New Cajun/Creole restaurant to replace Big Lick BBQ
Photo courtesy Yolonda Jimenez.
I know many of you have been dying to know the future of the building that used to house Henry’s Memphis BBQ and Big Lick BBQ. You’ve seen the red and blue paint replaced by bold purple and yellow paint at the highly visible spot on Brandon Avenue across from the Towers Mall Kroger and you’ve been quite curious about it.
Me too! And I finally caught up with the lady who could fill me in. Her name is Yolonda Jimenez, she is a native of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, and she is ready to bring her Cajun and Creole specialties to the people of Roanoke. The restaurant will be called Bayou Lucy’s. Lucy is her nickname “because there’s never a dull moment in my life,” Jimenez said.
This will be her first restaurant. She says she’s cooked in the French Quarter in New Orleans but most of her recipes and experience come from growing up around Cajun and Creole cuisine and cooking for her friends and family members. She said the menu at Bayou Lucy’s will include gumbo, jambalaya, oyster po’ boys, shrimp po’ boys, crawfish po’ boys, red beans and rice and court bouillon, a rich red wine gravy fortified with seafood and served over rice.
She’ll also be selling what she says is her famous cornbread, which friends nicknamed “cake bread” because of its flavor and consistency. In addition, Jimenez plans to apply for an ABC license so she can serve New Orleans-style daiquiris.
Jimenez, 50, was born in New Orleans and grew up in the Ninth Ward. She’s lived off-and-on in Virginia, where her three grown children live, and said she is here to stay now. She said she lost her grandmother in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; her uncle, who had health problems, had to come live with her after he was rescued by a helicopter from the roof of a building. He didn’t like to eat anything that didn’t taste like home, she said, so he “really made me concentrate on getting back into the heart of cooking New Orleans foods.”
Jimenez is shooting for a late October opening. As you can see in the picture, she still has some work to do, including changing out the signs. Oh, and that purple and gold color scheme was chosen because those are Mardi Gras colors, along with green.
“Cooking is my delight,” Jimenez said. “If I can get into your stomach I can get into your heart. I love people and I love to feed them.”
Well, we love to eat, Lucy, so we’ll be seeing you soon.
September 25, 2012 - 10:39 AM
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LSU’s school colors are purple and gold. Mardi Gras colors are purple, gold and green. There does not seem to be any green in the picture – prehaps she is a LSU fan.
Yes, green is also a Mardi Gras color. Maybe the inside will be green, or the sign or something.
Any word if Ms. Jimenez will offer beignets on the menu?
This is pretty cool! Am looking forward to trying……….
This sounds remarkably like the Bayou Cafe that opened in Rocky Mount, VA in the beginning of 2008. The owner’s name was Yolanda Jimenez and was from New Orleans. I only ate there once but the food was pretty tasty. I don’t know authentic cajun/creole cooking well enough to have a more informed opinion. I understand wanting a fresh start, but maybe it would be good for business to make that connection? Here’s a nice blog entry from someone else who enjoyed the food: http://ontheblackwater.blogspot.com/2008/01/bayou-cafe-is-open-now-in-rocky-mount.html
I pass this place on my way to work daily and had been wondering what was going in there. Glad it’s not another BBQ joint as they have not made it there.
But this is a food I have never eaten and would not know what I was getting into if I went there. So unless I find someone that has and wants the go I can’t say I will be stopping in.
Ahhh, Cu-B-Yon! Haven’t had Good Court Bouillon in years! Any mention of blackened meats and seafood?
Welcome to the neighborhood Yolanda! Look forward to tasting everything!!!!
PUMPED!
@Beet Queen, Jimenez did not mention Bayou Cafe when we were discussing her past experience but it would be odd if there were two people named Yolonda Jimenez from N.O. who wanted to own a Cajun restaurant in these parts. I called her and left a message to find out more.
@MikeD, Cajun and Creole food is very good and the ingredients are not overly bizarre or intimidating at all. The only way you’ll know is if you try it! Start with something like a shrimp po’ boy or beans and rice and work your way up from there.
@Scott A, she didn’t mention blackened meats but she’s probably open to requests.
What’s the story on Big Lick BBQ? Why did they close?
Mike D, why be so afraid of anything that may or may not be different? Cajun food often involves seafood – shrimp or oysters, basically. Sometimes fish, then you get a lot of pork or chicken. Starchy rice, lots of beans, celery, carrots & onions. Some spices, and that’s about it.
It’s no more exotic than Italian or Chinese food. Man can’t live on ground beef and potatoes every day…
This could easily become my local favorite restaurant; very little tastes better to me than authentic cajun cuisine.
Except for the color scheme. Roll Tide.
It’s interesting how light the discussion must have been concerning this restaurant that the thought of previous restaurants never surfaced. Best of luck to any new business owner, but just that revelation makes me a little skeptical, already.
