I had a meeting with a couple of potential accounts in the northern suburbs of Indianapolis last fall and I ended up staying in Carmel for the night. I got into town around 8:30 p.m. - the time zone change coming from the west always seems to make me come into Indianapolis later than I like - and I knew that if I was going to get something to eat for the evening, I had to find a place quickly. I went into downtown Carmel to look for something that tripped my trigger and I happened to spy a place call Mudbugs Cajun Cafe. I thought, "Huh! Cajun food! Sure, that trips my trigger!"
It turns out that Mudbugs has been open since April of 2007 in Carmel's Arts and Design District. Now, I've been in downtown Carmel a few times over the past 10 years, but for some reason I didn't notice Mudbugs until now. (My wife says I'm not very observant.) But it was Louisiana native Roy LeBlanc that brought Cajun food to Carmel.
Growing up in Abbeville, LA in the heart of Cajun country, LeBlanc's family all cooked. The people in LeBlanc's neighborhood all cooked. The majority of people in Abbeville all cooked. It was a cacophony of flavors and smells that would emanate from houses throughout the small town. When Roy and Belinda LeBlanc moved to Indianapolis for his work, he would make gumbo and hush puppies for clients. Many people remarked that he should open a restaurant because his food was so good. He was armed with recipes he'd picked up from friends and family members of the years - such as Miss Ann's Crawfish Casserole and Miss Marilyn's Baked Bean Syrup - and he and his wife decided to make the plunge into the restaurant business.
The LeBlanc's started their business on a shoestring and business was sort of tight at the beginning. But it wasn't until Mudbugs' hush puppies were voted as the "Favorite Food" by attendees of the 2007 Indiana State Fair that things started to pick up. Over time, the restaurant has added more food items to their menu and the LeBlanc's daughter Kelly is now in the family business as the co-owner/manager of Mudbugs.
Mudbugs Cajun Cafe is located on W. Main in the heart of downtown Carmel. (see map) I was able to find parking across the street and went inside.
As I said, it was pretty late when I got into Mudbugs - they closed at 9 p.m. and there was nobody else in the place when I walked in. The restaurant was small with a number of tables topped with vinyl checkerboard table cloths. Signs and pictures adorned the walls on both sides of the dining room.
The menu is on a chalkboard behind the front counter where you order your food. It had the traditional Cajun/Creole specialties - shrimp étouffée, jambalaya, red rice and beans - but they also had something that I wasn't familiar with, something called Chicken Courtboullion. It's a spicy tomato-based stew with chicken and served over rice. They also had a number of Po' Boy sandwiches with choices such as shrimp, pork, chicken or catfish for the main ingredients.
I wanted to try a little bit of everything and they had a Pick-3 combo at Mudbugs that allowed me to try some different things. I got the pork, rice and gravy - the way real Cajuns eat pork, the menu said - as well as the chicken and andouille jambalaya, and the chicken and andouille gumbo.
One thing that I like with my Cajun food is a good beer and they had Abita beers available at Mudbugs. I ordered up an Abita Amber from the young guy manning the register and he said, "Uh, we can't serve beer." I was taken aback as I saw that they had the beer available. Then he explained, "No one is licensed to sell beer here." I didn't quite understand what he was talking about and I asked if their liquor license had been revoked. Finally, another person in the back said, "No. No one here is of age to serve beer. You have to be 21 to serve beer."
I then told them, "Tell you what. Why don't you guys hire me for five minutes and I'll serve the beer to myself?" They didn't get my subtle bit of humor and I settled for a glass of water instead.
The young guy brought my food out to me and it was a lot of food for just $9.95. The jambalaya and the pork, rice and gravy were all heaping above the top of the bowls while the gumbo was filled to the brim. A piece of toasted bread came with the meal.
The jambalaya was the first thing I tried. It was sort of oily in taste, but it wasn't bad at all. It had nice chunks of andouille sausage and/or chicken with nearly each bite. I spiced it up a bit with some Tabasco sauce and it helped give it a good spicy bite.
The gumbo also needed a little bit of Tabasco added to it for a little more of a spicy taste that I like. The gumbo also had generous amounts of andouille and chicken chunks mixed in. It was a very good gumbo at Mudbugs.
The interesting part of the meal was the pork and gravy served over rice. They take Indiana-raised pork, slow cook it, shred it, and put it on top of a bed of rice. The "gravy" is actually a pork au jus sauce that it poured over the pork and rice. And I have to say it was very tasty. (We have since done something similar at home only adding black beans in with the rice.) While I like my Cajun food spicy, there was no need to zip up the taste of the pork and rice. The au jus really gave it a great flavor.
Well, other than the fact that no one there was old enough to sell me a beer with my meal, I'd have to say that my visit to Mudbugs Cajun Cafe was enjoyable enough. Of the three things that I got, I'd have to say the pork and rice with gravy was the best thing I tasted. The gumbo was also very good, and while the jambalaya tasted a little oily, it was still pretty good. And you couldn't beat the value of the meal that I was served. I got a lot of food on the Pick 3 combo for $9.95. Mudbugs Cafe was a nice little place and a worthy-enough Cajun/Creole restaurant in the heart of the Midwest.
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