzzard Billy's in La Crosse one summer evening about three years ago to have dinner.  However, I walked into the wide open front door of the restaurant and all the lights were out and the place was empty.  It was rather strange.  I saw someone walking around by the bar area and I called out, "Hello?"

The young lady behind the bar came out and said, "Yes?  Can I help you?"

I asked, "Are you open?"

She said, "Well, no.  Our power went out about two hours ago.  In fact, power is out all over downtown and the power company doesn't know when it will be back on."  That put the kibosh on eating at Buzzard Billy's - or any other place in downtown La Crosse that evening, for that matter.  I ended up eating at a Buffalo Wild Wings that night near my hotel in suburban Onalaska.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best.  However, on this trip to La Crosse, Buzzard Billy's was open.  I found a parking spot just down the street from the place on Pearl Street (see map) and went in.  

The hostess that evening put me in a booth on the west wall of the restaurant and left a menu with me at the table.  Buzzard Billy's is actually split into two areas - the bar area (above right) as you walk in on the left, and the main dining area (above left) that connects to the bar near the back.  The decor is sort of "antique chic" with a number of signs and objects hanging from the walls and ceilings.  The table top on my booth featured a number of old time baseball cards under a lamination.  I actually recognized a couple that I had from my youth.

My server for the evening came over to greet me and I wondered what kind of beer they had.  She pointed out a beer menu on the table that I looked over.  I saw that they had a Leinenkugel seasonal, and since it was fall, I figured they must have the Oktoberfest on tap.  "No, sorry," she explained.  "We ran out of that over the weekend."  I did find that they had Alaskan Amber on tap, one of my favorite beers.  

The menu at Buzzard Billy's is immense.  They have a number of appetizers (including the intriguing "Buzzard Eggs - chicken fingers stuffed with sliced jalapenos and Pepper Jack cheese and wrapped in bacon), soups, salads, burgers, Po' Boy sandwiches and Cajun-style pasta dishes.  They have a number of blackened fish and chicken items on the menu, as well as a blackened prime-rib that I've wanted to try in the past.  Buzzard Billy's has a handful of fried dinners including fried catfish, fried walleye and even fried alligator (it tastes like chicken - seriously!).  They also have a number of traditional Cajun/Creole dishes as well as in-house Louisiana specialties as Chicken Tchoupitoulas, Chicken Atchafalaya, and Alligator Grand Chenier - strips of farm-raised alligator meat sauteed with green onions and mushrooms in a mild Cajun sauce.

I was more interested in the Cajun basics that night - a bowl of seafood gumbo followed by a helping of Buzzard Billy's jambalaya.  The seafood gumbo came out and while it had a nice spicy bite to it (helped by a little more Tabasco sauce), but I found the shrimp and crawfish were overcooked and mushy.  I've done crawfish and shrimp in my own gumbo and I cook them separately and never put it in until just before serving the gumbo.  I'm guessing the shell fish were simmering in there for some time.  But that wasn't that big of a problem.  The gumbo was still pretty good.

Not long after I finished the hearty bowl of gumbo, the jambalaya showed up.  The heaping bowl of jambalaya featured large chunks of ham, chicken and andouille sausage mixed with tomatoes, green onions, celery, green peppers and rice.  And it tasted fine.  I zipped it up with a little more Tabasco giving the already snappy taste a boost.  On a cool night this was the perfect meal.  After the large bowl of gumbo, I knew I wouldn't be able to finish the whole dish, so about halfway through I concentrated on finding the chunks of sausage (which was very good), chicken and ham.  It reminded me much of the homemade jambalaya that I hadn't made in quite awhile.  (Click here for my homemade jambalaya recipe.)  

I almost forgot to mention the French bread that came with the jambalaya.  It tasted like it was homemade as it was warm, soft and chewy.  It helped to use as a scoop to put some of the tasty morsels of chicken, sausage and ham onto the fork.  It was very good.  

The meal I had at the La Crosse Buzzard Billy's was a pretty fair deal.  A bowl of gumbo, the jambalaya (which was very good and very filling), and a couple pints of beer came to just over $21 bucks.  With a $4 buck tip to the waitress, who was very attentive, the bill came to around $25 bucks.  It was a lot of food for the money.  I don't think I've ever had a bad meal at either the La Crosse or Des Moines Buzzard Billy's.  And I do need to go back and check out the new Des Moines location at some point.  For Cajun food, I can't say that it's the best I've had.  But Buzzard Billy's is certainly above average.     

Cajun Connection - Utica, IL

This is gonna be a fun one...

Outside of the small north central Illinois town of Utica, IL is a little restaurant in an old converted farmhouse that was once a gas station and then a bar - the Cajun Connection.  It's just off Interstate 80 at the Utica (Exit 81) exit.  You go south to the first crossroad off the Interstate - Highway 6 - and go east for about a mile.  You'll see Cajun Connection on the north side of the road. (see map)

Actually, we had been to Cajun Connection once before, a number of years ago.  About 13 years ago, a co-worker of Cindy's had told her that we needed to make the 95 mile drive from our house to go try the Cajun Connection.  We did and came away not too enamored with the place.  They didn't have much as far as Cajun food other than a lot of fried shrimp, alligator, chicken strips and other items.  It never crossed my mind to try the place again until I was driving across Illinois one rainy fall evening and I was getting hungry.  I thought about stopping into Duffy's Tavern in Utica to get one of their good burgers.  But when I got off the Interstate at Utica, I remembered the Cajun Connection.  I took a left at Highway 6 instead of going straight into Utica.

The man behind the Cajun Connection is Lake Charles, LA native Ron McFarlain.  McFarlain started out as a pipefitter and traveled around the nation with his crew.  While out on the road, Ron - who learned how to cook from his mother and grandmother - would work up some of his Cajun specialties for his workmates. Wanting to get off the road and settle down, he ended up in - of all places - LaSalle County in north central Illinois in the mid-90's.  Seeing that there wasn't a Cajun restaurant for 100 miles in either direction between the Quad Cities and Chicago, Ron  opened the Cajun Connection in November of 1995. 

At right - Ron McFarlain holding an alligator tail in the kitchen at Cajun Connection.

Ron McFarlain takes trips back to Louisiana to get Cajun staples such as fresh crawfish, alligator and shrimp.  The Cajun Connection is famous for their annual crawfish boil and for their blackened alligator bites.  

McFarlain is sort of a character known to many people in the area.  In fact, many of the locals and regulars just refer to the Cajun Connection as "Ron's" and McFarlian as "Cajun Ron".  McFarlain is always interacting with his customers - whether they're regulars or first-timers.  It's his down-home Cajun-friendly style that makes him an immediately likable guy. 

It was around 7:30 when I pulled into the parking lot at Cajun Connection.  I was sort of confused because I didn't quite remember this building as the one we were at years ago and when I went in, I was even more confused.  I didn't remember one thing about this place.  It turns out that I hadn't been in THIS incarnation of Cajun Connection.  When McFarlain opened the Cajun Connection in 1995, it was housed in a small building at the corner of Illinois Route 178 and U.S. Highway 6.  In 2001, he moved down the highway to the east to what was the former Lone Tree Inn, a former bar, and before that, a gas station.  It gave him more room in his kitchen and more seats for his diners.  And because he had more room in his kitchen, it allowed him to expand his menu with more Cajun-inspired fare.  

The manager of the Cajun Connection, Amy Martin (who is Cajun Ron's better half) greeted me as I walked in and took me over to a table in the corner of the front room of the restaurant.  Another waitress came over and asked if I wanted anything to drink.  Being a true Cajun restaurant, I saw that they had Abita beer from Louisiana.  When I asked which styles of Abita they had, she pulled out a list and it turned out they had about four or five different varieties.  I ordered up an Abita Golden, a beer I hadn't had in a long time.

The Cajun Connection has three dining rooms, all of them not too big.  There are a combination of booths and tables throughout the place - some booths offering bench seats and chairs.  A number of Cajun signs and witticisms were splayed upon the walls.  A juke box near the cash register had a number of Cajun tunes on it, but the background music playing that evening was - interestingly enough - 70's classic rock.  

The menu at Cajun Connection is much larger than the last time we were there.  The first time we went to Cajun Connection they didn't have jambalaya or gumbo on the menu.  This time, they had a plethora of Cajun foods to choose from, as well as blackened steaks, pork chops (the special that night), and chicken tenders.  

My head was spinning from the selections on them menu.  Po-boy sandwiches, blackened shrimp, alligator scampi, crawfish etoufee - I couldn't make up my mind.  Something called Jamba-2-Fay - shrimp or crawfish etoufee served over jambalaya and paired with either fried alligator or grilled shrimp - got my attention.  As did the blackened ribeye steak served with jambalaya.  The great thing about my first visit to Cajun Connection in years is that they have a "make-your-own" combination platter.  You can choose between 2, 3 or 4 items such as shrimp creole, crawfish etoufee, boudin sausage links, catfish, oysters or another nearly dozen items for your combo entree.  I wanted to do that, so I ordered up the jambalaya, red beans and rice, and the "bubba" shrimp, blackened.  I also got a cup of the gumbo.

The waitress brought out the gumbo with a small basket of fresh French bread slices and crackers.  From the first taste I wished I would have upped it to a bowl.  It was just fabulous gumbo.  It wasn't spicy in the least, but there were nice smoked boudin sausage slices, shredded chicken and pork chunks in the somewhat thick roux broth.  I spiced it up with some hot sauces that were on the table to give it a little kick.  It was some of the best gumbo I'd had in a restaurant.  And it also reminded me that it was time to make some of my own gumbo at home.  

While I was enjoying my gumbo, Ron McFarlain came out to the dining room to hob-nob with the patrons.  Three guys who were seated at a table next to me caught a ration of good-natured shit from him.  "Boys, boys, boys," Ron yelled in his Cajun drawl.  "I know y'all haven't been here before, so let me tell you our rules.  You order, you eat, you pay, you get the hell out!  What the heck y'all doin' on your cellphones?  Eat up!"

He came over to me and asked, "How's the gumbo, big guy?"

"Killer," I replied.  "I could eat this all night."

He fist bumped me and said, "That's good to hear!"   

Almost as soon as I finished up my gumbo, the waitress brought out my combo plate.  Left to right across the plate was the red beans and rice, the jambalaya and the blackened "bubba" shrimp that featured three large shrimps on a skewer on a bed of white rice.   A small container of Cajun Connection's "voodoo sauce" sat on the side.  It had worcestershire sauce, butter and mild Cajun spices in it.  

