Gov.-elect Jindal touts change during Houma visit
October 31, 2007November 2
November 2, 2007
Many of you younger readers may have never heard of a restaurant in Chacahoula named Chester’s Cypress Inn.
Chester’s doesn’t advertise and relies upon its repeat customers and word of mouth for its continued business success. Their motto seems to be “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Some may question the wisdom of such a seemingly lackadaisical business attitude, but then again Chester’s has been serving up basically the same fare since it opened in 1939.
Chester Boudreaux, obviously the restaurant’s namesake, opened the restaurant and it continues to be operated by his daughter and granddaughter.
You can reach this venerable dining institution via Louisiana Highway 20; it is approximately three miles off the U.S. Highway 90 exit between Houma and Morgan City.
As a child, I heard tell of an old idyllic restaurant off the beaten path, nestled among the Cypress trees, that was famous for Sunday afternoon family gatherings, with fried chicken and frog legs the staple of its menu.
When I went there as a child, the place was painted a dim yellow with simple tables and chairs, serving a very basic, straightforward menu. When I returned 25 years later for this review, it was as if I had emerged from a time capsule. It is the same restaurant now as it was then.
Chester’s is an institution that proudly takes you back to yesterday.
The menu is the same as it was at its opening in 1939, with the following exceptions. It added catfish in the 1980s and then, in 1996, succumbed to our area’s seafood heritage by adding shrimp to the menu.
The restaurant is only open four days every week – on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights beginning at 5 p.m., and Sundays for lunch and dinner beginning at 11 a.m.
One thing is abundantly clear about Chester’s: This place is about fried food.
Several pictures are placed throughout the restaurant that succinctly says it all about Chester’s food philosophy: “If the colonel had our recipe, he’d be a general.”
The menu is simple: fried chicken ($6); fried frog legs ($12); fried shrimp ($8); fried catfish ($6); half shrimp and half fish ($7); half shrimp and half frog legs ($11); half fish and half frog legs ($10); and a seafood platter stacked with fried shrimp, catfish and frog legs ($14).
Everything is served a la carte. If you want something else, you can purchase it separately.
And you have three choices of frying: regular, motet (spicy) and Frank (with no batter). We suggest the “regular.”
“Frank” was good, but it is difficult to get past the philosophical dilemma of driving to a restaurant known for fried food, and then ordering the fried chicken without batter – it kind of misses the whole point.
Side orders? More fried selections – chicken livers ($5), chicken gizzards ($5) and onion rings ($3.50 large, $2.50 small). On the non-fried side order menu you can order a lettuce and tomato salad.
For those in your group who don’t want or can’t have fried food, Chester’s does offer the alternative of broiling its chicken, frog legs, shrimp and catfish.
One word to those who need their chicken broiled, it requires approximately 45 minutes preparation time, so they recommend you call ahead.
So what do we recommend?
The fried frog legs are as good as you will find anywhere … and since one doesn’t find frog legs on many menus, that fact itself may warrant the drive. The chicken is what you would have remembered your grandma making. And the onion rings are good.
I also must admit that the fried shrimp and catfish are welcome additions to their menu.
Children can order fried chicken strips, catfish or shrimp [all served with fries], for the reasonable price of $4. And, in keeping with its nostalgia, Chester’s does know how to prepare a Shirley Temple.
The dessert menu is limited, to say the least, but interesting. Chester’s serves a crisp Peppermint Patty or Hershey’s Chocolate Bar – with or without almonds – straight from the freezer. That is it. End of story.
Don’t get me wrong. Chester’s is nothing fancy, but that is exactly its charm and what it has relied upon for over 65 years. It offers a limited menu, and attracts customers from Golden Meadow to Metairie to Franklin.
That isn’t bad for a place that has successfully resisted change for over 65 years in a time when most of us demand it daily.
So if you have some time, and a few family member or friends who want to take the time to enjoy yesteryear, Chester’s might just be your cure.