On another topic – it seems Google is trending about a Paula Deen blooper reel that is causing a stir. Evidently it is profanity laced – SHOCKER! – and the source of legal/financial issues between the (former) Queen Of Butter and promotors.
It reminded me of how strongly she was defended by so many on here when she appeared locally and cursed her way through a promotional stop, with all the seemingly requisite (for her) sexual innuendo included.
I wonder what the ratio is of her fans from two years ago, compared to now?
I didn’t include a link to the Paula Deen cursefest because it is so easy to find on Google. You don’t even have to include ‘curse’, just type in ‘Paula Deen’ and it automatically defaults to her cursing like a… well worse than sailor, let’s just say that.
@Meghan, we’ve never learned specifics about why Big Lick BBQ closed. I asked the owner of the building and he said “It just didn’t succeed, like so many other restaurants.”
@CR, OK, now I’m going over to Google Paula Deen.
yay a cajun place from someone who actually lived there. the downtown place is a weak substitute
I read the Paula Deen story yesterday. A company that she was supposed to tour with asked for a bloppers tape and she gave them the profanity laced one. They refused it, saying they could not show that at family friendly shows.
Mike D, I’m sure if you asked, Ms. Jimenez would be glad to give you spoonfuls of different dishes to sample. Give it a try, you might find soemthing you really like.
That was supposed to be bloopers, not bloppers.
Best BBQ I have ever had – Ridgewood Barbecue near Piney Flats, Sullivan County, TN.
Looking forward to trying this Cajun!!! Hopefully, she can make me a good Mint Julep.
Lindsey, you are not bringing the hard-hitting culinary investigative reporting we’re accustomed to. For shame!
Sweet!!
Due South in Christiansburg crushes Ridgewood, which is indeed good barbecue. That’s just indicative of how skilled Due South is at cooking good ‘cue.
I’ve had lots of barbecue in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and all over the Deep South. Due South is easily top five.
Not trying to turn this into another barbecue argument, just giving recognition where due.
Those aren’t mardi gras colors, they’re Patrick Henry High School colors!
Not a whole lot of vegetarian food in New Orleans but if she makes a veggie version of dirty rice, I’m there!
Also, I’m with Roy … any word about whether she’ll be open for breakfast? Cafe au lait and beignets would help with mourning-Tudor’s process.
David, if the best BBQ you’ve ever had was Ridgewood, you haven’t had any really good BBQ. It is good, I won’t deny that, but there is so much better out there. I’d agree with crooked road, to an extent.
Due South is right up there, better than Ridgewood, but I’m not even sure I’d put Due South in my top 10, because I’ve clogged my arteries up just that much.
All you have to do is cross the border into Carolina and you’ll get better – and a plane ride to Texas will blow your mind.
Rick H, I always put brisket in a different category, like ribs. Being raised here in the Mid-Atlantic South, barbecue means pork to me. That takes nothing from brisket, as I’ve had lots of brisket that was tastier than most of the pork barbecue. Just a different box, in my mind.
Having eaten barbecue at lots of places across the Carolinas, I have to say that a lot of them are currently living on reputation. Sure, they might still use wood instead of gas, or go whole hog or whatever the nuance. But a lot of them that are supposed to be legendary? They currently turn out some really lazy quality.
Maybe that’s why I like Due South, because they don’t have 50 years of history to convince you it’s good, they have to make it good right now. That, and the fact that even decent barbecue joints are as rare as hen’s teeth around this region.
The guard rail beside the parking lot has been painted green.
I may very well find something I would like there and would be willing to try.
Just never have eaten this type of food and not knowing whats what I would not want to drop $15-$20 on a dinner I could not eat.
But I still not have closed the door one ever trying.
OK, I talked to Jimenez again and she did own the Bayou Cafe in Rocky Mount. She said she closed it because she had problems with the building and moved back to New Orleans for a while.
we ate there last week and spent time w/a delightful woman who said she was the Lucy of the restaurant’s name. she’d found a large number of menu errors – when the menus are corrected quite a few selections will have fewer sides and such. the ETOUFEE was wonderful – the wham bam was very tasty – but also close to overpriced. the jamabalaya was dry, over seasoned, lacking moisture-celery-onions-etc. her cornbread is sweet tasty. the pork chop was very nicely done (but the menu says plural); the mac & cheese is bland. the menu may be a bit overpriced, e.g., the stuffed baked potato is basically a protein, bacon bits and cheese. they have a lot of start-up glitches to work out, they were having software problems as we talked. everyone was friendly and most welcoming. the colors are fun. everything is clean. 4 TVs for a tiny dining room at a not-sports-bar price point seemed to not fit well. I’ve eaten in New Orleans several times. I have hopes for her, if she gets these things in order: methods, trained staff, pricing, authentic foods. downtown’s cajun/creole just isn’t – it would be wonderful to have real NO food!