I tried the jambalaya first and I have to say that I wasn't too impressed with it.  It was sort of bland.  Even with copious amounts of Tabasco and some of Cajun Connection's "Hot Damn!" seasoning, it didn't liven it up.  It did have some nice smoky tasting slices of boudin sausage, though.  

Going on to the red beans and rice, well, they more than made up for the disappointment of the jambalaya.  With more smoked boudin sausage with the beans and rice, there was a nice sort of sweet taste to the combination.  I immediately liked the taste of the red beans and rice.  It was much better than the jambalaya.  

But the best thing on the plate was the blackened "bubba" shrimp.  It was covered with a generous amount of homemade Cajun seasonings.  Even without dipping them into the voodoo sauce, the taste was just excellent.  And I took some of the leftover voodoo sauce and poured it over the white rice and it was just fabulous.  Even with the bland jambalaya, it was a very good meal. 

My waitress came over and asked if I wanted any dessert.  "Key lime pie?  Pecan pie?  Bread pudding," she kept asking me.  It all sounded good, but I was stuffed.  Then she said, "We have pumpkin bread pudding."  Oh man!  I about pulled the trigger on that.  I just asked for my check.

I told you this entry was going to be fun and this is where it happened.  

I was looking at an article in a frame on the wall of the dining room I was in and Ron McFarlain came over to me and said, "You've never been in here before, buddy?"   He introduced himself and I did the same back. 

"Well, actually, I was here a long time ago," I replied.  "But I don't remember it being like this.  How long have  you been here?"  

"11 years," he said.  "But we've been in business since 1995.  We were in a small building down on the corner."  

"Aha," I exclaimed.  "That's why I don't remember this building.  We were in the old place."  

I said, "I seem to remember that you only had fried food."

Ron said, "Yeah, when we first opened up we didn't think the people around here would like the gumbo or jambalaya.  We kept it simple.  But we started to do other things and when we moved over here we started to do more things.  We just added some more things to the menu." 

He asked me what I had and I told him.  He said, "How'd ya like the jambalaya?"

I said, "Quite honestly, I found it to be kind of bland."  

Ron said, "Well, we make it that way.  A lot of real Cajun restaurants down in Looz-ee-anna don't make their food all that spicy.  I'm all about the taste of the ingredients, the smoked sausage and the cooked in flavor."

While he was talking, I got out my phone to take a picture of the dining area.  He said, "Well, shoot, buddy.  You want some pictures.  C'mon back here with me."  He guided me back toward the kitchen area.  Before we went into the kitchen he introduced me to Amy and he asked, "You ever have bread pudding before?"

I said, "Oh, I sure have."  

He said, "No, you haven't.  Have you ever had key lime pie before?"

I said, "Oh, yeah."

Ron replied, "No, you haven't.  You haven't because you haven't had our bread pudding or key lime pie.  Amy makes the bread pudding and key lime pie, I make the pecan pie.  It's the best, son." 

We went back into the kitchen and I was amazed to find six young guys back there all doing different things.  There were two line cooks, a couple of prep cooks, and one guy who was cooking up a big pan of chopped pork for the gumbo.  I had never thought of using chopped pork for my gumbo.  Ron said, "Looky here.  He's simmerin' the pork with liquid smoke and our homemade spices."  He pulled a couple pieces of the pork out of the pan (he had cooks gloves on) and handed me one.  The spices got my attention.  

"I thought you said you don't cook anything spicy," I said to him after eating the chunk of pork.

He said, "The spices cook down during the simmering process and when we finally put it in with the gumbo."  

I asked him how often he makes gumbo and he took me back around the corner to a round cooker on a counter top.  He said, "We made this yesterday and just let it simmer until we need to make more."  He opened the lid and said, "We'll need to make more tomorrow."  The cooker basin was about a 1/3 full.  

Ron said, "Hold on a second."  Every sentence he ended it with my name.  It was kind of a funny, yet folksy Southern thing.  He went back into the cooler and he came out with this humongous alligator tail.  It's the same one that is in the picture of Ron earlier in this entry.  I said, "How do you get alligator all the way up here?"

He said, "It ain't easy.  I've been goin' down for years and gettin' it from the guys on the docks.  But they've been a little more protective of their alligator meat down there.  So, it's costin' me a little more and with the price of gas to get down there and back..."  He sort of hesitated and said, "Yeah, it's tough."  

Ron gave me a pair of cooks gloves and he handed me the alligator tail.  After positioning the tail just right - "You gotta hold it right so I can take your picture," he explained - he told me to act like I was taking a bite out of the tail.  He took two or three pictures of me with the alligator.  

He asked, "Did you try the alligator?"

I told him, "Not this time.  I had the fried alligator on my first trip years ago, but it tasted like chicken."  

Ron gave me a stern look and said, "My fried alligator doesn't taste like chicken.  It's better than chicken."  I told him that the next time I wanted to try some of the blackened alligator.  I told him, "If it's anything like the "bubba" shrimp, it's got to be fantastic."

I asked him what seasoning he uses and he should me a pan of mixed Cajun spices.  He held it up for me to smell and it was all I could do to stop from licking my finger and sticking it in the mixture.  It smelled like Cajun heaven.  

He said, "You didn't have the pork chop special tonight, did you?  Shame on you."  He showed me the pork chops they were using for the special that evening.  "We cut 'em thin so they'll cook quick.  We roll 'em in the spices and grill 'em up.  Hoo boy!"  

Ron was like a little kid showing off all the toys he got at Christmas time.  "Hey, come on back here."  He led me back to the cooler and started to root around on the shelves.  He pulled out a pan of sausages and he said, "We smoke our own sausage here."

I asked him where his smoker was and he said, "Oh, we just smoke 'em in the oven.  You can do that, you know."  Actually, no I guess I didn't.  He took a sausage link and broke it in half to show me the texture of the sausage.  When I asked him about andouille sausage he said, "We found that's too spicy for most people around here.  We do the boudin sausage with a more mellow and smoky flavor."

I asked him if that was why his jambalaya was sort of bland and he said, "You must like spicy foods.  Yeah, that's one of the reasons why.  But I like the flavor of the ingredients and not the hot taste."  Just like he said before.

When I told him that I really like his red beans and rice, he asked, "What did you like about them?"  I told him I liked the sweetness.  "Oh, man, we didn't make 'em right."  I was sort of taken aback by that as I thought they were outstanding.  "We do sweeten 'em up, but they need to cook long enough to get the sweetness out."  I told him I thought they were damn fine, as is.  

I must have spent about 20 minutes back in the kitchen area with Ron as I picked his brain about Cajun food, his techniques, some of his specialties and what has worked and not worked in his restaurant.  Now, he didn't know me from Adam.  I could have been a spy for another restaurant, I could have been a health inspector, I could have been anybody looking for free samples.  But I got to thinking afterward that I'm guessing he's done that before with a number of people.  

The Cajun Connection's hours are kind of funky - they're open 4-9 on Thursday thru Saturday, and 12-6 on Sundays.  Ron told me that they'll open at noon on Saturdays in the summertime.  I noticed that they had a little patio off to the side and I asked him if they do outdoor dining.  He said, "Naw, that's more of an overflow area for us in the summer months.  It can get pretty busy in the summer, but slacks off pretty good in the winter months.  You think we're crowded in the kitchen now, you should see how many people we got hoppin' back there in the summer."  

Like I said, this was a fun visit.  The food was great, Ron was a wonderful host and I have to get back to try other things on the menu.  I wonder if my wife would be up for a Sunday afternoon trip to Cajun Connection at some point?  Like Ron told me, "Just call ahead and see if we're here!" 

Highway 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen - Webster Groves, MO

When I get together with the guys from one of my dealers in St. Louis, we usually go to Llewelyn's for some appetizers and beer along with some business discussion.  Before a recent trip to St. Louis, I contacted one of the guys at the store and let him know I would be coming down.  He said, "Oh, man!  We have to take you to a new place.  It's a Cajun-slash-barbecue place not far from our store."  The place he was talking about is called Highway 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen.  

Actually, it's not a new place - it's been in business since 2006.  Bill Kunz and Dave Freese (not the St. Louis Cardinals third baseman) started the restaurant in what had originally been an old Streetside Records shop in the Old Orchard entertainment area of Webster Groves.  Previous to Highway 61 Roadhouse's opening, it housed a couple three restaurants in the building.  So while it isn't new to the general public, the guys from my dealer in St. Louis didn't know about the place until earlier this year.

After doing a couple demos for the guys, then listening to a couple audio systems they had set up in the store, we made our way to Highway 61 Roadhouse just south of Big Bend Boulevard on Old Orchard Ave. (see map) We made our way inside and found a table near the bar.  The table was not very large, even though there was only three of us, and it was very wobbly.  One of the guys reached under the table to put a folded wad of napkins under one of the legs.  The chairs weren't very comfortable, either.  One of the guys said, "The only thing bad about this place are the tables and chairs.  The tables are too small and they're not very stable." If that's the only thing bad about Highway 61 Roadhouse, then that was fine with me.  

The interior of the Roadhouse was sort of kitschy, but in a good way.  They have live music at Highway 61 Roadhouse - primarily blues with some jazz on Thursday nights.  I understand they'll have a zydeco band come to play in the place from time to time.  The main dining area had a stage on one end with a number of tables on the floor and booths along the wall.  There was an upstairs dining area that can be used for private functions and overflow dining.  The Roadhouse also has a expansive outside dining area on the south side of the building that wraps around to the front side.  The patio is open when the weather turns nice.  Since we had a pretty mild spring in the Midwest, the patio opened in March of this year.    

The bar area had a number of lighted old beer signs, as well as some kitschy items that were actually pretty interesting to see.  A couple flat screen televisions had a baseball game on the screen.  The back bar featured a lot of ornate wood and a chalk board that listed their draft beers.

Prior to going to the Roadhouse, I was told that they had Magic Hat 9 beer on tap.  Since I was first exposed to the beer at The Standard in Elmhurst, IL, I've found a number of places that offer the beer in the Midwest.  It's not available in Iowa as of yet, but I'm guessing that it will be soon.  All three of us signed up for a Magic Hat 9.  

