Big Easy Indy eats

Cheap eats

While the Colts and the Saints battle it out in Miami, fans of New Orleans-style cuisine in Indy have their own challenge: Where to satisfy their cravings for Cajun and Creole?

Metromix talked to the owners/chefs behind two of the city’s most beloved purveyors of Big Easy eats: Yats and Papa Roux. How do they stack up on authenticity, atmosphere, Mardi Gras and, of course, their Big Game loyalties?

Yats (founded 2001)

Locations: 5363 N. College Ave; 8352 E. 96th St.; 659 Massachusetts Ave.; 1280 U.S. 31 N., Greenwood.

Owner/chef: Joe Vuskovich (hometown: New Orleans).

Behind the name: Sort of slang for “Where you at?” “That kind of perennial neighborhood type, you refer to them as a ‘yat.’”

Atmosphere: Casual, but bustling. Order at the counter from a chalkboard menu, grab your own flatware and drinks, and find an open table. Staff delivers your grub tableside once the order’s up.

Cost: Single dishes cost $5.50; upgrade to a combo for an extra buck.

Most popular dish: Chili-cheese etouffee.

Vuskovich’s favorite dish: “I eat gumbo everyday. It’s the essence of Creole cooking. And when it’s good, it’s really good.”

Cool quirk: Yats accepts only cash, not credit cards — yet Vuskovich has frequently been known to offer an IOU to a caught-off-guard first-timer.

You should know: Bar Yats, with full table service and booze, will open Downtown in March.

Mardi Gras plans: Annual free bash in Broad Ripple, with live music, costumed guests and beads.

Colts or Saints? “I had season tickets for the Saints for years and years. My mother watched the Saints every Sunday for twentysomething years. But I love the Colts. Peyton Manning is an extraordinary human being … I was a big fan of Peyton’s father — he’s just a great, great man. But you know, I love the people of New Orleans, and God, they got beat up pretty bad with Katrina, and it’s still not fixed … and they could use something like this.
“I’m glad the Saints are in the Super Bowl. I’m glad the Colts are in the Super Bowl. I just wish they didn’t have to play one another.”

Papa Roux (founded mid-2007)

Location: 8950 E. 10th St.

Owners/chefs: Art Bouvier (hometown: New Orleans) and Colleen Kenna (Indy).

Behind the name: A roux is a mixture of flour and fat used as the basis for sauces in New Orleans-style cooking. Papa Roux, Art, says “just sounded like a hole-in-the-wall you might find in New Orleans.”

Atmosphere: Comfortable and homey. Order at the counter, then choose your table in the dining room, where walls are covered with customers’ graffiti.

Cost: Ranges from $4.49 for a half-size chicken or pork Po-Boy to $12.39 for a 24-ounce order of gumbo.

Most popular dish: Any version of the Po-Boy. “It’s a whole meal crammed into French bread.”

Bouvier’s favorite dish: “I bounce all around. Currently, I do the roast pork Po-Boy.”

Cool quirk: Bouvier goes to great lengths to ensure that his ingredients are authentic. “I’ve got a personal relationship with the shrimp processors down in Alabama. I go down there, spend time with them, stay at their house and come back with fresh products. I’ve got a sausage vendor that I went to high school with who now owns a mom-and-pop sausage factory. And I buy my sausage from him down in New Orleans.”

You should know: Papa Roux’s “creamy tangy Southern coleslaw”— served on every Po-Boy – is made fresh daily “from whole, fresh ingredients. No bags or bottles or jars or anything were opened for this.”

Mardi Gras plans: A daylong party held on Fat Tuesday and the Saturday before, with music by Mandy Marie and the Cool Hand Lukes.

Colts or Saints? “I simply can’t remember where my home allegiance is anymore. I’m rooting for the team whose quarterback is from the other team’s  state.  That happens to be both of them. It’s not that I’ve been noncommittal; it’s that I can’t lose … We are definitely a house united.”

MORE BIG EASY EATS
N’Awlins Creole Café, 1118 N. Ind. 267, (317) 272-1077. Try the sampler platter ($9.99) featuring jambalaya, red beans and your choice of gumbo, or shrimp or crawfish ettoufee.
Mudbugs Cajun Café, 20 W. Main St., (317) 843-8380. Po’Boys, jambalaya, dirty rice, crawfish casserole — this place even goes so deliciously far south as to serve beignets and Abita beer.
Bourbon Street Distillery, 361 Indiana Ave., (317) 636-3316. NOLA-style vittles, double-decker wrap-around porch.
Bazbeaux Pizza, locations at http://bazbeaux.com. Serves the most unpronounceable dish in town, named after a street in New Orleans: the Tchoupitoulas, topped with Cajun shrimp, roasted red pepper, green pepper, andouille sausage, fresh garlic.