Roux 61 Rides South

You expect a restaurant with “roux” in its name to do a killer gumbo, and Roux 61’s newly opened Baton Rouge location does not disappoint. The seafood gumbo is velvety, complex, consequential, and loaded with so much Gulf seafood that every spoonful brings another bounty of plump, pink shrimp up from its chocolate-y depths. The secret, according to owner Jason Lees, is that dark roux. “We push it to the limit, then stop it immediately,” he said. “It took a while to get. Some don’t like it … they perceive it as being burned. But then again, I’ve had a guy who’s come in six days and gotten the bowl of gumbo every time!”

Gumbo Guy is lucky to have gotten a table six times. Since Jason and co-owner/brother, Brian Lees, opened Roux 61 Baton Rouge in mid-December (in the building formerly occupied by Boutin’s), the carefully renovated space has been completely, utterly packed at every seating. On a Tuesday in early January, with the pre-Christmas rush in the rearview mirror, there still wasn’t a spot to be had in Roux’s huge parking lot, although the ten-minute wait for a table passed quickly since the sophisticated/rustic décor provides plenty of entertaining things to look at (restored pirogue, vintage outboard, taxidermied catfish sporting deer antlers, etc.) while you wait. Either that, or just belly up to the impressively extensive bar, which offers more than twenty beers on tap (almost all local); and ten craft cocktails including, according to Lees, the finest Sazerac in the country. “People drink more in Baton Rouge,” he noted, comparing his bar business with Natchez, Mississippi, where the original Roux 61 has been doing a roaring trade on (where else?) Highway 61 just south of town, since November 2011.

The fans of that location will be pleased to recognize many of Roux’s most popular dishes, including the Delta Queen blackened redfish, seafood-stuffed potato, seared ahi tuna, softshell crabs, seafood muffaletta, and the iconic seafood gumbo, of course. The Baton Rouge location allows Lees to do some things that he couldn’t further upriver. “Being here, I can have [New Orleans bakery] Ledenheimer drop off French bread every day,” he said, “so the poboys are better than ever.”

He’s right. The Peacemaker (fried oysters and shrimp, dressed with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and Roux sauce) was excellent—crisp, airy, and enormous. But let the attentive, well-versed wait staff talk you into some other choices and you won’t be disappointed, either. We wouldn’t necessarily have chosen the shrimp and alligator cheesecake without a nudge, but once it arrived—rich, delectably savory, and doused in a crawfish and cream sauce—we sure were glad we did.

Roux 61 Seafood & Grill 
8322 Bluebonnet Boulevard
Baton Rouge, LA 
11 am–10 pm Monday–Saturday 
$8–$12 appetizers, $11–$28 entrees 
(225) 300-8880