Is it an Italian Restaurant…

with Cajun flair or a Cajun restaurant with Italian flair? At Fezzo’s, the answer is a bit of both.

We were out and were locked into a specific time period for lunch. We pulled into one of our local favorites and found the parking lot packed with trucks. I had forgotten that between the hours of noon and 1:00 p.m., many—if not most—local workers in Scott, LA, head to CaJan’s Eatery. Even if we had found a place to park, finding a seat inside would be nearly impossible. So we needed to come with an alternative and do it quickly. It was then that I remembered Fezzo’s where we had eaten a number of years ago. If my memory serves me right, we liked it. But then my memory isn’t always that sharp. But it was worth a try.

Now if you thought that the name “Fezzo” is the family name of the owner, well you’d be wrong. “A long time ago when Phil Faul's father was a young boy in Church Point, LA, he was very creative with his toys. His favorite play-things were those made from his mother's empty wooden thread spools. In Cajun French the word for these wooden spools is fezzo (pronounced FEE-zo). Everywhere Phil's father went he took these wooden-spool toys with him. One day a local postmaster began calling young Phil, Fezzo, a name he still carries with him. In July, 1979, Phil's family opened a grocery store in Rayne, LA and called it Fezzo's Supermarket. Both Phil and his childhood friend Pat Bordes II worked in the family grocery store for many years. In July, 1999, exactly 20 years later, Phil Faul and Pat Bordes II opened their first restaurant as co-owners. When it came time to name the restaurant, it was clear what name was to be given. In honor of Phil's dad, they named it Fezzo's Seafood, Steakhouse and Oyster Bar” (travel.yahoo.com).

The two Fezzo’s (one in Scott and another in Crowley) restaurants are local favorites. They have been named Best Cajun Restaurant for four consecutive years in the readers’ poll conducted by The Times of Acadiana. And Fezzo’s is listed in an article at backstage.com/advice-for-actors/top-10-places-to-go-in-americas-finest-cities.

Even though the parking lot was full, there was still seating available in the restaurant’s bar area where jerseys and other items from the New Orleans Saints, LSU Tigers, and UL-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns were displayed.

And the obligatory flat-screens were hung around the room, so that fans won’t miss any of the action.

The menu (same at lunch as at dinner) contains all of the local Cajun favorites—gumbos, bisques, étouffées, and fried fish and seafood in almost any form. I will admit that, as adventurous an eater as I am, the two local favorites I have yet to try are alligator and frog legs. And I suspect that I will die happy without trying either.

But there is also a surprisingly long list of pasta options, most of which manage to combine Italian traditions with Cajun ingredients. And it was from this list that Chuck selected the Ribeye Pasta with grilled strips of ribeye steak served with alfredo sauce over angel hair pasta. His lunch came with a small salad but we are assuming that another photo of an iceberg lettuce salad with grated carrots and cherry tomatoes would no longer be interesting.

The ribeye had been seasoned with one of Fezzo’s house Creole seasonings and it was this that gave the dish both its spice and its heat. The combination of the spicy meat with the rich and creamy sauce was one that each balanced the other. And the pasta, while cooked a bit past al dente, still hadn’t gone over the edge to mushy—always a concern with angel hair.

I made a lunch from one of the appetizers—the Cajun Shrimp and Grits. The dish started with a pool of rich sauce that contained small pieces of shrimp. And while I couldn’t find any corn in the sauce, it did have that sweet taste that you get from fresh sweet corn. On top of the sauce was a grit cake which then was topped with more of the same sauce and two beautiful shrimp.

But this dish was really about the diabolically good grit cake. Like a bagel is an excuse to eat large amounts of cream cheese, I have always viewed grits and an excuse to eat butter or cheese—and preferably both. I don’t know who first discovered that forming grits into a patty and then deep frying it to a crisp goodness, but that person was a genius. (Actually, I suspect that the first grit cake was made to use leftover grits, but that really doesn’t matter.) But when said grits contain, as did these, minced shrimp, scallions, and smoky and spicy tasso ham they are elevated to new heights.

Well, my memory was correct. We still liked Fezzo’s and liked it enough to give it 4.0 Addies.

To review the role of Adler and the Addie rating system, read the November 14, 2011 blog.