Cookin' on Hwy 1

By Tim Acosta, Advertising & Marketing Director

We have been filming new commercials over the past year, some of which feature our store directors. Reggie Legendre, our store director in Golden Meadow, is an avid fisherman. We planned a morning shoot on a boat captained by one of the best guides in Golden Meadow, Four Horsemen Tackle owner Captain Aaron Pierce. The day before, I realized I didn’t have a current fishing license. I wasn’t going to go out on the boat and just sit there and watch Reggie fish, so I went to a bait and tackle shop, The Reel Outfitters, in Thibodaux, to get a current one.

While I was there, I picked up some boudin balls.

The Reel Outfitters, or as I refer to it, the bait shop, is the kind of place you’d expect to see on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It’s a former gas station. They’ve got meat pies and crawfish pies and boudin balls — because this is Thibodaux — and sandwiches, po-boys and daily specials.

When he isn't working, Kris Tardo (the owner of The Reel Outfitters), like Reggie, is fishing. When I heard he planned to open a bait and tackle shop, that seemed like a dream come true. I hadn’t heard he planned to put a restaurant inside of it until I ran into him at Rouses Markets on Canal Boulevard one day with an entire buggy full of roasts and chicken. I just assumed he was having a party, when actually he was shopping for the bait shop.

As soon as I knew the bait shop was also a restaurant, I went in for a club sandwich. A few weeks later, I tried the fish po-boy. One Thursday I went in, and the whole bait shop was talking about Miss Aarin’s smothered okra with shrimp, so of course I ordered it. It came with rice, with a piece of cobbler for dessert. The whole meal reminded me of down-home cookin'!

The good thing about smothering stuff down is that you can use whatever you like. Okra. Corn. Green beans. They all taste good smothered down.

At home, my wife, Cindy, and I like to cook smothered green beans with red potatoes and smothered cabbage with ham ends and pieces. We smother freshly shucked corn with onions, sausage, garlic, jalapeños and, of course, RO-TEL tomatoes.

We leave the smothered okra to Miss Aarin because she does it so well.

Aarin Robertson, Tim Acosta and Kris Tardo at The Reel Outfitters in Thibodaux, Louisiana.