Audio By Carbonatix
Alligator Cafe
4416 Live Oak St.
214-821-6900
Dude Factor: 10, or Justin Wilson, on a scale of 1 (Jared Leto) to 10.
Today being Fat Tuesday and all, we decided to load up the Dude Food crew and head out to indulge in some fattening Cajun food. The fact that we missed out on Charles Barkley’s weekend Pappadeaux marathon–seriously, Barkley chowed down at Pappadeaux four times (four!)–probably also had something to do with our Cajun cravings. But those of us who actually live in Dallas know there are better options here than Pappadeaux and Razzoo’s–namely, the Alligator Cafe.
(Granted, we love the occasional trip to Pappadeaux just as much as the next dudes, but generally we prefer the kitschy, ex-fast food joint decor of the Alligator Cafe to the whole white-tablecloths-and-bow-ties thing.)
Walking in the door, everyone seemed a little too happy–you know, the kind of happiness you’ll only find in a Cajun restaurant on Fat Tuesday, or alternately preceding some sort of space-cult group suicide. But after a few minutes of listening to lively blues and Zydeco music, even the most cynical members of our posse were in a good mood. (If they could just pipe some Cajun music into Congress, we guar-rawn-tee some shit would get done.)
After placing our order, our lunch crew waited for what seemed like 15
or 20 minutes, which would have been an enternity were the Alligator
Cafe still a Popeyes or
whatever-it-was-before-it-was-the-Alligator-Cafe. (Seriously, if I have
to wait longer than 5 minutes at a Popeye’s, I just go ahead and call
in an appointment with the doc ahead of time to deal with the
inevitable digestive fallout.) But the Alligator Cafe is no fast
food place. There’s actual cooking going on in the kitchen. So when our
fried crawfish tails, fried alligator po-boys and atchafalaya finally
came out, we were stunned at the amount of badass-looking food weighing
down our table.
Paired with the similarly badass selection of condiments–hello, horseradish and wasabi hot sauces–and what’s possibly the best sweet tea in town, it was a meal to remember, and we remembered it all afternoon as we dozed off while trying to write this–we’re still in dire
need of a nap.
Assuming we get a second wind, we might even go back for tonight’s Fat Tuesday shindig,
featuring live music from the Hash Brown Band and a bigass crawfish
boil. Perhaps some of you are already there, downing crawfish and pontificating on the career of Breesus. We’ve been led to believe it’s a family affair, but when you pair
alcohol and beads together you just never know, dudes.
