True to the name, this East Valley gumbo haunt doesn’t discriminate when it comes to tasty Louisiana cuisine.
Like many Southern chefs, Eric Rachal learned to cook at his grandmother’s knee. Lucky for him, she was also a professional chef and caterer in New Orleans.
In February, Rachal took that knowledge and opened Creole Cajun Bistro in Chandler, where he dishes out a brilliant mash-up of Louisiana cuisine – from fried frog legs to filé gumbo – in a down-home, no-frills setting.
The pan-Louisianan menu is perhaps telegraphed by Rachal’s curious branding: “Creole” and “Cajun” cooking styles are similar but distinct, and using them together sounds both redundant and slightly contradictory, like “Cuban Caribbean” or “Sonoran Guadalajaran.” Here’s the easiest way to tell the difference: Creole cooking uses tomatoes and Cajun dishes don’t. But there are other finer, and frequently disputed, distinctions. Creole cuisine is thought of as “city” cuisine – originating in the kitchens of wealthy slave owners using topnotch ingredients such as oysters, butter and crab meat; and Cajun cooking, named for the French-speaking people who live in the Acadiana region of Louisiana, is reputed to be “rustic” cuisine, chock-full of regional vittles like crawfish and shrimp. Cajun cooking is allegedly spicier than its Creole cousin because of its heavier hand with cayenne pepper. Both use the “holy trinity” of vegetables as a base for cooking – bell pepper, onion and celery.
Hidden behind a drugstore in a south Chandler strip mall, Creole Cajun Bistro falls somewhere in the price-point middle of the Valley’s modest Creole/Cajun dining scene, which includes such underrated gems as A Taste of Louisiana in Avondale. (Like Rachal, most of those chefs also dabble in both styles of Louisiana cooking, using Cajun spices in Creole dishes and vice versa, artfully blurring the lines.) Given the labor-intensive, multi-layered character of Louisiana cuisine, it hardly seems a bad deal.
Decorated with New Orleans’ French Quarter in mind – canvas art and images of jazz musicians, brick walls and wine bottles – the family-friendly restaurant keeps Zydeco playing overhead and has live jazz and blues on Wednesday and Saturday evenings.
Start with a New Orleans mixology favorite – The Hurricane ($8), a blend of light and dark rums laced with tropical juices and grenadine; or The Sazerac ($8), a French Quarter brew of rye whiskey, brandy and absinthe. The bistro also offers beer, wine and a variety of cocktails.
Rachal’s menu tempts with a decent selection of appetizers, most of them fried, including “frickles” ($8.95) – sliced pickles dunked in house-made batter and deep-fried. Served with buttermilk ranch sauce, the sizeable portion of frickles could have fed a half dozen people, because how many fried pickles can you eat? The Creole barbecue shrimp ($16.95), a mound of tender peel-and-eat shrimp sautéed in Worcestershire butter sauce, came with garlicky toasted French bread to mop up the velvety sauce.
Digging into the traditional entrées, my first stop was the Cajun filé okra gumbo ($9.95, cup/$15.95, bowl), a princely amount of shrimp, house-made andouille sausage, tender pork and chicken punctuated with a crab claw suspended in a thick stock. The rich, okra-thickened soup is quite filling, so if you’re planning on trying other entrées, I’d steer away from the bowl.
In a fog of protein cravings, I ordered the andouille sausage, shrimp and chicken étouffée ($18.95), a spicy stew made with Cajun seasonings, bits of onions and bell peppers and a dark roux to add flavor and a deep, rich color. It’s an admirable specimen of Louisiana “smothering,” the braised meats and tangy sauce delivering sensational flavor with every bite.
The Creole jambalaya ($14.95) begins with the holy trinity of vegetables sautéed with andouille sausage, chicken and shrimp and is served with white rice and garlic bread. The flavor profile is similar to the gumbo and etouffée – all tasty, but the repetition left me hungering for a different set of spices and a few more vegetables.
One of Rachal’s most exemplary dishes is the Bayou Bucket ($29.95), a made-to-order selection of boiled blue crab, crawfish, shrimp, red potatoes and fresh corn on the cob seasoned with Rachal’s “secret mix of herbs and spices.” Be prepared to wait a while because, as our friendly server warned us, “the chef has to bring it to a boil.” We happily waited and were rewarded with a mound of fresh, subtly spiced shellfish served on a faux newspaper-lined dish. For the uninitiated, the crawfish can be a little daunting, as proper consumption involves popping off the creature’s head and sucking the meat from the body. Enough said.
Rachal also serves po’ boys with andouille sausage, chicken breast, roast beef, catfish, tilapia, shrimp and oysters. We tried the fried catfish ($12.95), nearly a foot of French bread overpowered by remoulade and stacked with lettuce, tomatoes and pickles on one side and about 10 pieces of ho-hum catfish on the other. With so many great rustic dishes on the menu, I’d skip the po’ boys and stick with the finer fare.
A couple of desserts stand out – the whiskey bread pudding ($6), an impressive mound of sweet French bread cubes topped with whiskey sauce, whipped cream and caramel sauce; and the beignets ($6), a basketful of puffed-up fried dough blanketed in powdered sugar that left a trail on the table and floor. Both desserts get high marks for taste and sweet-tooth satisfaction.
Cajun/Creole cuisine in the Valley is an underserved culinary niche, so the southeast Valley is lucky to have Rachal in the neighborhood. It’s hard to tell where the Creole starts and the Cajun ends, but his authentic Louisiana fare will have you dreaming about life on the bayou.
DETAILS
Creole Cajun Bistro
Cuisine: Creole/Cajun
Contact: 5070 S. Gilbert Rd., Chandler, 480-895-1655, creolecajunbistro.com
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. M-Sa
Highlights: Filé okra gumbo ($9.95/$15.95); Andouille sausage, shrimp and chicken étouffée ($18.95); Bayou Bucket ($29.95); whiskey bread pudding ($6)