Another waitress brought us over some menus and I took a look through the one I had.  The Roadhouse not only featured Cajun and barbecue specialties, but they also had soups and salads, a number of delectable appetizers, specialty pizzas, and a couple three pasta dishes including barbecued spaghetti.  They take a plate of pasta and top it with chunks of pulled pork and their homemade barbecue sauce.  I've seen barbecued spaghetti on menus before, but have never had it.  

The first thing one of the guys ordered was a couple baskets of Highway 61's smoked chicken wings.  They smoke the wings and then toss them in a container of the house "Voodoo" sauce.  And he also ordered some of their Louisiana barbecued shrimp - they take peeled shrimp and bake them in a pot that has a Worcestershire/butter sauce infused with herbs and spices.  

I was a little leery of the smoked wings, but when they were brought to the table I could smell the smoke on the meat and the wonderful sweet and spicy voodoo sauce that glazed the outside of the wings.  The sweetness of the sauce helped keep the spicy taste in check.  I'm not big on smoked chicken, but I have to say that the smoked chicken wings at Highway 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen were delicious.  The smoked chicken wing platters are pictured below left.  I couldn't get a picture taken quick enough before one of the guys already had gnawed on a couple of wings.   

But the highlight was the barbecue shrimp (above right).  It was served in a small crock and had an ample amount of shrimp swimming in the Worcestershire/butter herb sauce.  French bread was served with the barbecue shrimp and dipping the bread in the sauce was just as good as eating the shrimp out of the crock.  It was heavenly in many ways.  

I wanted to try a cup of the gumbo before we ordered any more food.  The menu described the gumbo at the Roadhouse as a chicken and andouille sausage in dark spicy broth served with rice.  When she brought out the "cup" of gumbo, I immediately said, "Wait a minute.  I wanted a cup, not a bowl."

She said, "This is a cup."  I told her that if that was a cup, I'd hate to see how big their bowls were.  

One of the guys said, "The portions are huge here.  We generally can't eat everything on the plate."

The gumbo was also outstanding.  I think I make pretty damned good gumbo at home and I have to say that Highway 61's gumbo was one of the best I've had at a Cajun restaurant - or any restaurant, for that matter.  The gumbo featured large chunks of flavorful andouille sausage and tender chicken chunks.  I especially liked the roux-based broth.  It was thick and had a little spicy kick to the taste.  I jacked it up even more with ample amounts of Tabasco.  

We decided to order up a couple things for each of us to try "family style."  I was told the voodoo shrimp sandwich was absolutely one of the things to order.  They take peeled shrimp, roll them in flour with Cajun spices added to it, deep fried to a golden brown color, then shaken in a container with their voodoo sauce.  I sort of try to stay away from deep fried shrimp, but I was assured these things were to die for.  They then take the voodoo shrimp and put it on a hoagie bun, then top it with mozzarella cheese and applewood smoked bacon.  "The bacon is unbelievable," one of the guys told me.  "I don't know how they make their bacon, but the taste is unbelievable."  

For the other entree, we decided upon the smothered catfish - a farm-raised, lightly breaded and pan-fried catfish filet served on a bed of rice and then topped with ample amounts of Highway 61's shrimp and crawfish etoufee.  You also got to choose one side from a list that included red rice and beans, green beans, fried okra, sweet potato pie (Yep! As a side!), and even the barbecue spaghetti.  We ended up choosing the mac and cheese.  

Once the food hit the table, we weren't too certain we were hungry.  But the wonderful smells of the voodoo shrimp and the catfish smothered in the etoufee were overwhelming.  It's amazing how something that smells so good can make your full stomach suddenly find room for more food.  The voodoo shrimp was everything I was told it would be.  We picked the off some of the shrimp that hadn't been covered with the cheese and bacon.  Oh, my God, were they great!  I love that sweet and spicy voodoo sauce at Highway 61 Roadhouse!  But the killer taste sensation was the mozzarella cheese coated applewood smoked bacon slices.  I pulled one off the top of the shrimp and took a bite.  It was so sinfully great that I almost cried.  I did pull some of the cheese off the bacon and had a bite of the bacon on its own.  Just like it was described to me, the bacon was so flavorful and delectable.  One of the guys said, "They have a Sunday brunch here that I want to come to at some point.  I know they have the bacon on the menu for their brunch.  I could just gorge myself on the bacon."

The smothered catfish was also declared excellent by the guys.  I especially liked the crawfish and shrimp etoufee sauce.  It was a nice dark sauce - darker than most etoufee I've seen in the past.  It had a little kick to it.  I'm not big on catfish, so I focused on bites of the etoufee and rice.  On it's own, the etoufee and rice were worth getting the smothered catfish.

And surprisingly, the mac and cheese side was also very good.  It featured a lot of cheese with ample amounts of bread crumbs mixed in.  One of the guys basically took the mac and cheese and finished it off when myself and the other guy decided we were full.  We still had food on the table - about half of the smothered catfish was eaten, but most of the etoufee was gone.  And all the voodoo shrimp and bacon were gone off the sandwich, but only the tomatoes, lettuce and hoagie bun were left. 

I have to say that everything that I had at Highway 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen was very good to excellent.  The service was good, as well.  I liked the ambiance and the decor was fun and interesting.  But the food was the winner at the Roadhouse.  The voodoo shrimp, the applewood smoked bacon, the smoked chicken wings, the barbecued shrimp - all top notch.  I get worried when restaurants have such an extensive menu, generally because I quickly find out that they don't do varied types of cuisine well.  But Highway 61 Roadhouse did everything all right in my book.

Yats Cajun and Creole - Greenwood, IN

I had eaten at Yats Cajun and Creole restaurant in Indianapolis a few years ago and I thought the food was pretty good (see that entry here). On a recent trip to Indy, I had booked a room in the far southern Indianapolis suburb of Greenwood and I got into town late in the day. I was hungry and wanted something quick. Not far from my hotel at the corner of E. County Line Road and US Highway 31, across from the Greenwood Park Mall is a Yats location. (see map) I pulled in just moments before they were scheduled to close.

My initial visit to Yat's on Massachusetts Ave. (known as "Mass Ave." to the locals) just north and east of downtown Indianapolis was about six years ago. I had the gumbo on that visit and it was very good. I was sort of looking forward to trying something else on their limited menu of Cajun food.

I did some digging into the background of Yats for this particular entry on Road Tips and found that the owner/founder of Yats seemed to be a pretty interesting guy. Joe Vuskovich (pictured right) is a Louisiana native who learned the tricks of Cajun food as he worked in his family's oyster boat business. Yearning to strike out on his own, at the age of 19 he opened his first restaurant - Visko's Seafood - in Gretna, LA just across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans. Helped out by family members, the young Vuskovich soon opened a second restaurant - The Steam Room - in New Orleans. Both restaurants were so successful that he was named the 1979 American Express Restaurateur of the Year, given out annually by the National Restaurant Association.

However, still being a young guy, Vuskovich felt that he was getting burnt out on the restaurant business. He ended up moving to Palm Beach, FL and taking up the game of polo. It had become somewhat of a passion for him in New Orleans and he decided to go head long into the game in what is arguably the polo capital of North America.

Vuskovich had an older brother who was a doctor in Florida who decided that he wanted to move to Lexington, KY and follow his passion for race horses. Joe Vuskovich decided to follow his brother up to Kentucky and began to grow herbs and spices in a green house where he would grind and package the Cajun spices and sell to restaurants and restaurant supply houses. It was in Lexington where he met his wife, Regina, who became his business partner.

Vuskovich opened his first Yats restaurant (the terms "Yat" is a New Orleans native's way of asking "Hey, were you at?" Only it comes out sort of like "Hah, where yat?") in Lexington in 1996. They continued to grow their herbs and spices to sell to Cajun restaurants. It was a good thing they didn't give up their Cajun seasonings business because the people in the heart of the Blue Grass State didn't take well to Vuskovich's authentic Cajun cuisine.

(Pictured left - Joe and Regina Vuskovich. Photo courtesy Indy.com)

In 2001, the Vuskovich's Cajun seasoning business faced a crossroads. A couple of their largest wholesale accounts went out of business and they'd lost a handful of restaurants that they would pre-packaged specific Cajun spice blends. On top of that, they were faced with a renovation of the dilapidated buildings the Vuskovich's had to grow their herbs and spices in. Trying to figure out something new to do, they took off toward Chicago to see what opportunities they might get into next. However, an overnight stop in Indianapolis showed the Vuskovich's that this mid-sized American city could use an authentic Cajun-style restaurant. The couple instantly fell in love with the place and opened their first Yats location on College Ave. in Broadripple (see map). It was a no-frills, counter service only restaurant that served the authentic Cajun specialties that Vuskovich grew up with in Louisiana.

The first three months were slow and the Vuskovich's wondered if Indiana was more of a "meat and potato" state. However, a good review of the place started to bring people in. Suddenly it was the hottest restaurant in Indianapolis. They opened their second location in the Mass Ave. Art District area of Indy and then opened locations up in Fisher's on 96th St. (see map) and down south in Greenwood. I understand the Vuskovich's are looking to put in a location in Bloomington near the Indiana University campus.

The Yats locations in and around Indianapolis are only open until 9 p.m. through the week and it was about 8:45 when I walked in. The menu in the restaurant is located on a chalk board near the front counter and it can change daily - and even hourly. When I got into the restaurant, it was practically empty of customers and a number of items on the board were crossed out. "We were pretty busy earlier," the young guy behind the counter explained to me.

One thing that Yats is famous for is their Maque Choux (roughly pronounced Mock Shoo), a traditional Southern Louisiana dish that combines corn, bell peppers, garlic, tomatoes, onion and celery that are braised in bacon fat, then cooked with a chicken stock before chicken, crawfish and/or shrimp are added later on. I was sort of upset to find that they were out of the Maque Choux that particular evening. "One of our more popular dishes," the young guy told me.

With not much on the menu to choose from - and I'm sure these guys were getting impatient with a late straggler walking in - I ordered a half and half order of red beans with andoiulle sausage and rice, and another Yats specialty, chili cheese etoufee with crawfish. They basically take chili cheese sauce, add crawfish in with it and spread it over rice. A half and half order is $7.95 and comes with a couple slices of Yats homemade butter toasted bread.

