July 2010. Two different takes on waterside seafood revelry in Frenier, La.

Before the Causeway or the Interstate, traffic around Lake Pontchartrain followed old US Highway 51. The stretch between LaPlace and Ponchatoula divides the fresh water of Maurepas from the brackish, tidal Pontchartrain. It is a sleepy road with few cars and little development. The blinding sun and the saline wind off of the lake remind a visitor of why certain parts of Louisiana are rightfully described as the northern most points of the Caribbean. The small cluster of homes and seafood restaurants off of Peavine Road just north of LaPlace may be only forty-five minutes from Baton Rouge, but it feels like the clocks here are set to island time.

This shallow, western end of Lake Pontchartrain has remained largely undeveloped even as enormous houses have gone up along the nearby Tickfaw and Tchefuncte Rivers. This is not a Spring Break–like party spot with boat bound poker runs and endless Jell-O shots. It has a humid primitivism more suited to reflection than revelry. That is not to say that Frenier Landing is not well kitted out for a bacchanal, it is just that staggering seems optional.  You are far more likely to see boats returning from the lake laden with crab than heading out onto the water laden with cases of beer.

If you go to what a sign off of old 51 pluckily calls “The New West End,” start your visit at Frenier Landing. It is a lovely new structure, but still idiosyncratic enough to maintain the tropical ambience. It is perched high on stilts (they do get water here during hurricanes), with salvaged tin ceilings, old cypress woodwork and an absolutely Victorian looking fan system. Sit on the porch facing the water and drink cold beer while you eat oysters and watch sails poke at the horizon. People come and go from the nearby boat launch, headed out for specks or saltwater garfish. The amiable staff here and the solid selection of local draft brews present an excellent introduction to this balmy, close-to-home bit of paradise.

Try to time your visit on a weekend in the season, when Louis Lipps is boiling crabs (you may want to call in advance to reserve a dozen premium sized creatures). He buys his blue crabs from folks who trap them nearby, their sweetness amplified by a short trip from the Pontchartrain to the cooking pot. Lipps’ Crab Trap Restaurant is a collection of screened in picnic tables shaded from the sun, oriented to catch the constant breeze, and it is just across the parking lot from Frenier Landing.

Lipps’ Crab Trap is the place where the real business of coastal living gets done. The crabs are boiled behind an old deli case full of icy root beer and Bud Light then dumped onto newspaper-covered trays and quickly hustled to the table. This is the sort of place that Frenier Landing is trying to approximate, just with central air and cloth napkins. Both are excellent, but the one relies on modern convenience while the other is a study in authenticity. In some places you feel like a customer and in others a guest. And how could you not feel like the latter when Louis sits down at your table, after walking you through his spartan kitchen, and proceeds to tell you the secrets of crabs. How salinity and temperature and tide must all intersect to produce the big, premium, orange delicacies now heaped atop the classifieds.

Let him talk a little longer and he will spell out more mysteries, about how even when things should be perfect the crabs do not come, or other times when they seem to be so plentiful that you could not scoop your hand in the lake without getting pinched. These are the sorts of conversations, about food and seasons and nature, that seem to occur only when you have butted up so close to the circle of life that you may have drowsily fallen within it.

The slippery, sea born wind, the stunning sun, the lapping of the waves, these are all part of the hazy, sleepwalking life of south Louisiana in the summer. Exposure to such primal energy is dizzying. Faced with such forces and such scenes you are almost compelled to find a place in the shade, reach for another bottle and wonder what you did to get so lucky. If this time of year makes unhurried daydreamers of us all, then this bit of coast is the right spot to never wake up.

Details. Details. Details.

Frenier Landing
113 Dottie Lane
LaPlace, La
(985) 224-2071
www.frenierlanding.com

Crab Trap
100 Peavine Road
LaPlace, La
(985) 651-4150

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