Eat Your Way Along the Louisiana Holiday Trail of Lights

In Louisiana you simply can’t talk about the holidays without talking about food. So bring your appetite to towns all along the Holiday Trail of Lights and sample the wide selection of treats available to sustain travelers exploring this distinctly diverse region of the state. Way up north in Shreveport-Bossier, juicy stuffed shrimp served with spicy Creole dressing are a famous local delicacy. You’ll find them on menus all over town, but some of the best are at Eddie’s Seafood and Soulfood, a tiny, neighborhood eatery named one of the “Best Seafood Restaurants in the South” by Southern Living magazine. Or head out to Orlandeaux’s Café, which carries on the legacy of Shreveport’s original Freeman & Harris Café while serving sumptuous Louisiana Creole dishes on the shores of Cross Lake. Earnestly Tootie’s is rightfully famous for crispy shrimp and grits balls drizzled in house-made Creole cream sauce. Right across the river, the unexpectedly excellent menu at the Bossier City Inn’s Lucky Palace offers world-class Asian delicacies like duck on scallion pancakes, Thai green curry prawns, and a wine list curated by late owner Kuan Lim that literally put Bossier City on the map. While in Bossier, don’t miss BeauxJax Crafthouse, which features craft beers and cocktails and eats good enough to get it voted Bossier’s number one restaurant by the Bossier Tribune. In Minden, you shouldn’t miss Moody’s Restaurant, (although you could, since this tiny spot renowned for its meat-and-threes is tucked away in a neighborhood); it’s the only restaurant in North Louisiana to have been listed in Jane & Michael Stern’s Roadfood. Try the chicken and dumplings, flavorsome vegetable sides, and save room for coconut pie. Minden also has a Roma Italian Bistro with a broad selection for everyone in the family.

Heading south to Ruston, food truck Grown and Grazed lures locals and visitors to the downtown district with inspired breakfast and lunch dishes made with produce raised at north Louisiana farms. For breakfast try Louisiana sweet potato hash with bourbon cane glaze and topped with a local farm-fresh egg. At lunchtime, come back hungry for a spectacular bacon jam and white cheddar cheeseburger made with beef from Smith Family Farms and piled high with house-pickled vegetables. Also in Ruston, Ponchatoulas is rightfully famous for its New Orleans-style Creole and Cajun specialities that include muffalettas, Crawfish Shirley, stuffed catfish or crawfish étouffée. For excellent artisan pizza and a huge range of locally brewed craft beers belly up to the bar at Utility Brewing Company in downtown Ruston.

Festive flavors continue in Monroe/West Monroe, where the Delta Biscuit Company isn’t only about biscuits. Try their Gator Stack pancakes for breakfast or a “Funroe Burger” at lunch. Right on the Ouachita riverside, Restaurant Cotton continues reinventing Southern delta cuisine with dishes like wild duck wraps, venison schnitzel, and cochon de lait served in an atmospheric brick pile that once served as a cotton warehouse. Also on the banks of the Ouachita, Warehouse No 1 is a seafood lover’s haven serving soups, gumbos, etouffés, platters, and to-die-for shrimp and grits. Across the water in West Monroe don’t miss Trapp’s on the River Cajun Restaurant for fresh seafood, plump crab cakes, and Mom Bourque’s famous seafood nachos. 

Alexandria/Pineville offers a wide selection of welcoming places, from Pamela's Bayou in a Bowl for authentic Southern comfort food and signature desserts, to Spirits Food and Friends for everything from crawfish beignets to ribeye steaks. Then there’s Tunk’s Cypress Inn & Oyster Bar, a beloved local mainstay that’s lured generations of locals to the banks of Lake Kincaid for fresh and chargrilled oysters, fried and grilled seafood, grilled quail, and marinated prime rib. From Tunk’s it’s a short hop to Natchitoches, where you’ll find all the flavors of authentic Louisiana cuisine reflected in the menus at Mariner’s Restaurant perched on a point in Sibley Lake (perfect for fireworks viewing), Maglieux’s Riverfront Restaurant on beautiful Front Street, and at Lasyone’s Meat Pie Kitchen, for a de rigeur dose of those famous Natchitoches Meat Pies, for eating tonight, and taking home, too.

If a memorable holiday roadtrip spent discovering classic Louisiana cuisine and contemporary flavors sounds like the right recipe, make great food the guiding principle behind your Holiday Trail of Lights road trip. Discover more recommendations and food-forward itineraries at holidaytrailoflights.com/eating