Cat[fish] Got Your Tongue? Innovative Dishes for 9 Lives

CAT[FISH] GOT YOUR TONGUE?

Catfish is living nine lives as area chefs create innovative dishes that surprise and delight.

By Robert Witkowski

“The catfish is plenty good enough fish for anyone,” Mark Twain observed. And while the New England humorist was not known as a culinary expert, even his nom de plume persona as a Southern gentleman would be impressed with how Louisiana cooks are creating dishes to make the state’s whiskered seafood good enough for everyone.

Fish-of-the-Day Speacial from Spahr's Seafood

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Decades after Cajun cook Justin Wilson perfected fried fillets, Josie Middendorf fried them thinner than most thought possible, and Chef Paul Prudhomme introduced blackening fish to the world, Louisiana eateries are elevating the tasty bottom-feeders to haute cuisine.

Considering their long tradition of serving Cajun country seafood, it’s not surprising to find catfish on the menu at

Ile de Capri

Chicken On The Bayou & Boudin Shop

in Atchafalaya Basin in Breaux Bridge. Despite the name, the restaurant and deli near America’s largest river swamp offers way more than just chicken and boudin, including its signature Ile de Capri dish. The specialty includes an oversized fillet of fried or grilled catfish, topped with Louisiana crawfish étouffée, on a bed of rice, served with a side of potato salad and a biscuit. For almost 30 years now, Chicken On The Bayou’s locale off I-10 exit 115 presents casual truckstop dining at its best. Fun and affordable since its opening in 1992, this restaurant sources locally from Guidry’s

Chicken on the Bayou

Catfish, and chef-owner Nabih Qaisieh doesn’t skimp on flavor. Along Bayou Black in downtown Houma, A-Bear’s Café keeps the locals’ feet stomping with the live music of Acadiana in a traditional roadhouse setting. The Cajun roots are exposed by the restaurant’s name, which is an Americanization of Hebert, the family who owns it. Visitors—of which there are few—are welcomed as enthusiastically as the locals who pack the place. Their signature Catfish Abear Platter—a meal comprised of multiple fresh pond catfish fillets dripping with A-Bear’s savory yellow crab sauce—is worth navigating any crowd. While there, you might meet a gentleman, the self-proclaimed Mayor of A-Bear’s, complete with official badge, making his rounds welcoming patrons. Following closely behind him is owner Jane Hebert, making sure that the food is good and that the “mayor” isn’t distracting you from your meal too much. If adding two down-home sides to the meal isn’t too much food to make you forgo eating a slice of homemade pie, the dish is offered as an all-you-caneat entrée on Friday evenings, ensuring that any dessert is impossible.

From Highway 90 in Des Allemands, a massive 15-foot catfish seems to be jumping out of the Dufrene Ponds

next to Spahr’s Seafood Restaurant. This sculpture was salvaged from Florida after Hurricane Katrina and installed “next to its natural habitat.” It is a testament to how founder Bill Spahr, 93, set a new standard with his signature Catfish Chips when he opened his restaurant in the winter of 1967-68.

“There were two guys eating, and one complained he had six pieces of catfish, and his buddy had seven,” Spahr recounts. “I explained how we did it by the weight, not the number, but he insisted on getting another to be even. Well, I was not happy

and told my wife we were going to cut them up so small that no one could count all of them again, and there’s been no more trouble after that.” Proud of his creation, Spahr gently insists the tender bites should be eaten “using both cocktail and tartar sauces—one offsets the other.”

Although he still made the gumbo up until 2020, Spahr has since passed operations to his grandson, Donald Spahr, who expanded the name into three additional eateries. Bill Spahr’s daughter (and Donald’s aunt), Thelezia “Tilly” Folse, is now in charge of all things involving the “wild-caught, local catfish” sourced for the restaurants. The food preparation, however, is under the skilled eye of Chef Ryan Gaudet, ever mindful of his responsibility to protect Spahr’s 55-year legacy.

Joining the family restaurant in 2007 and elevated to executive chef in 2013, Gaudet now oversees all four restaurants throughout the region. But while he is respectful of Spahr’s reputation, the Nicholls State University culinary grad is also dedicated to Donald

