Suire's Grocery & Restaurant

Proudly taking up half the real estate in a Styrofoam clamshell, Friday’s lunch special at Suire’s Grocery & Restaurant in rural Kaplan, Louisiana, is always the same: an irresistible stew of local turtle meat simmered for hours in a dark reddish-brown gravy, shiny with the gleam of a well-polished family heirloom. The flavor is peppery but not too, rich with the tang of tomato, onions, and bell pepper. Served over rice with a crispy piece of fried fish on the side, along with homemade potato salad, bread, and a slab of cake, lunch will set you back $13.99; and there’s plenty for two hungry eaters to share. 

Not many folks take the time to simmer a savory turtle sauce piquant, but Lisa Frederick, who runs the grocery with her sister Joan Suire (rhymes with “beer”), has been doing it every Friday for more than two decades. Suire’s turned 40 in 2016, which means Lisa was 14 and her sister 19 when their father Bea Suire and their mother Mary bought the grocery, which at the time was just about simple provisions, a go-to spot for locals in this tiny town due west of Abbeville.  

The shelves in half of the roadside business are still stocked with staples and dry goods along with odds and ends like swamp pop music CDs, washboards, and local jerky. It was Mary, who passed away a year ago, who had the vision of adding a no-frills dining area serving home-style Cajun cuisine, ample portions dished with equal amounts of hospitality and simmered with love.  

Kaplan is a small town in Vermilion Parish, a bilingual, coastal parish marked by lush bayous and farmland; and Suire’s has long been a must-stop for families heading west along the coast, the place to stock coolers with food for their hunting and fishing camps.  “We even get hunters calling us from duck blinds to order poboys to go,” said Frederick.  “And we always have turtle piquant in the freezer,” along with gumbo and bulging containers of brown stews and gravies, tempting treasures that deserve a place in the cooler no matter where you’re headed. 

It’s simple, robust Cajun food, deeply rich and filling with no airs or pretensions. The Suires are exceptional at this brand of cooking: smothering, simmering, frying, and baking hearty platters guaranteed to satisfy.

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You have to get off the Interstate to get to Suire’s, a twenty-mile detour south of I-10 that takes you into the heart of this pretty part of the state, laced with bayous and ponds brimming with crawfish, frogs, and fish. But as soon as you pull into the parking lot, it’s clear you’re in for a treat. For starters, you don’t need to wonder what’s on the menu as you get out and stretch your legs—it’s written in loopy script on the front of the building by the door, next to a drawing of a six-foot-tall alligator wearing a chef’s hat. 

It’s simple, robust Cajun food, deeply rich and filling with no airs or pretensions. The Suires are exceptional at this brand of cooking: smothering, simmering, frying, and baking hearty platters guaranteed to satisfy.  

Catfish poboy, boudin, chicken salad sandwich, barbecue burgers, fried oyster platter … it all adds up to a siren’s call of rib-sticking fare designed to help you keep your weight up. There might be something here for the unsuspecting vegetarian, but the gluten-averse should eat elsewhere. Plate lunches are usually in the $8 range, with overstuffed poboys made with roast beef, hot sausage, and catfish under $7. Then there are the crab pistolettes, rolls stuffed with crab dressing and deep fried into savory goodness. Homemade pecan pie is a fine choice for dessert. If fig tarts are on the menu, have that too. 

It was back in 2002 that the late renowned food writer R.W. Apple Jr. walked past the alligator and into Suire’s, an experience chronicled in glowing terms in the New York Times. A framed copy of the article still adorns the wall, keeping company with family photos and handwritten signs saying things like “If you want country cooking, come to the country.” 

“We serve authentic Cajun food, the kind of food people would eat at our dinner table at home,” said Frederick. Suire’s is open every day of the week for breakfast, lunch, and supper (they close at 7 pm). Have a bacon and egg sandwich or plate of old fashioned shrimp and egg stew for breakfast, and you just might decide to stay for lunch. Especially if it’s Friday.