They don't have beer at Yats - about the only minus I can see in the place - so I just had water with my meal. It wasn't more than a couple minutes when I head the cook in the back yell, "Red beans and sausage, chili cheese etoufee half and half!" My plate was sitting on a ledge across from the soft drink dispenser which, in turn, was next to a shelf with all different kinds of hot sauce with little tubs that you can pour the sauce into. Since no one else was in the restaurant at that time, I just grabbed a bottle of Tabasco to take back to the table with me.

The red beans with the andoiulle sausage was good. It had large spicy chunks of sausage and the mixture was very good. Zapping it with liberal amounts of Tabasco helped zip it up even a little more.

The chili cheese etoufee was, well, interesting. To look at it sitting over the rice, it didn't look too appetizing. But the etoufee had a smoky cheese taste to it. Bite sized chunks of crawfish were interspersed throughout the mixture and with the help of Tabasco it was a pretty enjoyable concoction. I wasn't certain what I liked better - the red beans and sausage or the chili cheese etoufee. Both were good, not outstanding, but completely serviceable as a fast, authentic Cajun style offering.

And it was filling. I was having trouble finishing what I had on the plate. Both portions were more than enough for that late in the evening.

As I was eating my food, another couple came in to order food. "You guys still open," the guy asked the counter man.

"We're still open," he replied. "As long as the 'open' light is on and the door's unlocked, we're open!" He was a very likable guy, to say the least.

Suddenly a man walked in and he was there to pick up a to-go order. After he got his order, someone else came in to pick up another to-go order. I heard the cook in the back said, "We always seem to get busy right before we close."

I really liked Yats gumbo on my first visit to the Mass Ave. location a number of years ago. On my second visit to the Greenwood location I found the food to be good, above average compared to other Cajun places I've been to. It was quick and completely authentic Cajun food served in the heart of America. I can see why it has become such a favorite restaurant for those who live in Indianapolis. It's no-frills approach offers absolutely no pretension on the part of the Vuskovich's who, from the research I came up with, appear to be some fun-loving people. That fun-loving ideology is what helps make Yats so good. The menu may be limited, but it's guaranteed to be fresh each day. One of these days I will go back and I will try the Maque Choux. That is, if they aren't sold out that particular day.

Jethro's Barbecue and Jambalaya - West Des Moines, IA

The third location under the Jethro's Barbecue umbrella opened late in 2011 out in West Des Moines - Jethro's Barbecue and Jambalaya - taking the best of Jethro's barbecue from their original restaurant on Forest Avenue in Des Moines near Drake University and adding a number of Cajun specialties. I visited the Jethro's Barbecue in Des Moines last year (click here to read that entry) and came away sort of impressed with their barbecue. Their second location in eastern suburban Altoona, IA - Jethro and Jake's Smokehouse Steaks - takes the Jethro's Barbecue and pairs it with a steakhouse theme. When I found out that the third Jethro's had a Cajun twist to their food, I immediately put it on my list of restaurants to visit. During a trip to Des Moines a few weeks ago, I decided to stop in for lunch.

Des Moines developer/restaurateur Bruce Gerleman designed his third Jethro's location similar to the original one in Des Moines - exposed wood rafters, open floor plan, corrugated metal walls in the bathrooms giving the decor kind of a "shack" feel. (I haven't been to the one in Altoona, but I'm guessing it's similar to the other two.) The West Des Moines location is located on University Ave. just west of 92nd St. in West Des Moines and Boone Drive in Waukee (see map). It's kind of confusing as West Des Moines is on the south side of University and Waukee is across the street to the north. My GPS was equally confused after I put in the address and it tried to get me to turn into the Des Moines Golf and Country Club. But there was no entrance. I continued down the road a bit and saw Jethro's on the corner of a small strip mall just past 92nd St.

It was just after 1 p.m. when I got into Jethro's in West Des Moines and the lunch rush was in full swing. This Jethro's location is about double the size of the one near Drake University and also has a party room toward the back that can be used for overflow when it's not in use for private functions. The bar is similar to the original Jethro's with three sides surrounding tin corrugated culvert tubes stretching from the middle part of the inner bar to the ceiling holding the spigots of draft beer. 

And like the Drake location, there is a "Wall of Fame" and a "Wall of Shame" for those who have tried the Adam Emmenecker sandwich challenge - a behemoth sandwich named after a former Drake University men's basketball star that features Jethro's huge pork tenderloin, then add an Angus steak burger, they they top that with mounds of Texas brisket, applewood bacon and then fried cheese. They finish the toppings with buffalo chicken tenders and smother the mountain of beef and pork with melted cheddar and white cheddar sauce. 

This is Matt Meszaros, a young man from the Des Moines area who - if you believe the Adam Emmenecker web site devoted to the sandwich - has the record of consuming at least 25 of the sandwiches. Meszaros is the man behind the Des Moines Egotist website that follows Central Iowa advertising and marketing. One thing I have to tell Matt - I used to be your size at one time. While I probably couldn't have eaten one Adam Emmenecker sandwich, let alone at least 25, I probably would have made a serious dent in one when I was your age. But I have to tell you - age catches up with you and most people's metabolism slows down pretty quickly after the age of 40. And it's a lot tougher to drop 50 pounds after the age of 40. Believe me.

While the dining area was pretty full and there were tables available, I decided to sit at the bar which was about 2/3rd's full. A perky young girl by the name of Alicia greeted me with a menu and asked if I wanted anything to drink. I took a quick look at what they had to offer on their beer menu and I noticed they had an unnamed Samuel Adams seasonal. I asked Alicia what it was and she said it was called Alpine Spring. "It's light like a lager, but has sort of a hoppy taste," she explained. She offered me a small glass to taste it and I thought it was fine. I ordered a 16 oz. glass of that.

While Jethro's Barbecue and Jambalaya did have a number of barbecue items on their menu, I was interested primarily on the Cajun specialties listed under "Jasper's Cajun Favorites". There weren't a lot of entrees to choose from - jambalaya, chicken and sausage gumbo, crawfish etouffee, and red beans and "nice" rice - but you could combine them with ribs and other barbecue combinations. I really wanted to try a cup of gumbo along with the jambalaya, but it appeared that the gumbo was only available as an entree. When Alicia asked me if I had any questions, I asked her if the gumbo was available in anything smaller than the entree. She opened up my menu and pointed to a cup of gumbo that was toward the front of the menu. I said, "Perfect! I'll take a cup of gumbo and the jambalaya!"

She brought the gumbo out first. It had a dab of rice on top, topped with chopped green onions. It was a nice presentation. It had a lot of shredded chicken and long slices of smoked andouille sausage. In fact, the slices were cut long-ways and almost needed to be cut in half to get them on the soup spoon. I prefer smaller chunks of sausage in my gumbo, but I could live with it.

The gumbo (below left) was, well, different. While it was thick and rich, I can't really say the taste was bad, but it wasn't great, either. It had a little spicy zip to the taste, but the roux was sort of "eh!". I added copious amounts of Tabasco sauce throughout the eating process to help with the taste. I can't say that it was bland, but it had a different taste than any gumbo I'd ever had. I'm not certain I cared for it.  No, actually, I didn't care for it all.

After finishing the gumbo, Alicia brought out a huge bowl of the jambalaya (above right). The gumbo was very filling and I knew that I wouldn't be able to finish the jambalaya. I could only hope to make a dent in it. While the jambalaya looked scrumptious with large chunks of sliced andouille sausage and small shrimp in a very thick rich tomato-base broth with rice, the smell was something else. Even though they put what seemed to be a bushel of fresh chopped green onions on top of the jambalaya, I could easily smell the fishy-ness from the shrimp. The first bite of one of the shrimp on top of the jambalaya was very fishy in taste. The shrimp they used had to be old and I was sort of contemplating sending it back. I had another shrimp that wasn't as fishy in taste - probably because it couldn't get any worse than the first shrimp I had - and decided to keep eating.  I joked to a friend later on that they probably got the shrimp out of the nearby Raccoon River.   

When Alicia came back to check on me and asked me how the jambalaya was, I said, "All right." I lied. Big time. The bottom line - the jambalaya wasn't very good. I wasn't overly enamored with the gumbo, but the jambalaya was worse. But Alicia was so nice and helpful that I didn't want to say anything to her. So that's why I have a blog.

I was overly disappointed in their Cajun food at Jethro's Barbecue and Jambalaya. My overall sentiment is that they need to stick to barbecue, which Jethro's does all right, and forget about the Cajun food. This won't stop me from going to one of the Jethro's locations in the future for barbecue. But I think I know Cajun food pretty well and this was not good. 

Joey's Seafood and Grill - Brookfield, WI

I've got a dealer in Milwaukee who is a nice guy and I offered to take him out for lunch on my last visit to that city.  He suggested a couple places that were national chains.  I told him that I'd rather eat at a place that is either local or, at least, a local chain like The Chancery or The Charcoal Grill.  He asked me if I liked seafood and I said I did.  He suggested a place up in Brookfield that was a little bit of a drive from his shop - Joey's Seafood and Grill.  I asked it was a place that did fish or seafood other than deep fried and he said, "Oh, no.  They cook it all different ways."  

Joey's Seafood and Grill started as a Canadian chain in 1985.  Seeing a need for a smaller seafood restaurant than Red Lobster, but a leap above fast seafood places like Captain D's and Long John Silver's, Joe Klassen opened his first restaurant in Calgary.  (Click here for the Canadian web site.) It became an immediate hit and he soon opened more restaurants in Western Canada.  By 1992, he began to franchise the Joey's Seafood and Grill and Joey's Only restaurants.   Today there are nearly 70 locations from British Columbia to Ontario, each of them offering fresh seafood that can be cooked many different ways - poached, grilled, lightly battered and fried, or blackened with Cajun spices.  

In 1995, Joey's began to franchise into the United States using an American company that sold franchise rights for the Canadian company.  At one point, there were 19 locations in 13 states, but the economic downturn forced the closure of a number of the restaurants and in 2008 the U.S. franchising arm closed down and sold the U.S. franchise rights back to the Canadian company.  A handful of Joey's Seafood and Grill locations stayed open, notably one in Madison, WI (click here for their web site) and the one in suburban Brookfield, both of which are locally owned.   Jim Knop bought the franchise rights to the Brookfield location and continues to run the business today as a single entity.  

It was just before 1 p.m. when we pulled into the parking lot at Joey's, located in a small strip mall at the southwest corner of Capitol Drive and N. 124th St. (see map). The place was about half-full with a lunchtime crowd enjoying their food.  The restaurant features a bar area with a pine log awning over the top.  There are a series of sturdy tables and comfortable booths throughout the place.  A quick calculation on my part showed that you comfortably seat 90 to 100 people in the place at any one time. 

