The scent of boiling spice drifting across the parking lot stopped me long before I ever reached the door. I had been driving through the Louisiana bayou all morning, past cypress trees standing in still brown water, and my stomach was making very loud opinions known.
The restaurant sits right there off the highway in a big old barn, looking like it has been feeding hungry travelers forever, which is close to the truth. The structure dates back to the early 1900s and was transformed into a restaurant in 1986, keeping its rustic bones intact while filling them with the smell of crawfish and spice.
Inside, the tables were full of people cracking crawfish with their bare hands, and nobody looked the least bit worried about napkins. I ordered a tray, rolled up my sleeves, and understood pretty quickly why folks plan whole road trips around this stop…