Village Café
Lafayette’s River Ranch eatery uses a formula that works
UPDATE, April 2, 2015: In late March of 2015, Village Café was bought and renamed De Gaulle Square Bistro and Bar. The restaurant has been re-conceived as a less formal affair with more casual offerings. But Chef Jeremy Conner is still at the helm.
*****
Village Café is not your typical neighborhood restaurant.
For one thing, its neighborhood isn’t typical. Lafayette’s River Ranch is a picture-perfect traditional neighborhood development. In essence, the place just feels good. Steve Oubre, the Lafayette architect who envisioned and designed the award-winning neighborhood, said its aesthetic pleasure lies in his use of the golden mean, a mathematical ratio responsible for some of nature’s most beautiful and powerful creations—nautilus shells, pinecones, flower petals, tree branches, and even hurricanes. Village Café, tucked into this Pleasantville neighborhood, is not itself built on the golden mean, but it has created its own formula that is equally effective. Its food transcends typical neighborhood fare.
When asked to explain Village Café, Chef Jeremy Conner responded with a question of his own that may seem as theoretical and philosophical as the Golden Mean: “ ‘How much Louisiana do we have in us?’ is the first thing to address, I suppose. We are a new-American cuisine restaurant with a local-ingredient focus. We serve classical cuisine prepared in the style of French cooking. We like to take a look at the different ways the melting pot that is Creole/Cajun has developed.”
All of Village Café’s menus—brunch, lunch, and dinner—pay homage to Acadiana’s roots, from beignets on its seasonal brunch menu, to tasso spring rolls (house-made tasso, asparagus, and cabbage in a crispy flash-fried spring roll served with bacon chili muscadine glaze), to its perennial big bowl of chicken and sausage gumbo that can stand against any in the region.
Beyond the region’s traditional ingredients, the restaurant also embraces the spirit of Acadiana’s lagniappe philosophy with its cone of homemade chips and house-made roasted red pepper ketchup. The chips are sprinkled with cheese and are as addictive as can be. Regular customers know that as soon as their order is placed, the cone of chips will arrive and the party that is lunch at Village Café will begin.
Regular customers also know that even though the Café has a reputation as one of the top restaurants in the area, with excellent food and first-rate service, lunch at Village Café is a bargain. Lunch for two generally runs about $25 (excluding drinks).
Conner is a transplant to Lafayette and has worked at Village Café for six years. Originally, he worked as Chef Jude Tauzin’s chef de cuisine, but when Tauzin left to be the corporate chef at Tony Chachere’s, Conner stepped in to fill the chef’s shoes—which better have been big shoes since Conner stands at 6’ 8” and has to duck to go through the restaurant’s freezer door.
Conner believes that fresh fish is the hallmark of a great restaurant in the South. “Our signature dish is our stuffed Louisiana fish,” Conner said. “We use a crab stuffing—the same mixture as our crab cakes with capers, shallots, lemon juice, lump, and claw meat to stuff the fish. We like to cook fish directly out of the Gulf—whatever’s fresh that week.”
Conner works closely with David Bothe, manager at Village Café. “We have a new dinner menu,” Bothe said. “We change our menu quite often—from once a quarter to once a month. Chef uses whatever local ingredients are available.”
Current seasonal specialties are beef carpaccio, roasted quail with crispy chickpeas and simmered soybeans with crispy chicken skins, and the shrimp stew. Other items remain constant, including the filet mignon, barbecue shrimp appetizer, and their much loved apple salad, with julienned apples on a bed of greens with pecans, blue cheese, and a smoky bacon dressing.
Two tall walls of wine dominate the restaurant’s interior décor. The hundreds of bottles of vino set a warm and cozy ambiance any time of day for the sixty-seat restaurant.
Plus, the extensive wine collection makes for great options to complement a meal. Conner says the kitchen leans on the house management—including Bothe and Manny Silver, manager of Village Café’s sister establishment that adjoins the restaurant, Pour, a wine bar—to pair dishes with the best wine choices.
If you’re looking for a good dessert, the berry cobbler with ice cream is a local favorite, but the pot de crème, served with tasty chocolate crumbles on top, is not to be missed for chocolate lovers.
From appetizers, drinks, salads, entrees, sides, and dessert, Village Café is a consistently good choice for lunch, dinner, or its seasonal brunch.
Want more? Check out this recipe for Village Café Shrimp Stew from Chef Jeremy Conner.
Details. Details. Details.
Village Café
#1 Degaulle Square
Town Square in River Ranch
Lafayette, La.
(337) 981-8085