My dealer is sort of a regular at Joey's and our waitress came over to greet us.  She looked at him and said, "Well, hello, stranger.  I haven't seen you in here for awhile."

He said, "Yeah, I know.  I've been busy and haven't been up this way for awhile.  This is one of my reps and I suggested this place to him and he said, 'Let's go for it!'  So you're under a lot of pressure to make sure the food is extra good today."

She laughed and said, "Isn't our food extra good EVERY day?"

He looked at me and said, "The food IS very good here."  

We looked through the lunch menu and seafood is definitely the star at Joey's.  (The dinner menu is a little more extensive than the lunch menu and they feature grilled mahi-mahi fish tacos - I've got to get back and try those at some point.)  However, they also feature soups and seafood salads, sandwiches such as a lobster and seafood-blended hoagie with house spices and mayo, a blue crab melt that is basically like a tuna melt, only with blue crab meat with lettuce, tomato and melted cheddar cheese (that sounded REAL good), and a Jamaican jerk chicken sandwich.  They also had a burger topped with melted garlic butter.  

They also had some Cajun specialties on the menu such as jambalaya, blackened tilapia with red beans and rice with andouille sausage, and blackened shrimp.  In fact, you could get shrimp cooked any of 10 different ways - Battered, Asian Sesame, Cajun, Garlic, Lemon, Charbroiled, Lime, Blackened, Poached, and for 50 cents more, Malibu Coconut.  I was just about to get the jambalaya when I noticed the "Shrimp Your Way" heading.  I asked the waitress if I could split two of the ways to cook the shrimp and she said, "Sure!"  So, I ordered half garlic and half Cajun.  I got the red beans and rice for my side dish.

My dealer, according to him, has had about everything on the menu.  One thing he hadn't tried was the special that day - a grilled chicken breast with grilled shrimp combination.  A vegetable medley and a salad came with the meal.  He ordered that up.

After my dealer finished his salad, we had a good talk about products, the direction of the industry and the problems he faced as a small business owner.  The conversation was so good that I didn't realize that nearly 25 minutes had passed from the time he got his salad.  He finally said in mid-conversation, "This has never taken this long to get our food here."  He flagged down our waitress and asked her where our lunch was.  She went to check on it and she came out with his chicken and shrimp, but not my shrimp and red beans and rice.  About three minutes later, another waitress came out with my shrimp.  It was my guess that either our waitress or the kitchen dropped the ball on our lunch.  

My shrimp platter was teeming with a mound of boiled shrimp, half slathered in garlic, the other half powdered up with Cajun seasonings.  Inexplicably, a side of rice came with the red beans and rice.  I certainly didn't need that.  The shrimp were - in a word - excellent.  The Cajun seasoning wasn't overpoweringly hot, and the garlic wasn't obtrusive where I was going to smell bad all afternoon.  Actually, I would have liked it if they WOULD have made it more hot and more garlicky.  The highlight of the meal, however, was the red beans and rice.  They were excellent.  That's not to say the shrimp were bad - far from it.  They were just a notch down from the red beans and rice.  I was happily impressed with what I had at Joey's.

My dealer thought his chicken was a little overcooked (above right).  He said that this was the first time he'd gotten a grilled chicken breast at Joey's Seafood and Grill where it was cut in half.  "Maybe they do that because of it being a lunch special," he said.  

I finished my shrimp and my red beans and rice.  I left my corn muffin on the plate and he said, "Aren't you going to eat your muffin?  Man, that's the best part of the meal!"

I said, "You know, growing up in Iowa, you'd think I'd like cornbread, corn muffins or corn dogs.  I just don't like the taste of corn meal all that much.  It's too dry for me."  I offered him my corn muffin and he immediately grabbed it off my plate.  It was like I was offering him free gold.

Other than the service being a little slow and dicey, I was overly impressed with my meal at Joey's Seafood and Grill.  The shrimp I had reminded me of the night Cindy and I had our "seafood overload" meal at Hudson's on the Dock on Hilton Head.  The shrimp was almost as good as it was that particular evening.  And the red beans and rice rivaled anything I'd ever had at any authentic Cajun restaurant.  The whole meal was just tough to beat and while I was a little apprehensive going to a seafood place for lunch (thinking that it was going to be a lot of deep fried fish and such), I'm already looking forward to the next time I can make it back to Milwaukee and try the fish tacos at Joey's.  If they're even half as good as the shrimp, I'll still be happy.     

Broussard's Cajun Cuisine - Cape Girardeau, MO

Earlier this fall, I had to go to Cape Girardeau to do some training for the guys from Stereo One. I got in the evening before and I got hold of an old friend and former co-worker from years ago, Aaron, who works at Stereo One and wanted to see if he was up for getting some dinner and drinking some beer. He said he was and wanted to know where I wanted to go. I said, "Wow, man, I don't know.  This is your town." He said there was a great Cajun place in downtown Cape Girardeau by the name of Broussard's. I told him, "We're there!"

Broussard's Cajun Cuisine started in 1986 when Louisiana transplants Barron and Kathy Broussard moved to Cape Girardeau and opened up the restaurant in what was the site of the old Town Pump restaurant. Broussard also owned restaurants at one point up the road in St. Louis and out in Lodi, CA. Many of the foods that Broussard served in his restaurant in Cape Girardeau were from family recipes he garnered over the years.

The center piece of the restaurant was a tank with a live alligator in it. For years, Broussard's kept a small alligator in a fish tank for the customers to look at when they visited the place. I don't know what they did with the alligator after it got too big, but they do serve alligator dishes at Broussard's. The alligator had a name - Felix - and an alligator continues to be the prominent feature of Broussard's logo.

In 1991, Dennis Stockard took over the business and kept a lot of the touches Barron Broussard had put into the place. Dennis Stockard believed in a more professional approach, heavy upon customer appreciation. Broussard's began to gain a following throughout Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois. Many Cajun aficionados said the food at Broussard's was as authentic as any Southwest Louisiana bayou restaurant.

Dennis Stockard retired in 1997 and turned the business over to his son, Shawn. He kept a lot of the same elements of the restaurant his father ran, but marketed the bar toward more of a younger crowd, all the while maintaining the dining room for Cajun cuisine. For years, Broussard's has hosted a number of local bands to play in the place during the weekends.

In 2004, former employee Hunter Clark, and his wife, Stephanie, bought the business from Shawn Stockard. Clark, who had a background in the restaurant business with both Shoney's and Captain D's, worked as a supervisor for Dennis Stockard at Broussard's from 1992 to 1994. Clark had been driving a truck before he and his wife bought Broussard's, but wanted to get back into the restaurant business. They took over and other than a few cosmetic changes to the place, Broussard's is pretty much the same as it was 20 plus years ago. Many of the items on the menu are still true to Barron Broussard's family recipes, and now Broussard's has garnered a national food following with their great Cajun food.

At one point, Cape Girardeau had an outstanding upscale Cajun restaurant - the Royal N'Orleans, but it shut down a couple three years ago. I had been there on a couple occasions and it was certainly a treat to have some excellent Cajun and Creole food from that place. I hadn't been familiar with Broussard's Cajun Cuisine because during my limited travels to Cape Girardeau, I'd focused on wanting to go to Royal N'Orleans. I made my way downtown - past the darkened Royal N'Orleans - and found a parking place in a lot just north of Broussard's.

Broussard's is housed in an 1890's building that is part of the Cape Girardeau Commercial Historic District and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places a couple short blocks from the Mississippi River (see map). I met Aaron near the front of the building and we went in.

The main entrance into Broussard's takes you into a vintage 50's style bar area with a long bar, blue neon lights circling the ceiling, and some booths along the wall. To the left is the gaming/music area of the place, and to the right is the dining area.

We were seated in a booth along the wall, just under one of the bright red neon crawfish lights. Our waiter came over with menus and we ordered up some beers. I wondered if they had any Abita beers, since it was a Cajun restaurant and Abita is out of Louisiana. The waiter said, "No, sorry. We do have them, but they're for catering only."

I said, "Wait a minute! Catering only?"

Aaron said, "Dude, you're catering to US!" We couldn't quite grasp our minds on how a place could have beer, but wasn't willing to sell it. We asked for other types of beers and the guy kept saying, "No, we don't have that either" to our requests. I just decided to cut my losses and order a Bud Light - they DID have that, and Aaron got a Sam Adams.

On the wall facing me, there was a big mural - one of many paintings in Broussard's - by local Cape Girardeau artist Scott Kelley. Each mural or painting has something to do with people who have either worked at Broussard's over the years or who have graced their doors with regularity. Some paintings are a tad twisted with animals depicting some of the people. This one was overly colorful - even with the bright red light from the glowing neon crawfish on the wall.

Aaron gave me the drill about Broussard's - everything he'd ever had there was great. They had four different variations of etoufee, they had shrimp creole, jambalaya, gumbo, and chicken creole parmesan in a spicy creole sauce over rice. They had ribs, steaks and sandwiches - including Po' Boys. They had boiled crawfish (probably from China), red beans and rice, frog legs and blackened catfish. My head was spinning from all the possibilities they had to offer.

Aaron suggested we split the four combo platter - crawfish etoufee, shrimp etoufee, alligator etoufee and jambalaya. Red beans and rice came with it and we both got a bowl of gumbo for good measure. Aaron said, "There's no way we'll be able to finish all of this food, but it will give you a good idea of how good all their food is here."

The waiter was a little slow with both our food and our beers. He didn't bring out our gumbo at first like we wanted. It came out with our combo platter. And he was a little lax on getting our beers to us after we'd ordered them. I think he was the only waiter in the place that evening, but it was only Aaron and I, with people at a couple other tables in the dining room. 

Aaron wasn't fooling about not being able to finish everything. There was a lot of food to sample sitting in front of us. The first thing I tried was the gumbo. It was simply outstanding. I zipped it up a bit with some Tabasco, but it was pretty zippy to the taste on it's own. The gumbo at Broussard's was some of the best I've every had.

We had asked for an extra spoon and an extra plate apiece to scoop portions of the platters for individual servings. The waiter was woefully spacey and we had to remind him again before he ran and got the spoons and a couple small plates.