Spahr's Catfish Chips

Spahr’s commitment of “creating jobs with a passion for culinary excellence.” His creativity with local ingredients in the kitchen allows him to expand the traditional catfish dishes Spahr’s is famous for in exciting ways, and his blackened catfish “Fish-of-the-Day” special is an impressive example of that. The entrée includes a five- to sevenounce catfish fillet that is blackened with olive oil and served over grilled asparagus, then topped with a lemoncream sauce and fresh local crab-claw meat. Given the size of the fillet needed, the special mostly makes the menu board in the summer when the catfish are most active. Because the fish is so fresh, Gaudet advises to call ahead, because they never know when it will be offered. In Abita Springs, north of Lake Pontchartrain, Abita Beer is best paired with Louisiana catfish at the Abita Brew Pub when presenting their Pecan Crusted Catfish. The eatery is on the site of the original brewery at the center of its namesake town. Martine and Vula Essaied had the vision to transform it into a restaurant in 1986 when Abita expanded its brewing facility to its current, larger building in Covington. The relaxed hotspot captures a downhome catfish-shack, roadhouse atmosphere with a casual, yet upscale, dining ambiance—often with live music. "Vula created the dish long before I got here," Terry Whitehead, Abita Brew Pub's head chef for 20 years, laughs. The entrée calls for adding a honey pecan sauce to the dish's oversized catfish fillet, which is deep fried in a pecan coating, and served with smashed potatoes and sautéed seasonal vegetables. "The dish is sweet, I like it with the Abita Andygator," Abita Brew Pub's Pecan Crusted Catfish Whitehead says. "It's got a little kick to it.” On Lake Pontchartrain’s south shore, The Blue Crab Restaurant & Oyster Bar ups the catfish ante in New Orleans cuisine, but quietly and for those in the know. Their menu offers a whole stuffed flounder, but a whole grilled catfish fillet can be an off-the-menu switch for those preferring a tastier non-bone option. “It’s not on the menu exactly, but anyone can get it,” manager Erik Neumann says. He explains that Blue Crab considers the dish one of their New Orleans classics. “The stuffing is made with local crab meat combined with all the classics, including the Holy Trinity of celery, peppers, and onions.” Committed to local purveyors, Neumann affirms the restaurant’s commitment to supporting the local Louisiana purveyors, especially with fresh catfish every day but Sunday.

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On this two-level restaurant’s swimming in Chinese waters. “Downstairs Menu,” catfish may be used “It’s all connected,” Louisiana native in the fish tacos, if requested. They’re Jones says. “Catfish is ubiquitous to served as a pair, made with white tortillas the American South, but it’s also more and topped with summer slaw and authentic in Chinese cooking.” He notes jalapeno avocado cream, and this flavorful that catfish are not only prevalent in fish substitution is a well-known secret Chinese art and sculpture, but also in among locals. their cuisine.

Approximately But “in America, 25 years ago, catfish is rarely Louisiana was one used in Chinese of the nation’s restaurants,” he top four catfish- adds. producing states. The elegant The industry interior, with employed 12,000 gleaming surfaces people and and sleek lines, is contributed more as far a cry from than $3.5 billion the bayou-born to these states’ economies, Blue Crab's [Cat] Fish Tacos catfish shacks as the garden according to the patio is from the Catfish Institute. ornate gardens Today, catfish and temples of is the fifth most China. But the popular fish owners proudly in the nation, refuse imitation on with per-capita either front. “It’s consumption our goal to respect averaging just the heritage of less than a Chinese cuisine, pound a year. while remaining With channel passionate about catfish the most the flavor-packed plentiful, farmers dishes we love to attribute a more cook.” abundant supply Uptown on to finally allow Magazine Street, competitive Mahoney’s pricing, compared Original Poto seafood such Boys & Seafood as cod and presents upscale halibut. but casual fare Catfish’s popularity Blue Giant's Salt & Pepper Catfish in a converted double. Playful in remains its character, the stubbornly restaurant boasts among the top that it’s “loaded 10 fish consumed with fresh Louisiana in the U.S., seafood and local according to classics that deliver industry experts, an authentic taste including the of New Orleans in National Fisheries every bite,” and Institute. Catfish they deliver on that is typically promise. Diners more flavorful reflexively loosened than saltwater their belts as the options, so new server described recipes can the buttery cream be challenging to create. Mahoney's Catfish Pontchartrain sauce with Gulf shrimp, crawfish, Innovative chefs and blue crabmeat are delighting in discovering new ways to that generously tops their Catfish complement this fish’s unusual flavor in Pontchartrain, served over Louisiana their dishes. popcorn rice, along with braised collard

Notably, Blue Giant Chinese in the greens and a French bread sub loaded Lower Garden District puts a nouveau with crawfish étouffée. This savory dish spin on fish with their innovative fusion is newly reintroduced to the menu for concoction: salt and pepper catfish. The spring and summer. former Cochon cooks are committed to Catfish are known to be especially active using the “finest and best-tasting fish.” in the spring, and with Lenten non-meat Therefore, chef-owners Bill Jones and dishes sure to increase demand, prepare Richard Horner named their restaurant in your taste buds for the culinary catfish honor of the blue catfish. The monstrous cascade throughout the area as chefs “blue cat” is the largest species of North evolve this Louisiana staple into more meals American catfish, which is also found not to be missed.