Tommy's Fish House

37306 Old Perkins Rd. (near Airline Hwy.)

Prairieville, LA 70769

225-325-3911

http://www.tommyfishhouse.com

For over three decades, the Delaune family has been in the seafood business, providing the South Louisiana area with fresh seafood direct from their own private dock at Bayou Bienvenu.  After Hurricane Katrina displaced the family from their home in St. Bernard Parish, they came to Prairieville to seek out a new start.

They started humbly, selling fresh seafood from a truck parked near the intersection of Airline Highway and Old Perkins Road.  Before long business had increased and ironically just one week after Hurricane Gustav hit the area, Tommy’s Fish House was opened.

Tommy’s houses a seafood market and a restaurant offering a variety of great local seafood, as well as other tasty items.  All the staples are here;  poboys, soups, stews, étoufées, as well as a variety of boiled and fried seafood favorites.  Boiled seafood is done well, with seasoning that delivers great flavor without being overly hot.  I had the crawfish, and it was done well, easily peeled and adequately seasoned.  Another highlight from the menu that I sampled was the Pepper Jack Crab Dip.  Jumbo lump crab is mixed with a pepper jack cream sauce to create a flavorful appetizer.  For the non-seafood folks, Tommy’s serves up a good burger as well as a few tasty chicken dishes.  They also frequently offer house specials where chef Michael Summers showcases his culinary skills.

Pepper Jack Crab Dip

In my opinion, the real thing that sets Tommy’s apart from the plethora of seafood restaurants in our area is the service.  Manager Chalin Delaune is committed to customer service, and is heavily involved in ensuring that the customer has a great experience.  He’s well plugged into the social media aspect of modern business and fully realizes its importance in maintaining customers.  No negative opinion or experience gets past him without a sincere effort to make it right for all involved.

By the end of the year, the business will split into the restaurant fully taking over the current building and the seafood market moving into the building next door.  The seafood market will be expanded into a full service fresh market offering an even larger assortment of fresh seafood as well as house made sausage and other specialty meats.  For the hunters out there, Tommy’s will also have facilities available for cleaning and prep of wild game.  But the biggest addition will be the installation of a crawfish holding system.  Tanks are being installed along with a complex aquatic system that will facilitate the holding and cleaning of up to ten thousand pounds of live crawfish.  This will ensure that customers have access to the freshest, cleanest, and best tasting crawfish in the region.

So whether you’re looking for a great meal or fresh ingredients to prepare yourself at home, give Tommy’s a try.  They are located in northern Ascension parish, in the Oak Grove area, across Old Perkins Rd from the Prairieville Wal-Mart, and are open for lunch 6 days a week (Tues-Sun) and dinner 5 nights per week (Tues-Sat).

Gulf Coast Seafood & Tourism Bash Dine Around

Say what you will about BP and the oil spill that affected the Gulf in April 2010, but it should definitely be noted in your assessment the effort put forth after the fact. As part of their very extensive and highly ambitious campaign to promote gulf seafood, BP put together the Gulf Coast Seafood and Tourism Bash, strategically held to coincide with the Allstate Sugar Bowl and BCS National Championship games, happening this week in New Orleans. The event featured gulf coast seafood at official football galas and pregame parties, as well as vacation giveaways to prime gulf coast destinations.

As a part of the overall bash, I was privileged to be a part of the Dine Around event held Friday night. A mixture of state and local officials, bloggers and media people boarded two coach buses for a culinary tour of the city. A typical New Orleans party atmosphere was present immediately upon boarding the bus with music blaring and dancing in the aisle. An NOPD police escort promptly delivered us to our first destination, Borgne restaurant.

Named for Lake Borgne, this is the latest addition to Chef John Besh’s growing arsenal of great eateries. Its focus is to celebrate the great coastal seafood of Louisiana, and that’s the only seafood you’ll find here, because thankfully, it’s all they use. Also, the restaurant features a menu with an Isleno influence, something that as a former president of the Canary Islanders Heritage Society of Louisiana means a lot to me. Borgne is located next to the Superdome in the Hyatt hotel, and welcomes you with a spacious and welcoming atmosphere. My favorite aspect of the décor are the many references to the lake and its surrounding communities, and the columns made of wire mesh filled with polished oyster shells. Of course the real highlight is the food, and as we have come to expect Besh does not disappoint. Alongside his executive chef Brian Landry, Besh offers some very tasty items. I sampled a variety of things, from the rich, decadent oyster stew, meat pies with white bbq sauce, duck poppers with jalapeno and bacon, and fried oysters amandine everything was excellent. I look forward to making a trip back there very soon.

