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Do you love fresh seafood? I do. And I know the perfect restaurant, Cigar's Marina and Restaurant, located on Grand Isle, off the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
Grand Isle, a strip of sand about four miles long and less than a mile wide, is home to many commercial and sport fishing vessels that operate year round, plying the rich Gulf waters for shrimp, oysters, crabs, speckled trout, redfish and many others. It is also home to the annual Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo, usually held in July or August and where the really big catches are made.
You don't stumble onto Cigar's, it takes a planned effort to get there. From Baton Rouge, take I10 south to the small town of Donaldsonville, right on the Mississippi River and starting point of Bayou Lafouche.
Louisiana Highway 1 follows the bayou, twisting and turning through the many small towns that dot the route into the heart of Cajun Country, on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. Towns with names like Paintcourtville, Labadieville, Thibodeaux, Lockport, Cutoff and Golden Meadow.
Many of these small towns serve as protected harbors for the Louisiana shrimping fleet. And the bayou is their highway to the Gulf, a hundred miles to the south. In fact, it's not uncommon to follow one of the shrimp boats as you drive Highway 1, on its way to drop huge butterfly nets into the blue Gulf waters.
Grand Isle is a fishing village. And as such, there are no fancy buildings anywhere, except for the oil exploration company at the far end of the island. Cigar's is a simple structure, built to withstand the harsh, at times, gulf weather, which can include the occasional hurricane. The building is located at the foot of the Highway1 bridge, set at the back of a gravel and shell parking lot. The shells are oyster shells, put there from the many sacks of oysters "shucked" each day in the kitchen. A long porch extends across the entire front of the building, with old time wooden rockers for the crowd waiting for their turn inside.
Out back is the boat launch, piers, slips and rental cabins. The cabins are usually taken by weekenders and day fisherman. They are functional and clean and built high above the ground on stilts, with room underneath for gatherings, cleaning fish, or swapping lies about the one that got away.
Once inside, there is no mistaking that you are in a south Louisiana seafood restaurant. The walls are covered with fishing artifacts such as fish nets, crab traps, lures and floats, as well as a purple and gold LSU Football National Championship poster over by the register.
The wait isn't long, and soon a waitress, with a thick Cajun accent and delicate Creole features, has taken the drink order and passed out menus.
The menu proclaims, "Fish so fresh, they were swimming this morning"! And right outside the kitchen door is the Gulf of Mexico. Much of the seafood served in the restaurant comes from the local fishermen who go out every day. Some of the locals are contracted to seafood processing companies on the mainland but will usually sell any excess to the island markets and restaurants, or in some cases, to operators of roadside stands, hawking to island visitors or day fishermen who can't go home empty handed.
BACK TO THE FOOD
Start with an appetizer of crab fingers, raw oysters on the half shell, boiled shrimp or my favorite, seafood gumbo. Or if you are feeling adventurous, try the boudin sausage (don't ask whats in it).
Main dishes cover the usual fired or broiled shrimp, oysters and fish to the somewhat unusual (if you're not a local) fried soft-shell crab. The trout almandine, however, can be had charcoal grilled. This is south Louisiana, so don't look for steak or chicken anywhere on the menu, just seafood, and lots of it. And don't forget the side dishes, the list is quite long.
Oh, yes. You can wash it all down with beer is so cold it gives you a brain freeze.
Dessert? Why not? You deserve it. Choose from a short but delicious list.
Mississippi Mud Pie (sometimes called "Death By Chocolate")
Turtle Ice Cream Pie
Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce
Sugar Free Cheese Cake (for the dieter)
The portions are big and the prices are reasonable. The most expensive item on the menu is only twenty one ninety five. That would be the soft-shell crabs. Most of the main dishes are around twelve ninety five.
Couple the great eats, with the scenic ride down the bayou, and the nearby beaches and you have the makings for a great lunch ride. In fact, I think I'll jump on the bike and head that way now. You should come with me. You really are going to love this place.
Or at least you would have. A year ago, Hurricane Katrina roared across the island. The huge wall of water pushed by the one hundred twenty five mile per hour winds scoured the spit of land in ways no man or machine could have. Many structures were untouched, other suffered minor damage. Some, like Cigar's, were torn apart and washed out into the Gulf of Mexico, leaving only a few foundation blocks to mark it passing.
A year later the little fishing village is coming back. Sea gulls follow the shrimp trawls, diving into the water to feed on small fish stirred up by the big nets being dragged across the shallow bay. Day fishermen drive from Lafayette and Baton Rouge, towing their expensive boats bristling with rods, ready to do battle with the elusive speckled trout or the big bull reds.
Cigar's, however, remains an empty lot at the foot of the bridge with no plans to rebuild. Too bad! You would have loved this place!
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