Just Like Mama Makes

Though it’s far from your average doctor daydream, Lafayette surgeon Dr. Robert Autin said that when he was doing his residency work in New York, he would fantasize about having a restaurant. He believed it would happen at some point in his life, but never could have expected the speed at which he and Chef Toby Rodriguez bonded and created the new iteration of Acadian Superette. When the Freetown neighborhood market and lunch counter came on the market, Autin said he just couldn’t pass it up. “Then I was introduced to Toby,” Autin said. “The type of food Toby was talking about making was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to be making.”

Toby Rodriguez grew up in Poche Bridge, between Breaux Bridge and Cecilia. He has drawn on his deep Acadiana roots to gain his foodie reputation, traveling around the world demonstrating the art of the Cajun boucherie. “I had two parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles—all who were amazing cooks, and stiff critics. I started cooking at twelve. I never thought of it as a career possibility—cooking was a way to survive,” Rodriguez said. “As I grew up, I was always the friend asked to cook for parties, which led me to cooking for much bigger events—and eventually, for festivals.”

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Then, eight years ago, Rodriguez was asked to be a part of a boucherie. Seventeen years had passed since he last helped butcher a pig, but he had watched his father do it throughout his childhood. “It was like riding a bike,” he said. “My programming kicked in. When I was a kid, it was a chore, but this one translated to me as art.”

Rodriguez, now 42, says the more he did it, the more art he found in the process—and the opportunities to butcher pigs grew. During the week, he ¬was a general contractor. On weekends, he did boucheries. “The more I did boucheries, the more I realized I didn’t want to haul equipment around anymore. I didn’t want to cook out of the back of my truck,” he said. 

Not long thereafter, an opportunity for Rodriguez to stop cooking out of the back of his truck arose when Jolie Meaux, a Lafayette real estate agent, mentioned that she would like to introduce him to Dr. Robert Autin to discuss the possibility of a restaurant. “We hit it off and felt an immediate connection. When [Autin] was doing his residency in New York, he was missing home. He began to follow our efforts. He was already enthusiastic about what we were doing,” Rodriguez said about Autin. “It’s like he’s an angel. He gave me my dream. You can have the creativity, skill, and dreams, but if you don’t have the money—you’ve got nothing.”

Both Autin and Rodriguez are excited about the possibilities of the Freetown location. “Freetown is an amazing neighborhood,” Autin said. “It reminds me of New York City where you have breakfast spots, neighborhood bars, etc. We’re able to serve people when they’re getting home from work. People can walk down the street and have a burger and beer. We’re working to make this a place where I would like to come hang out.”

Rodriguez said he had hoped, in theory, that when he eventually found a place to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant, the reputation he had worked to establish would ease some of the pains of opening a business and establishing clientele. 

Much to his surprise, things have come together better than he could have dreamed. When he and Autin took charge of Acadian Superette, the foodie-faithful of Acadiana lined up in droves for the Cajun home-style/plate lunch food Rodriguez and his team are cooking.

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These days, Autin can be found doing surgeries in the morning and serving plate lunches by noon, but he doesn’t work the counter alone—Lynn Derenthal, who originally leased the store on Nov. 19, 1989, is right there by his side. Derenthal went on to buy the Freetown convenience store and breakfast/lunch counter in in 1991. Through the years, her smile and generous spirit have helped to create a landmark in the area. At 66, she decided it was time for a change. She says she’s thrilled with the reimagined restaurant, and to be an employee. “I’m loving it,” she said. “It’s such a load off my back. I was so ready to get out. It couldn’t have happened any better than it did. The Doc and Toby — they were supposed to be here.”

Derenthal says the changes Autin and Rodriguez are making have been great not only for the business, but also for the neighborhood. Rodriguez said the decision to keep Derenthal as part of the team was an obvious one. “We kept her on board to have that extensive resource under the roof and keep existing clientele comfortable,” he said. “Plus, the public adores her.”

Despite the grocery shelves having been pushed to the sidewall to make space for more tables and chairs, Derenthal says the place still feels the same. At this point, even with the changes to the menu, the store still sells generally the same items that it did under Derenthal. However, Rodriguez said he plans to rotate out the mainstream products and replace them with local items, including housemade goods—“things we’re pickling here, along those lines.”

When asked what’s her favorite thing on the new menu, Derenthal paused. “That’s hard. The spaghetti is my favorite. The rest of them probably would say the meatball stew. I like that, but I’m a spaghetti person,” she said. “I told Toby that, ‘Oh, your spaghetti sauce is just as good as mine.’” Rodriguez admits that if you twisted his arm, Derenthal is right—the meatball stew is his favorite. He’s also willing to offer one of the secrets behind how they get it just right. “It’s the most involved dish. It’s got the biggest risk,” he said. “Every week when we make a meatball stew, we grab a Hershey bar and hold the bar to the roux. Once you get it there, you cut the fire. Dump the vegetables and you’re set.” 

Jean Pierre Guidry, a highly trained chef, is also on Acadian Superette’s kitchen team and takes a lot of pride in cooking from scratch. He takes more of a French style of approach in preparing dishes than his kitchen counterpart. He and Rodriguez, who met when they were both selected as finalists in Country Roads’ 2016 Small Town Chefs competition, squabble over just how long vegetables should be cooked. “Jean Paul is classically French trained, and I’m classically Mabel trained,” Rodriguez said, referring to his grandmother. “And she would kill her vegetables.” Guidry smiles and shakes his head. “The bottom line is that all of our food here is homemade. That’s what I’m most proud of,” Guidry said. “Everybody wants their mama’s rice and gravy.”

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Rodriguez said he, Guidry and Autin have a triage plan mapped out for Acadian Superette. “The easiest thing to improve because of my background was the plate lunches,” he said. “That’s in the process of being cemented.” Next, they continue revamping and improving upon the rest of the meat—including fried chicken and hamburgers. “We’re switching everything to local meats and bringing healthier options of proteins. All of our meat comes from the Eunice Superette. All local beef—extremely fresh. Meat is slaughtered on Wednesday and we have it Friday.”

After that, they plan to have generated enough income to fund the construction required to update the small, attached speak-easy into a wine bar. “My dream is to have a butcher shop, not a bar,” Rodriguez said. “But if I can use the existing facilities to do [a wine bar], I will.” 

Acadian Superette

(337) 237-4509

600 Lamar Street

Lafayette, LA 70501

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