So then back to the party bus and off to our next stop, Café NOMA. Located in City Park at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Café NOMA’s food has an artistic flare that matches its environment. We were treated to beautiful appetizers of yellowfin tuna tataki, deviled shrimp with truffled eggs, crabmeat caprese, and Citron oyster shooters. Lt. Governor Dardenne gave some remarks regarding the Louisiana seafood industry, we had more drinks, and it was off to the final destination of the tour.

We traveled back to the French Quarter and were deposited around the corner from Muriel’s Jackson Square, where a jazz band greeted us. Upstairs at Muriel’s more drinks and food were flowing. Fried oysters with remoulade, seafood beignets, mini crab cakes, and chilled jumbo gulf shrimp were just some of the tasty items being passed around.

While it was impressive to meet some big name Louisiana people like Chef Besh and Lt. Governor Dardenne, the real star of the evening was the food. Food that featured the best seafood anywhere, Louisiana seafood. I’m sure being raised eating it makes me a bit biased, but I’ve eaten lobster in New England, crabs in Maryland, and clam chowder at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, and nothing compares to fresh seafood from the gulf. And if there’s anyone out there who doesn’t think New Orleans isn’t resilient and isn’t back better than ever, you obviously weren’t there this weekend.

Chef John Besh's latest restaurant, Borgne

Ronnie's Ribs - Jamaican Me Crazy!

5441 Jones Creek Rd.
Baton Rouge, LA 70817
225-753-5375
http://www.ronniesribs.com

For ten years now, Veronica (Ronnie) Carter has been producing the great tastes of Jamaica right here in Baton Rouge.  Lured away from her native homeland by husband Jimmy Carter (no, not the peanut eating crazy ex-President) she has successfully transformed a little corner of a nondescript strip mall on Jones Creek Rd into a culinary paradise.

The main feature of the restaurant is the daily buffet, served at both lunch and dinner for the extremely affordable price of $7.95 and $8.95, respectively.  Featured are a small but delicious variety of Jamaican staples, from smoked jerk chicken and pork to steamed veggies, mac & cheese, salads and soups.  Along with the jerk pork and chicken on the buffet, menu items include Ronnie’s famous jerk marinated smoked ribs; tender baby back ribs that spend some quality time in her homemade marinade of Jamaican spices before being smoked over wood from the native Pimenta tree.  This tree produces berries, which when dried become allspice.  This wood along with the allspice flavor are essential elements to authentic Jamaican cuisine, and Ronnie adheres to that religiously, despite her geographical disadvantage.

One of my favorite dishes she offers is featured on the buffet, and is a delicious variation on a Cajun staple.  Brown stew chicken is basically the chicken stew that most of us grew up on, but with the volume turned up to eleven.  It’s very flavorful, seasoned well with her Jamaican spice mixture, but not spicy hot.  One common misconception about Jamaican food and jerk is that it is extremely spicy.  While the Scotch Bonnet pepper is used (also known as the Habanero), it is not the main spice, and it’s use is typically quite minimal.  Ronnie’s offers jerk sauces on the buffet, one mild and one spicy, so you can enjoy based upon your desired degree of heat.

Besides the buffet and smoked meats, Ronnie’s also does some specialty items, including smoked and fried turkeys and rum cakes.  These items are prepared with the same homemade care and quality that goes into all her food.  The turkeys are injected with Ronnie’s own homemade mixture made from a combination of fresh fruit juices and spices.  Her spice mixtures are also on sale at the restaurant, made from only quality whole spices and not loaded with salt.  As a brief aside, if you don’t know, ingredient labels on products you buy list the ingredients in the order of quantity, meaning that the first item on the list is the one present in the largest amount in the product.  This is why in most store bought spice blends you see salt as the first ingredient.  While this is a very cost effective method of stretching out the more expensive spices, it isn’t the way she does things.

That same level of quality control is present throughout everything she does, and you can actually taste it when you visit her restaurant.  If the food and the affordability haven’t already convinced you, her personality should seal the deal.  She warmly greets everyone who enters and makes sure that you are comfortable and satisfied with your meal.

So, before you pull up to the drive thru to retrieve that burger from beneath the heat lamp, served up by the incoherent headset wearing drone that has all the enthusiasm of a root canal patient, think about visiting Ronnie’s Ribs.  You’ll be glad you did.

Specialty Stores of Baton Rouge - Red Stick Brewing

4733 Jones Creek Rd. Ste. G
Ph - 225-756-1345
www.redstickhomebrew.com

by: Chad

If you’ve ever been interested in brewing your own beer, this is the place for you.  Sure, you can go online and do some research, and even find some websites that allow you to order everything you need, but you won’t get a chance to meet Jesse Rodrigue.  Jesse is more than just the owner and proprietor of this brew shop; he is a true lover of beer.  He can give you all the basics on how to get your own brewing started up, and provide you with all the supplies and ingredients that you will need.  Brewing is a science, and you need someone with experience you can consult with if you want to serious about it.

