The titanic Budweiser sign hoisted above the kitchen at this Victoria Park restaurant and bar is draped in beads, bras, and burlesque masks and would fit right in at any Bourbon Street watering hole. Besides the lipstick red walls and paintings by local artists, you’ll notice the bar area is covered with an aluminum roof just like an old shack you’d find along the bayou. Even if the cat’s got your tongue, the bartenders will introduce you to the laid back locals who frequent this bar. Enjoy Louisiana’s own Abita Beer just as they do in Nawlins.
Chef Staz has taken the neighborhood sports bar and, as another Louisianan might put it, kicked it up a notch.
Staz, proprietor and chef at the Shuck N Dive Cajun Cafe, moved his shrine to the LSU Tigers and the New Orleans Saints into a new shopping center near Holiday Park when development encroached on his former beachside locale. He made it in time for Fat Tuesday, bringing a loyal following of gourmet sports fans along for the ride.
OK, so the only French you're likely to hear is along the lines of ''Geaux Ellessuuu,'' and you can belly up to the tin-roofed bar for the regular burgers and beer. But even the sandwich card offers creative entries like a ''voodoo'' burger with hot peppers and horseradish, a grilled gator cheeseburger (these gators come from a farm in Houma, La., not a campus in Gainesville) and fried Louisiana soft-shell crab sandwiches.
Wash it all down with a Cajun brew: Abita Turbo Dog and Dixie's Crimson Ale or Blackened Voodoo Lager. If you're looking for something soft, there's Abita root beer and bottomless lemonade.
With good humor and endless patience, the staff put up with our somewhat rowdy group, including a 10-year-old ''just dying'' for a dozen oysters (''You may have six,'' Mother snapped) and her rambunctious little brother not much impressed with his ''State Fair Corn Dog'' but quite taken by the tater tots.
I ordered another Turbo Dog and we got started with a basket of Rajun Cajun chicken wings and a mess of oysters: freshly shucked ones, Rockefellered ones, barbecued garlicky ones, but we fell for the 'Black N' Blue'' ones topped with butter, blackened spice and blue cheese and finished under the broiler.
Since dinner is apparently what Yankees call lunch, we moved on to what Louisianans call supper -- which starts with your choice of salad or gumbo. The crawfish boudin special was an interesting soft sausage concoction; the lump crab-stuffed shrimp was nicely done but nothing unusual.
I tried ''Grandma's Crispy ½ Duck,'' said to be the best thing in the house. While it was quite good, with mashed potatoes and green beans, it couldn't compete with the ''Mahi Mardi Gras,'' a lovely blackened dolphin smothered with crawfish etouffée and accompanied by red beans and rice, fried green tomatoes, hush puppies and slaw. Mercy, mercy me.
There's blackened redfish, natch, farm-raised Mississippi catfish, Cajun smoked sausage, jambalaya and nightly specials like ''Dirty Pig,'' blackened pork chops done with onions and provolone.
None of it's scorching hot, although we didn't try the ''Voodoo'' chicken wings. Those looking for a proper Cajun jolt might want to rifle the little buckets of hot sauce, which include lesser known blends like St. Charles Missouri Road Kill, Pleasure and Pain (with a dominatrix on the label), Bayou Butt Burner and, well, then they start getting a little lewd.
It's all good natured fun, and even if you're a Gator fan you're welcome so long as you can behave yourself. Just here they'll call you Tiger Bait.
