A new Cajun and Creole kitchen has settled into Old Town Lafayette, and its gumbo starts with 45 minutes of nonstop stirring before anything else happens. Remi’s Cajun Creole Cafe opened this summer at 211 N. Public Road, bringing scratch-made Southern comfort food, cocktails, and live music to a 60-seat space in the heart of the historic downtown strip.
The restaurant is the work of owner Dara Sanchez-Mack, who brought 15 years of hospitality experience to the project, according to Axios. Per Remi’s Cajun Creole Cafe, Sanchez-Mack was born in the Canary Islands to a Spanish father and an American mother. Axios describes Remi’s as a community gathering space in Lafayette’s downtown.
Running the kitchen is Executive Chef Napoleon Lewis, a Colorado native, Axios reports. Lewis’s standards center on bold flavors, honored tradition, and no shortcuts, according to the restaurant’s site. Every batch of gumbo begins with that lengthy roux-making process, a hallmark of the restaurant’s traditional scratch cooking methods. The cafe operates five days a week and emphasizes scratch cooking.
A Kitchen Built on Classical Technique
Lewis works alongside Sous Chef Antonio Ramon Alorio, who trained at the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts after nine years spent behind the line and at the butcher’s block. The site notes that Alorio brings Caribbean influence and classical butchery techniques to the menu…