If wine is your thing, then they have you covered there as well.  They stock a variety of supplies that you can use to make your own wine, something that local folks have been doing for a long time.  While I’m not a brewer, I have a good friend that is, and he gets all his supplies there.  I may be biased, but his hibiscus wheat beer is some of the best beer I have ever tasted, and it goes down even smoother knowing that his hobby is helping support a local business.

Local Owner Interview: Johnny DeAngelo – Johnny D’s New York Pizza Company

By: Mark

Johnny DeAngelo is the owner of Johnny D’s, an Italian and New York style pizza restaurant located at 13214 Coursey Blvd in Baton Rouge, near the intersection of Stumberg Lane and Coursey Boulevard. Johnny is a native of New Jersey, where he grew up making pizzas, something he still does, and does well. He has been kind enough to sit down and answer a few questions for Cuisine Rouge:

1. How did you get started in the restaurant business?

“I made my first pizzas in 1973 in Mr. Hill’s Restaurant and Bar back in Bayonne, New Jersey. My sister Janet and I ran the kitchen. I was fresh out of high school and I knew cooking pizzas was what I wanted to do with my life.”

2. What or who were your influences?

“When I was a kid my biggest influence was the great Julia Child. She inspired me to not only cook, but to also pursue a cooking show of my own. I also learned from my mom and sisters, especially working in my sister’s restaurant Mortorano’s (which is now Schlitz and Giggles downtown).”

3. When did you know you could make it in this business?

“Do you ever really know you will make it in this business? When my sister closed her restaurant, it sat vacant for a year (the Jones Creek location). I reopened it and the biggest indication we were doing something right, was the people’s positive reaction. We had to be doing something right! We have had plenty of regular and return customers over the years.”

4. How did you decide on this location?

“I started looking as soon as I heard of the plan to expand Jones Creek Road. There was a good chance I would lose my parking lot and that would have been very bad for business. I drove around and just saw a “For Sale” sign in the window. I inquired and the rest is history. It was truly God’s will that I ended up in this location.”

5. What do you love about your job?

“I love to make people happy. I love the interaction with the customer. Every day I get to meet new and interesting people; people from all walks of life that are united by their love of pizza!”

6. What do you hate about your job?

“When things are out of my control. The service by the wait staff, the performance in the kitchen; I have no control over how someone ultimately does their job. It causes great stress when you can’t control someone’s performance. I take it personal when a customer does not receive the highest quality of service.”

7. When you aren’t cooking, what do you like to do?

“I love to shoot guns. I have many pistols and rifles and enjoy shooting them at the range. I am an avid believer in the Second Amendment.”

8. What would you be doing if you weren’t the owner of Johnny D's?

“I used to work for a security sales company, so I would probably be doing that. Or I would be working for my wife at DeAngelo Real Estate.”

9. What is your favorite dish on the menu?

“The Johnny’s Choice pizza – loaded with Italian sausage, onions, and mushrooms.”

10. What would your last meal be?

“Pizza of course! My perfect pizza has a nice thin crust, light on the sauce and cheese, and plenty of quality ingredients such as Italian sausage, onions, and mushrooms.”

11. What is your best moment as a restaurant owner?

“My best moment was being able to provide all the food for a wedding for one of my friends. Knowing I was able to do something so nice for someone was a good feeling.”

12. What is your worst moment as a restaurant owner?

“When Hurricane Gustav hit Baton Rouge. To a small business this was devastating. We had to shut down for two weeks and I lost a lot of money and all of my food. We were literally on the brink of disaster.”

13. Anything new for the future?

“Well I would love to have my own cooking show in the restaurant. I have also decided to place the rosemary and garlic baked chicken with roasted vegetables on the menu as a special. Also I am reapplying for our liquor license. It will take 90 days to get approved but we should be able to serve beer and wine soon.”

14. Other than what you make, what other foods do you enjoy?

“I love Chinese and Mexican. My wife especially loves fajitas. I am also a fan of sushi, however the more standard, cooked stuff, not sea urchin. My favorite non-Italian meal would be a perfectly cooked filet mignon with a fully loaded baked potato and a good salad.”

15. If a person is only visiting your place once, what dish should they get?

“The spaghetti and meatballs. It is simple, good comfort food and I am very proud of it. Make sure to top it with plenty of Pecorino Romano cheese.”

Cuisine Rouge would like to thank you Johnny DeAngelo for taking the time to answer our questions. Good luck to you and Johnny D’s in the future!