I tried all three of the etoufees and the best of the three was the alligator etoufee. The taste sensation sent me to the roof. While the shrimp etoufee and the crawfish etoufee were very good in their own right, the alligator etoufee was just outstanding. It wasn't rubbery like I've found with some alligator I've had in the past, but was moist and easy to chew. The taste was a knock out. "When I come back here - and I WILL come back here," I was tellling Aaron, "I'll get the alligator etoufee on its own."

The jambalaya was certainly on par with the alligator etoufee. Big chunks of andouille sausage permeated the jambalaya and with a little zip from Mr. Tabasco, it was even better. And I was also surprised with the red beans and rice. Too often, places that serve red beans and rice don't do anything other than the beans and rice. At Broussard's, they put large chunks of andouille sausage in with the red beans and rice and it was some of the best I've ever had. I'd never had red beans and rice with andouille sausage. I don't know if I'll be able to get red beans and rice at any place other than Broussard's.

Later in the evening, I had ordered a beer and it was a good 10 minutes before I realized that I hadn't gotten it yet. I said, "I thought I ordered another beer."

Aaron said, "You did! I think our waiter is slacking."

I got up to go to the restroom and when I came back, the waiter was standing up by the host stand talking to the cute little hostess. I said, "Hey buddy, I ordered a beer from you over 10 minutes ago and I haven't gotten it yet."

We both looked up at the bar and there was a solitary Bud Light on bar, waiting to be picked up and brought to my table. He grabbed it and handed it to me. I said, "Man, this has been sitting up there for quite awhile. Can I get a cold one?"

He said, "That felt cold to me." Whatever... I just took it from him and went back to the table.

We certainly did have a pile of food left over and I told Aaron to take it home with him. He said, "That's great. Thanks. The kids love coming here and they love the leftovers."

The waiter came with a container for Aaron and he asked us if we needed anything else. As he was scooping up the leftovers, Aaron looked over at me with a devilish grin and said, "They have the most outstanding bread pudding here."

I groaned in agony, completely full from the excellent food we'd had, not wanting to have another bite of anything. I said, "You bastard! I LOVE bread pudding."

The waiter said, "We have great bread pudding."

Aaron looked at me and said, "They really do. It's probably the best bread pudding that I've ever had." I winced, shook my head and looked down at the table. Aaron looked up at the waiter and said, "We'll have a piece with two spoons."

That bastard!

And it took a long time for the bread pudding to come out. This time, I didn't mind because it gave my stomach time to digest the rich Cajun food I'd had. Over 10 minutes after he'd ordered the bread pudding, I said to Aaron, "What did they have to do? Go down to New Orleans to pick it up?" Quite honestly, as scattered the waiter was, I thought he'd forgot to put the order in.

The waiter finally came out with it and the bread pudding was sitting in a shallow bowl, drenched with a rich rum butter sauce with powdered sugar sprinkled on top. From the first bite, it was just simply divine eating. The bread was moist and flavorful. I had about four bites before I couldn't eat any more. Aaron, who is a pretty small guy, finished off what he could and there were still a couple bites left. We couldn't do any more damage to the meal than we had.

Our bill with the combo platter (which was $19.95), the bowls of gumbo, bread pudding and multiple beers came to $50 bucks. The waiter got a $5 dollar tip because, well, he was bad. And it's too bad because that was the only thing bad about our experience at Broussard's. The food was excellent, some of the finest Cajun I'd ever had in my life. I love coming to Cape Girardeau - it's a pretty neat little city - and I'm hoping that I can make it down to see the guys at Stereo One a couple times a year. And when I do - as I said - I WILL be back at Broussard's.

Maxie's Southern Comfort - Milwaukee

I have a good Cambridge Audio dealer in Milwaukee and I wanted to reward them one evening a few weeks ago with a nice meal at a restaurant of their choice.  They've turned me on to a number of great restaurants - and equally great dive bars - in the Milwaukee area over the years.  They proposed going to a west side Cajun restaurant that's been open for about three years called Maxie's Southern Comfort.  I was not familiar with Maxie's - Crawdaddy's was probably the best known Cajun restaurant in the great Milwaukee area - but I'm always up for finding a new Cajun restaurant to try. 

Maxie's Southern Comfort is located just off Interstate 94 at the 68th St. exit, just west of Miller Park (see map).  This is actually the second location for Maxie's - the other location is actually in far off Ithaca, NY.  (Click here to see the Ithaca Maxie's web site.)  

Maxie's is the brain child of Chick and Dewi Evans, an earthy couple who opened their Ithaca location in 1999.  Chick and a good friend, Dan Sidner, a Milwaukee-native, graduated from Cornell University in the 1980's.  Both went on to work in restaurants after school - Chick worked for the Lettuce Entertain You restaurant corporation as well as for restaurants in New Mexico and Colorado, while Dan's restaurant journeys took him to North Carolina, Texas and Washington State running high-end restaurants. 

From 1997 to 2003, Dan ran a high-end Italian restaurant in the Vail area before moving back to Wisconsin.  Joining forces with the Evans, Sidner and his wife, Allison, decided to bring Maxie's Southern Comfort to Milwaukee and bought what was an old neighborhood meat market in Wauwautosa.  They hired Joe Muench - a veteran chef in the Milwaukee area - as the executive chef, and Sally (Sal) Anschuetz as their restaurant manager and they opened the doors in 2007.    

Maxie's Southern Comfort is more than just a Cajun restaurant.  They also specialize in Carolina "low country" cuisine as well as Southern-style barbecue offerings.  Their menu is a diverse sampling of those cuisines along with a few contemporary offerings and some vegetarian items, as well.  Maxie's also has an ever-changing wine and libation list that includes seasonal beers served on tap.  One of the beers they had on tap was Bell's Oberon wheat ale.  I'm not big on wheat beer, but I do like the Bell's Oberon in the summertime.

It was around 7:30 p.m. when we got into Maxie's.  A large parking lot is situated across the street from the restaurant and the neighborhood looks like it was once a thriving little area.  Just to the east of Maxie's are a couple of neighborhood dive bars the guys pointed out to me. "I've spent many a night in both of those places," one of my guests told me.

They had reservations for four in advance of our dinner - one of the guys ended up that he couldn't make the dinner.  I'm glad they did make reservations because the place was packed.  We were seated at a table right next to the bar and up against the west wall of the restaurant.  With a wood-beamed ceiling and hard floors, the place was very loud.  While it was difficult to carry on a conversation, it wasn't impossible.

Our waitress showed up with a "shadow" waitress - a newbie hire who was learning the ropes of working at Maxie's.  She got our drink order - I had to have a Bell's Oberon, one of the other guys got the same, while the other just got an ice-tea for the moment.  While Maxie's Southern Comfort did have a nice wine list, I've never been big on drinking wine with Southern or Cajun cuisine. 

While we looked at the menu, our waitress told us they had a couple specials that evening - one was blackened catfish special and the other was a slow-cooked beef brisket served with Maxie's homemade barbecue sauce.  I was intrigued by the brisket, but I was also looking at some of the Cajun items they had on the menu.

One of my guests asked, "Do you like oysters?"  I told him I did.  He said, "They have a great selection of oysters here."  And, indeed, they did.  They had oysters from the Pacific Northwest, New England and Canadian Maritime regions.  We decided to get a couple dozen oysters on the half-shells - one dozen Rhode Island oysters and one dozen Maine oysters.  Actually, the Rhode Island oysters were smaller and a little salty -but still good.  The Maine oysters were big, meaty and had a great taste to them.  And the oysters were served with a cup of dark vinegar - something I've never tried with oysters before.  It was an interesting taste compared to the usual horseradish/Tabasco sauce I use on my oysters.

When it came down to ordering dinner, I was really torn between the brisket special, the blackened-seared ahi tuna, and the jambalaya.  I told our waitress, "I'm having trouble here.  I really want to try the brisket, but the jambalaya is just yelling at me.  Is there a way that I can get a sample of the brisket?"  She said she would have to check.  She came back in a little bit and she said, "Yeah, we can get you a sample, but there would be an upcharge."  I told her that was fine.  And for good measure, I got a cup of the gumbo to try, as well.

One of the guys got Maxie's grits and shrimp, a half-order for $13.95.  He got a dinner salad to tide him over as he only had a couple three of the oysters.  "Not much of an oyster guy," he said.  My other guest ended up getting the blackened catfish special. 

A few moments later, the waitress brought out the gumbo, salad and the brisket sampler.  Well, the brisket sampler was more than a sampler - it was a heaping plate of pulled beef brisket swimming in their homemade sauce.  It was way more than I wanted, so I shared it with the other guys.  It was OK, not exactly the best I've ever had, but it was good.  The sauce was thick and smoky in flavor and the meat was a little tough.  We all agreed we were glad we didn't get the brisket dinner.  Then again, as one of the guys pointed out, as large as the amount of brisket that we got on the sampler plate was, we may have gotten the dinner.  I never did check to see what they charged us for the "sample."

My gumbo was much better.  Large chunks of chicken and andoullie sausage were prevalent in the gumbo and while they advertised that it had crawfish in the gumbo, I don't know if I actually came across any crawfish meat.  But it was thick and tasty and with a little bit of Tabasco added it had a nice kick to the taste. 

A while later, our main entrees showed up.  I had a heaping plate of jambalaya - much more than I knew I could finish.  But it had a lot shrimp, andoullie and chicken mixed in with the rice and the creole sauce.  On its own, it had a lot of zip to the taste.  But with more Tabasco to kick it up a notch, I really liked the jambalaya.

The guy who got the grits and shrimp was lucky that he got the half-order.  It was almost too much for him to eat.  He said, "My wife and I can hardly eat a whole order of grits and shrimp, so I knew that I wouldn't have any chance at eating a whole plate."  

And my guest who ordered the blackened catfish said it was great, as always.  "I live about four blocks from here and my girlfriend and I walk up here all the time," he said. "I've had this catfish before and it's consistently very good." 

After a very good and satisfying dinner for all three of us, the two waitresses tried to tempt us with some dessert offerings.  I was too stuffed - as I initially predicted I couldn't finish my whole jambalaya dinner - but I did propose looking over the list of Scotch for a night cap.  We all decided to each get a snifter of The Balvenie 12 year single malt to finish off the evening.  It was a great end to a very good meal.

