Laissez-vous le bon temps rouler: Eating Cajun at Hollier's

This most recent foray through Louisiana gave me the time to really dig in and sample some of the best that authentic small town purveyors of the Cajun culinary tradition have to offer, and I was amazed and impressed. They’ve got some truly good eats to offer the hungry traveler.

I visited with a good friend who lives in Sulphur, Louisiana - right off I-10 before you get to Lake Charles. Alan Jagneaux is a lifelong resident, having grown up in Church Point, and is as down home, authentically Cajun as you can get. His father spoke nothing but Cajun French. Alan has rarely traveled out of the area over the decades (the Marine Corps was his travel agent back in the day) and has a lot of lifelong friends around the area. Some cook for a living.

One of Alan’s friends is Wayne Hollier. They both worked at the Firestone plant back in the day. Alan said that when Wayne quit a sure thing job to open a meat market and restaurant, everybody thought he’d lost his mind.

As we bailed out of Alan’s truck beneath the Hollier’s sign, Alan had that little sly grin and asked me how I’d pronounce the name on the sign. Hmmm. Hawl-yer’s?

Nope. “Hall-yeah” or to be even more correct, “All-yeah”.

This serious Cajun country.

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