Au Revoir, Le Café

Beloved restaurant leaves behind legacy of excellence

To eat lunch at Le Café on a Friday during Lent was to feel the heartbeat of a community. The small eatery in Breaux Bridge—home to the best fried catfish and shrimp poboys around—has always punched above its weight, delivering food that exceeded the expectations of anyone who had initially judged it by its square footage alone. What I learned when I sat down with Ann Newland yesterday is that it’s no insult to call a restaurant small. In her experience, not only is bigger not always better when it comes to restaurants, it’s almost a guarantee that things will be worse. Being on the front lines of Le Café’s operation day in and day out has allowed her to stay involved in a hands-on way with the execution of her menu, building a foundation of consistency and excellence that kept people coming back for more. Perhaps most importantly of all, it’s allowed her to keep her finger on the pulse of Acadiana. On November 15, Le Café will close its doors to customers after thirty-five years of business.

Restaurant booths from a Mr. Cook that closed in the 1980s

When did you start Le Café?

Thirty-five years ago, in August of 1989. I was teaching at the time, and I opened it to help pay for my children’s tuition. Then when I retired from teaching, I came here full time, and I’ve been doing it ever since. It started out more like a hamburger and french fry joint. My uncle had a restaurant in Texas, and when we went to visit him, he taught us how to fry fish and shrimp, and that’s kind of where it took off.

What’s the secret to your success?

Well, freshness is always key. Fresh grease, fresh fish, fresh shrimp, fresh everything. We don’t keep anything under a light. We cook as we go. No reheating. It’s just like you would have at someone’s home. Another lesson I learned is: consistency. I’ve had some great employees helping me in the kitchen, and they’ve done an extremely good job at keeping things consistent. If something doesn’t smell right or taste right, I ditch it. My daddy taught me that your first loss is your best loss. In other words, don’t even think twice about it. Throw it away. Because of that, it helped us to have a better product.

Ann Newland, owner and operator of Le Café

Where does your seafood come from?

The catfish and the shrimp comes from Ocean Select and Guidry’s Catfish in Henderson. They have the best product around. I also want to mention Guidry’s produce in Arnaudville and Lamm Food Service in Carencro. They have been great to work with.

And you prepare everything here?

I prepare everything here. We cut the catfish in strips because the smaller pieces have a better coating of fish fry. We use Louisiana Fish Fry, which is an awesome product. We split the shrimp here. We season the shrimp. This goes on all week long. There’s a lot of prepping in this business that people don't understand. They ask me why are you there at seven in the morning. The onion rings are homemade. Everything is homemade. It takes a lot of labor.

How much do you sell? Can you give me some numbers?

Let’s see, 20 cases of fish every week. Which is 300 pounds of fish a week. And during Lent, on a Friday, we will sell 20 cases of fish on that day. And three cases of shrimp on that day. So that’s 150 pounds of shrimp and about 300 pounds of fish in one day. During a regular day there’s four of us working. During Lent on a Friday there’s nine of us.

Outdoor seating area at Le Café

I always tell people that your shrimp po’boy is the best I’ve ever had.

You know, the bread is from a fourth-generation baker down the road. Champagnes does an incredible job. Every day it comes in fresh, and we steam it before we put all that shrimp on it. Sometimes we put more shrimp than we should, but you know, in the big scheme of things, if I gain a customer, what’s one or two shrimp? That’s how I would want to eat it. I want to take a bite of a po’boy, and I want something to fall down, and I want to put that in my mouth, too. We serve it the way we want to eat it. That’s one of the mantras that I’ve had for a long time. I tell my employees, “If you won’t eat it, don’t serve it.”

Shrimp po’boy

What I like about the po’boy is, with a po’boy you don’t want to feel like it’s a chore to bite through all that bread…

A lot of people like crunchy bread. I find the crunchy bread too much work. It starts to hurt the mouth, and it takes away from the shrimp. The shrimp is the star of the po’boy. The bread is secondary.

What has it been like to be a part of this community?

I’m going to miss that camaraderie. I’m going to miss my patrons. And what I really want to say is, “Thank you!” I’ve watched their children grow up. I’ve watched them become frail and die. And it’s been such a privilege to be a part of people’s lives like that. My family has been in the grocery store business for the last hundred years, so a lot of these people I knew already. I taught school for twenty years, so this just kind of reinforced all of those connections. I have my regulars. When they drive up, Diane writes their ticket before they even get out of their vehicle. She knows what they drive, and she’s waiting for them at the window. It’s more than food that keeps a restaurant going. We all want to be acknowledged. We all want somebody to say, I know who you are.

Booths with a view of Gary Drive