While I thought the brisket was average, I was still happy I got a taste.  But I will say the gumbo and the jambalaya at Maxie's Southern Comfort were well above average compared to other places I've tried.  I think the overall experience at Maxie's was also well above average - I guess you could call it as high-end Southern cooking.  The service was very good, especially with two waitresses helping us out.  While the dining room was sort of loud, it was still manageable.  And the food was very good.  That's what I like about these guys in Milwaukee - they turned me on to another great restaurant in the city.

Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop - Evanston, IL

As business continues to gain some steam, I was in Evanston, IL recently for a meeting with a prospective new dealer.  Since the meeting was first thing in the morning, I stayed the night before in downtown Evanston at the Hilton Garden Inn.  There's a number of restaurants within walking distance of the hotel and I decided to go try a Cajun/Southern food restaurant not far from the hotel, the Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop.

Dixie Kitchen has been a well-known restaurant in the Chicagoland area for over 15 years.  The first location opened in the Hyde Park area in Chicago in 1994.  It quickly gained notoriety for it's authentic Cajun and Southern specialties such as po' boy sandwiches, fried green tomatoes, crayfish etouffe, and shrimp Creole.  In 1995, Dixie Kitchen was named by Chicago Magazine as one of the 15 best new restaurants in the Chicagoland area.  Over the years, it expanded to locations in Evanston and in suburban Lansing. 

The Dixie Kitchen location in Hyde Park gained a bit of notoriety a few years ago when it was featured on a local Chicago television show called "Check Please".  In the first installment of a program aired in 2001, a young Illinois State Senator from the Hyde Park area, Barack Obama, talked about the virtues of Dixie Kitchen's Johnny Cakes and their peach cobbler.  Here's the 7 minute video where the panel, including Barack Obama, talks about their experiences at the Hyde Park Dixie Kitchen.
 

The owner of Dixie Kitchen, Carol Andresen, also owns the Calypso Cafe, a Caribbean-style restaurant in Hyde Park near where the Dixie Kitchen once was.  Yes, the Dixie Kitchen in Hyde Park closed up last summer as the University of Chicago bought the Harper Court business district with an eye on redeveloping the area with more upscale shops and restaurants.  The lease was up on Dixie Kitchen's location and they closed their doors in June of 2009.  However, the Calypso Cafe remains open until their lease runs out in 2012.  Some of the menu items from Dixie Kitchen have migrated over to the Calypso Cafe.  Andresen doesn't know the fate of the Calypso Cafe when its lease runs out.   

However, the Evanston Dixie Kitchen is still going strong.  It was a cold and snowy Monday evening when I made the five minute walk to the Dixie Kitchen location on Church Street (see map).  There was a light crowd in the somewhat smallish dining room and I was able to find a seat right away.  One of the waiters showed me to a small table against the wall and I was given a menu.  A few minutes later, another waiter came over with a basket of Johnny Cakes and asked me if I wanted something to drink.  I noticed that they had Abita Restoration Pale Ale on the drink list and I ordered up one of those.

Now, I'm not certain I've ever had Johnny Cakes - which are basically corn meal pancakes.  I'm not big on corn meal, but the two that were in the basket were piping hot.  There was a side container of sweet butter just daring me to try one of the Johnny Cakes.  I finally succumbed to temptation and pulled one out and put a little butter on the top.  From the first bite, I was hooked.  Shit!  This is not going to help the diet!  The first one was long gone before my beer showed up to the table.  It was light and fluffy and had sort of a sweet corn taste to it.  I knew that if I kept eating the Johnny Cakes there would be no way I'd be able to have a full entree.

Looking through the menu, there were a lot of interesting entrees to choose from.  They had pasta dishes such as something called Pasta Bienville - a blackened catfish fillet served over a bed of fettuccine alfredo and topped with a creamy shrimp and crab sauce.  The cool thing about it is that you could also get half-portions of their pasta dishes.  I almost pulled the trigger on that.

You could also get fish and seafood entrees, ribs and a handful of chicken dishes done various ways such as country fried chicken steak, grilled chicken breast, barbecued half-chicken and good ol' Southern fried chicken.  And as I said earlier, Dixie Kitchen featured a number of sandwiches including Po' boys, pulled pork, chicken sandwiches and burgers.     

My waiter came out and asked if I wanted to start off with one of Dixie Kitchen's many appetizers, including their famous Fried Green Tomatoes.  I said, "Man, the Johnny Cakes are enough of an appetizer for me." 

He sort of laughed and said, "Yeah, I know what you mean.  I could just sit and eat the Johnny Cakes all night long." 

I ended up ordering a cup of their Gumbo as a starter, and since I was in sort of a Cajun mood that evening, I ordered up a bowl of their Jambalaya.  A lot of people think Gumbo and Jambalaya are interchangeable, but I had a feeling the two were very different at Dixie Kitchen.

He brought out the Gumbo.  It had a dark brown roux base and had a generous amount of chopped green onions on the top.  I found it to be thick and flavorful with a lot of chunks of chicken, andouille sausage, veggies and even a big chunk of shrimp toward the bottom.  It was very rich, but I didn't find it very spicy.  I ended up kicking it up a notch with some splashes of Louisiana Hot Sauce.  I slightly prefer the taste of Tabasco to Louisiana Hot Sauce, but I noticed that Tabasco was nowhere in sight in any of the tables.  I couldn't say it was the best Gumbo I'd ever had, but it was still good.  A bowl of that would have been enough for me for my meal.

I finished up my Gumbo and the waiter came out to check on my beer level.  He said, "So how was the Gumbo?"

I said, "Rich and flavorful.  I especially liked that you guys don't scrimp on the ingredients." 

He said, "That's one thing we never do here - scrimp on anything." 

As I waited for my Jambalaya to show up, I took a look around at the place a little more closely.  The walls were adorned with a number of old time Southern signs, antique kitchen items and a few lighted signs.  It had kind of a kitschy feel to the place, but it was designed to look sort of like a 30's style Louisiana Bayou country store that would also serve Cajun food to their patrons.  That was the feel and look Carol Andresen was going for when she first opened Dixie Kitchen over 15 years ago.  She found a number of these old places as she was traveling the backroads of Louisiana in the early 90's and she wanted to replicate the experience in Chicago.  Actually, some of the signs and antiques were sort of interesting.  I especially liked the Nehi cola sign shown at the bottom left of this picture.  There were similar signs like this all over the walls of the place.

 

My waiter came out with another Abita Restoration Pale Ale along with my Jambalaya served with a corn muffin that was sort of hard.  It had a little more of a red color to the base than the Gumbo.  And it featured something I'd never encountered before with Jambalaya - they had the rice moved off to the side of the bowl instead of incorporating it with the Jambalaya.  I thought, "How interesting.  If you don't want to eat white rice because of the starch, it's not part of the mix."  Note to self - don't put rice in the Jambalaya the next time you make it.  Put it off to the side, or put it in a separate bowl and let those who want to add it to the Jambalaya do so. 

I knew right off the bat that I'd need to jazz up the Jambalaya, so I put a copious amount of Louisiana Hot Sauce on top and then mixed it in.  The taste was very good - it had the right amount of kick to the Jambalaya and the hot sauce helped the finish linger a bit longer.  There were also large chunks of chicken, shrimp and andouille in it, as well.  I ate all the Jambalaya, left a good portion of the rice and decided the corn muffin was too hard to try.  Besides, I'm not big on corn muffins.  Once again, it was probably not the best Jambalaya I've ever had, but it was the best Jambalaya I've had in a long time.

I was pleasantly surprised with Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop.  I didn't know until after I ate there that it was one of Barack Obama's favorite restaurants before he became President.  The place had good food, an interesting interior and the service was very good.   I'm always on the look out for good Cajun restaurants in the Midwest and they're sort of tough to find.  But Dixie Kitchen is on my list for when I get a hankering for Cajun when I'm in the Chicago area.  And I can't wait to get back there for more of their Johnny Cakes.

Oh, and by the way, I did sign up the account the next morning...  

Joe's O.K. Bayou - Louisville

It's a treat to find authentic Cajun food when I travel and while I was in Louisville recently I came across Joe's OK Bayou.  I truly love Cajun food and I wanted the whole Cajun experience, so I decided to try a little bit of everything at Joe's when I was in there recently. 

Joe's OK Bayou was started 14 years ago by Joe Wheatley, a native of Morganfield, KY.  Wheatley attended the University of Kentucky and worked for a small Cajun food restaurant in Lexington.  When his parents would visit, they would always go to the Cajun restaurant to eat.  Wheatley's parents, Malcolm and Leslie, became well acquainted with the owners of the Cajun restaurant, learning some of the recipes the owners brought with them from Louisiana years before.  In 1993, the Wheatley's opened their own Cajun/Seafood restaurant in Henderson, KY, on the Ohio River just south of Evansville, IN. 

In 1995, Joe Wheatley opened his first Joe's OK Bayou in Louisville.  He featured a full Cajun menu and decorated his small restaurant like an authentic Cajun shrimp shack.  As things were getting going for Joe in Louisville, his parents sold their restaurant in Henderson and opened a new restaurant - the Feed Mill Restaurant - in their hometown of Morganfield, KY, just south of where Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana all come together at the confluence of the Wabash and Ohio Rivers.  The Feed Mill featured a more diverse menu including steaks, chops and barbecue in addition to the Cajun specialties the Wheatleys were becoming famous for.

As Joe's OK Bayou grew in business, Joe Wheatley added on to the original location in Louisville.  In 2005, he added a Joe's OK Bayou in Lexington, KY; and a year later he opened a third location across the river from Louisville in New Albany, IN. 

The original location was not far from the hotel that I stayed at during my trip to Louisville.  In fact, Joe's OK Bayou is located in the same little shopping complex that Perfetto Pizza resides (see map).  I was rather surprised to realize that both places were so close together.   The Colonial-style exterior of Joe's gave way to an interior that resembled a restaurant that you'd find in the heart of the Louisiana bayou. 

There are two parts of Joe's OK Bayou - the front dining area that has a nice bar that was packed with people, and a rear seating area that was much larger than the front.  I'm guessing that was the expanded part of the restaurant.  I sat at a table in the front part of the restaurant and was given a menu by the waitress.  I also ordered up an Abita Amber, a wonderful beer from Louisiana they had on tap. 

As I said, I really wanted to try a little of everything.  And they had it all on the menu.  Shrimp, gumbo, crawfish, oysters on the half-shell, all types and different Cajun dishes.  My head was spinning trying to grasp what I could get.  They had softshell crabs, gator tail and crawfish etoufee on the menu.  I couldn't figure out what I really wanted to get.

