Savor 2 Historic Restaurants in Lafayette, LA
For restaurant owners in Lafayette, LA, feeding their community isn’t about making a quick buck. The city boasts a surprising number of restaurants that are in it for the long haul, turning out delicious dishes for decades. With spots like Poor Boys Riverside Inn serving Cajun flavors for 90 years, Dwyer’s Cafe occupying a downtown spot that’s been a restaurant since 1927, and Borden’s Ice Cream Shoppe (the last in the country!) scooping since 1940, it is clear Lafayette residents value their longstanding food traditions.
We spoke with a pair of Lafayette, LA, restaurant owners who have served the city for a remarkably long time and who make the city’s dining scene something truly special.
Judice Inn in Lafayette, LA
Judice Inn has been a family business since it was launched in 1947 by brothers Alcide and Marc Judice. It’s still family-owned, now by the whole clan. Marc’s son and restaurant operator Gerald Judice shares ownership with 12 cousins. It began as a carhop restaurant, heavily utilizing Alcide and Marc’s large family for staff. The brothers had 14 children between them, many of which grew up working at the Lafayette, LA, restaurant.
“We were generally working at 7 or 8 years old, cleaning up the lot every morning,” he says. “By the time I was 11 or 12, I was waiting tables and hopping cars. That’s how we grew up.”
The Inn’s original menu remains mostly unchanged 77 years later: It serves a hamburger and a cheeseburger, single or double. There’s also a selection of sandwiches, but Gerald downplays their importance.
“It’s 90% burgers,” he says. “We have a ham and cheese and an egg and cheese sandwich, but that’s a small fraction of what we serve.”
The burgers are simple (topped with the house sauce, lettuce, a mayo and mustard blend, and served with a slice of onion on the side) and have also changed little since the spot opened its doors. Gerald points to Judice Inn’s house sauce and the blend of seasonings that go into the ground meat as differentiating the Inn’s product from other burgers in town.
“We developed our own special sauce,” he says. “It’s actually a concoction that’s cooked up like tomato sauce, and my wife and I are the only two who make it now.” (Before we can even ask the question, he says with a laugh: “And yes, it is a secret sauce.”)
Gerald attributes Judice Inn’s longevity to its consistency, value and historical appeal. While it has recently added a drive-thru and a new kitchen to accommodate large catering orders, the modest building with red awnings and harlequin linoleum floors hasn’t expanded or added other locations over the years.
“We didn’t change or try to keep up with so-and-so, and over the years, we’ve become a Lafayette tradition,” he says. We’ve got people who come in here with their kids and grandkids and say, ‘I came and sat in this booth and ate the same burger you’re eating.’ The historic part of it appeals to some folks, and also the fact that we’ve kept our pricing moderate. Plus, we’ve got a large family, so they have to come eat here!”
Creole Lunch House in Lafayette, LA
Raymond Herbert recalls the exact date his mother, Merline Herbert, opened the doors to Creole Lunch House: June 23, 1983. She’d already retired from her career as a teacher and principal, but she wasn’t ready to relax just yet. Instead, she transformed a building she’d previously used as a tutoring center into Creole Lunch House, serving a rotating selection of Southern lunch plates.
The menu is set daily: Monday the kitchen turns out meatball fricassee, smothered liver and spaghetti and meatballs; Tuesday is baked chicken, Creole meatloaf and fried pork chops; Wednesday is chicken fricassee and beef stew; and so forth. A few dishes, like red beans and rice and Merline’s famous stuffed bread, are available every day.
“We have 40 years of consistency. When people come back, it’s still good; it still tastes the same. And we’ve stuck to our guns and have a set menu every day,” says Raymond, who credits the style of service to their customer retention. “A lot of restaurants sell the same thing; you have a menu and customers pick one or two items. We have other things that are different. If someone comes Tuesday, then comes back, you don’t have to worry about people saying there’s not enough variety.”
Over the years, the lunch-only spot has expanded and contracted. In the mid-1990s, says Raymond, the brand boasted five shops, though the family ultimately decided to focus its efforts on the original location and shuttered the four newer outposts. But M&R Creole Enterprises, a 4,000-square-foot manufacturing facility that Merline opened to make her Creole stuffed bread, is still going strong.
The handheld dish was originally intended to be as a hamburger alternative, but eventually the dough stuffed with meat, sausage, cheese and jalapeños took on a life of its own, with varieties like pizza and crawfish étouffée making appearances over the years. Now, it’s become one of the Lunch House’s signature dishes, and the plant distributes the product to convenience and specialty stores in Lafayette. For many years, Merline also sold stuffed bread at New Orleans’ famed Jazz & Heritage Festival. While selling at the fest is on hiatus, Raymond says the cafe still sees tourists from across the pond stopping in for the dish. In the late ’80s, he says, Merline inked a deal to appear in a French guidebook.
“To this day, we are still in that tour guidebook. Right now, it’s festival time, and we have people coming in from France. When I see them with the book, I don’t speak French, but I say, ‘stuffed bread?’”
This article is sponsored by the Lafayette Convention & Visitors Commission, Lafayette Economic Development Authority and One Acadiana.