One of the specials they had that evening at Joe's was oysters on the half-shell.  I ordered up six of those while I looked over the full menu.  When they were brought out to me, I was surprised to see six of the meatiest and fresh oysters this side of any seaside town where I've eaten oysters.  They were great.  I was in feverish anticipation of other items they had on the menu.

After I finished off the very good oysters, I got the waitress to come by and explain some items on the menu.  The portions looked huge, especially if you ordered a dinner which came with two sides.  The smallest size of crawfish they had to offer was two pounds.  I asked if they could just send out a pound of crawfish.  She was pretty set in that it had to be two pounds.  All right, I saw that she wasn't going to budge on the negotiations, so I ordered up two pounds of crawfish (there's really not a lot of meat on a crawfish, so two pounds of crawfish is like a quarter pound of meat - if that).  I also ordered up a bowl of gumbo - no cup size was available.  And I ordered up some jambalaya, a small order.  (Many of the items such as gumbo and jambalaya are offered in up to quart-sized "to-go" containers.)

The crawfish was the next to come out.  They were a little fishy tasting and were more than likely frozen crawfish from China, but they still had some meat to them.  The Cajun spices helped them out, but I'd had better crawfish before.  

Next, came the gumbo and the jambalaya.  Both were generous portions of food.  I tried the gumbo and thought it to be OK, nothing special.  I've made better gumbo at home.   Although there were ample amounts of andoullie sausage and chicken in the gumbo, it still didn't have that "pizazz" that I look for - even when I doctored it up with some Tabasco sauce. 

Then I tried the jambalaya.  Ugh!  I'm sorry, but the jambalaya at Joe's tasted like it had been on the stove top for three days, simmering.  It was dry and flavorless, hopelessly overcooked.  Even Tabasco couldn't help the taste of the jambalaya at Joe's.  I was highly disappointed.  

While the meal started out very promising, as it went on it went downhill - and fast.  I was very happy with the service, the waitress was overly attentive and kept checking on me at the appropriate times.  But other than the oysters, the boiled crawfish were average, the gumbo below average and the jambalaya was almost inedible.  I was hoping to get a great meal at Joe's OK Bayou and from all indications they must do some pretty good business.  But if my meal is an indication of the day-to-day food they have at Joe's, the people of Louisville are still not being served very good Cajun food.  

I'm going to have to adopt a new policy in that restaurants that I didn't care for, I may have to give them a try again.  It's obvious from the amount of people that were in the place that evening, along with the longevity of the place, plus they've opened two other locations, that Joe's OK Bayou must be pretty good.  Maybe I did get a bad batch of jambalaya or not the best gumbo they've ever made.  I know some food critics will give a restaurant two or three chances before they declare it to be good or bad.  I just don't have the time to do that since I don't get to Louisville all that often.  But I will try Joe's again just to make sure and I'll let you know. 

(Update - I have been back to Joe's OK Bayou and once again the food was just... OK.  As far as Cajun goes, it's pretty pedestrian.  I'd look for another Cajun place in Louisville - if there is one - before I'd go back to Joe's.) 

Heaven on Seven - Chicago

A little bit of Louisiana in Chicago is what Heaven on Seven is all about.  It's some of the finest Cajun and creole cooking that you'll find anywhere. 

Heaven on Seven is owned by Jimmy Bannos and his brother, George (right).  The story of how Heaven on Seven started is sort of unique.  Jimmy Bannos and his brother began to wash dishes in the family restaurant at an early age.  His love of cooking was evident as a growing teen-aged boy.

Jimmy Bannos went off to cooking school and rejoined the family in 1980.   The Bannos' family then opened a small coffee shop on the seventh floor of a the Garland Building on N. Wabash in Chicago (see map) and called it the New Garland Coffee Shop. 

Jimmy Bannos began to make Cajun and creole dishes in addition to selling coffee and snacks.  People would crowd the restaurant sampling the Cajun and non-Cajun foods that Jimmy would prepare. 

Jimmy Bannos and his wife went to New Orleans on vacation and fell in love with the culture.  He became friends with noted chef Emeril Lagasse and immersed himself in learning more about Cajun and creole cooking. 

Bannos came back and after a while, the family coffee shop had turned completely to a Cajun and creole menu. Food critics hailed the little seventh-floor restaurant as having the most authentic Louisiana style food outside of the city of New Orleans.  Heaven on Seven was born. 

The Bannos brothers opened a second location on N. Clark, but that has since closed.  Their third location, which is also their biggest location, is the one on N. Rush just off of Michigan Ave. (see map).  That's the one we went to for lunch when we were in Chicago recently.

Heaven on Seven's decor reminds you of a Louisiana fish shanty.  There's one full wall at the Heaven on Seven location on Rush - dubbed "The Wall of Fire" - that is nothing but a collection of hot sauce bottles the Bannos' have collected over the years.  It's pretty impressive. 

Here's a picture of Jimmy Bannos in front of the wall of hot sauces.  And they keep a number of the hot sauces on each table, too. 

It was sort of cool outside the day we went in, so I thought something warm from their menu would be perfect.  I ordered a bowl of their gumbo along with a side of their jambalaya while Cindy got a cup of their gumbo and a side of the red beans and rice.  I also got one of their famous Bloody Mary's followed by an ice cold beer. 

The food is so rich and filling at Heaven on Seven.  Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs.  I finished the bowl of gumbo, but had problems with finishing the small side of jambalaya.  Cindy, too, finished her cup of gumbo and only had about 5 or 6 bites of the red beans and rice.  So filling, but - oh! - so good. 

The one thing about Heaven on Seven is that it leans to the expensive side.  The food we had, a Bloody Mary and a beer, and a soft drink for Cindy came to about $43.00.  For lunch.  Ouch.  But the food is so damn good, I didn't bitch much.

The original Heaven on Seven is now open only a couple days a week and only through the lunch hours.  The location on Rush is the flagship location and they have a third Heaven on Seven restaurant in suburban Naperville (see map).  And the Bannos brothers just opened a new restaurant that specializes in breakfast and lunch called Juicy-O in Downers Grove (see map).

Heaven on Seven is one of my favorite restaurants for the atmosphere, the food and the taste sensations.  It's definitely a treat each time we go. 

Yats Cajun and Creole - Indianapolis

The Massachusetts Avenue area of Indianapolis is the home of a lot of trendy restaurants, theaters, art galleries and boutiques.  With a growing base of young professionals moving into lofts and condos reconstructed out of old factories and warehouses, the area is the "hip" area of Indianapolis.

I have a new potential dealer who is just off of Massachusetts Ave. and is hoping his new location will mean good business when a 200 unit condo goes up just south of his place on North Ave.  I went in to see him recently and we had a nice meeting.  It was during the early part of the afternoon so we ended up walking over to Yats Cajun and Creole, a funky little restaurant, for lunch (see map).

Yats takes it's name from a common greeting in Louisiana, "Where y'at?"  And the food is truly cajun and creole (see menu).  They have every thing from jambalaya to etoufee and a lot in between.  And it's cheap.  Most dishes are $5.00 and you can get half and half orders for $6.00.

My dealer guest and I both went with Yats' gumbo - a big bowl of andouille sausage, shrimp, shredded chicken, okra and other veggies in a rich brown broth.  Yats doesn't sell beer, but a cold one would have been perfect with the gumbo on a warm Indy day.  One guy took our order, we waited at another window for the gumbo to come up and two minutes later, there it was.

We sat outside on a picnic table and talked business.   My dealer said, "To me, this is fast food.  People can go to any fast food joint and pay as much for lunch as this.  And this is much better." 

He's right.  The gumbo was outstanding, some of the best I've ever had.

There are two Yats in Indy - the second one is up in the Broad Ripple area on N. College (see map).  Don't know which of the two is the original, but the one on Mass Ave. certainly has a "lived in" look to it. 

I'm hoping I get this guy on as a dealer because I really like the Mass Ave. area.  And even if I don't get this guy on board, I'll still go back to Yats.

Crawdaddy's - Milwaukee

One of my favorite places to eat while I'm in Milwaukee is Crawdaddy's in suburban West Allis (see map).  Crawdaddy's is a cajun/creole restaurant of wide acclaim.  It's won a number of reader's choice awards in Milwaukee area publications over the past few years.

We were first introduced to Crawdaddy's when I first took Cindy to Summerfest a number of years ago.  One of the first things we'd have to do when we got there is go to the Crawdaddy's food booth at Summerfest and get a "Gator on a Stick".  It's basically ground up alligator and pork, put on a skewer stick and deep fried.  It's served with some spicy tomato based sauce and it's pretty damn good.   Although the food at Summerfest is good, it isn't as good as going to the restaurant.

Chef Jonathan Klug's "creole fusion" food has brought people in from all over the Midwest for a number of years.  I was just in Milwaukee recently and took a dealer out to dinner there.  The place was moderately packed - we didn't have to wait for a table - but there were a good number of people in there.

Some of the best gumbo I've ever had is at Crawdaddy's.  And I started out with a cup of it before dinner.  It's spicy enough, but I always zip it up with a little Tabasco sauce to make it more hot.  It has nice chunks of chicken and andouille sausage in a flavorful broth.

I ordered the blackened sirloin steak - a 10 oz. creole seasoned steak, grilled, then blackened in a skillet.  It was great.  It came with a choice of potato - I took the pan fried potatoes.  The steak was cooked perfectly and had a great taste to it with a nice little bite seconds after I'd swallow.

My guest got the pork loin wrapped in pepper bacon and served with a spicy barbecue sauce.  I almost got that, but was glad I went with the steak.  He was happy with his - he got the pan fried potatoes, too. 

We drank Abita Amber beers before and with our dinner.  My client had lived in or near Milwaukee all his life and had never been to Crawdaddy's before.  He said, "Man!  I'll have to bring my wife here.  We've always heard about this place, but have never been here."

The food, as usual, was outstanding.  Price of the meal, with tip, was just over $80 bucks.  It was well worth it. 

Try their jambalaya at Summerfest, if you go, but take your own bottle of Tabasco as they just have hot sauce in packets.  But don't worry about the Tabasco at their restaurant - they've got plenty of it.  Some people may not want to spice it up any more than it is, but I do.  And it's great every time I've been there.