Photo courtesy of VisitTheNorthshore.com.
Sal Impastato, pictured with his famous spaghetti and meatballs.
The story of Sal & Judy’s begins with Sal Impastato, an impetuous teenager, setting out for America from Sicily with little else besides memories of his mother’s recipes. He spent several years working in restaurants in New Orleans and Dallas, honing his culinary skills, and working toward his dream of sharing the cuisine of his homeland in a restaurant of his own.
In New Orleans, Impastato found restaurant space unaffordable and competition fierce, and began seeking out a smaller market. He heard about Lacombe on The Northshore from his late friend Chef Chris Kerageorgiou of La Provence Restaurant fame. When he visited Lacombe, he found the little fishing town reminiscent of his own coastal home, Cinisi, outside Palermo, Sicily.
In 1974, despite doubts about the small-town location, Impastato spent $50,000 on an 1,800 square-foot gas station. He started serving up his mother’s recipes, infusing them with Creole flavors he’d picked up during his time in New Orleans. The restaurant, which he called Sal and Judy’s (after his wife at the time), quickly outgrew the space. Today, you can’t miss the iconic pink stucco building Impastato moved into next, which is complete with an herb container garden in the back for easy access to fresh basil.
People who knew Impastato from his work in the French Quarter started traveling to The Northshore to eat at Sal and Judy’s. Word of his authentic Sicilian dishes spread quickly among hungry and homesick Sicilian Americans living in South Louisiana.
“People come to Sal and Judy’s because it reminds them of their own family—like what their mother or grandmother made." —Sal Impastato
Now, more than fifty years later, those same dishes continue to feed a loyal local crowd craving high quality comfort food. Impastato says the secret to a restaurant’s long-term success is, “Serving good food, putting in hard work and being consistent.” Locals love the Creole Italian pasta and seafood dishes, and a bestseller for decades now is Impastato’s mother’s Baked Lasagne—which has layers of homemade pasta, hearty beef and cheese, and a slightly sweet sauce seasoned with bright, fresh cut herbs. Impastato’s personal favorite is the Veal Pane, a simple dish of crispy pan-fried veal served with spaghetti. He also serves Sicilian Sunday dinner standards like Brucioloni, a tender round steak stuffed with cheese, Italian sausage, and ground beef draped in a signature red gravy.
At a spry eighty-three years young, Impastato still acts as executive chef, overseeing his famous sauce and making pasta for Sal and Judy’s menu every single day—a labor of love he’s now perfected over the course of the decades. His sons, Joe and Jimmy, were two years and two months old when the restaurant opened, and today they are still working right alongside him. “It was a little rough raising a family in the restaurant business, but it paid off,” he said.
[Read this: "The Taste of Creole-Italian Cuisine—A cultural history told in terms of cuisine"]
In the small town of Lacombe, Sal and Judy’s has become the go-to for cozy first dates, birthday and graduation celebrations, and entertaining guests from out of town. But the place is usually busy, even without occasion. One regular goes to Sal and Judy’s simply because it’s Wednesday. It’s a classic dining experience, white tablecloths and all, but the atmosphere is inviting, and the food feels familiar, in the best way.
“People come to Sal and Judy’s because it reminds them of their own family—like what their mother or grandmother made,” said Impastato.
It’s deeper than nostalgia though—Impastato’s food is delicious because it is made with care and intentionality, rooted in family traditions. For Impastato’s family, as with many Sicilian families, producing essential ingredients for quintessential Sicilian meals was a way of life. On the walls, this history is honored through photos of the Impastato family and the beginnings of the business here in America.
“It’s a family atmosphere here, and you feel that warmth every time you come in,” says Katie Guasco of Visit The Northshore.
When asked what his mother would say about Impastato sharing her recipes with Louisiana, in his own restaurant, for all these years, he very simply said, with twinkling eyes, “She’d be very proud.”
Find a line of products bearing Sal’s face and name in most grocery stores in South Louisiana. Check out the options, or make a reservation, at salandjudys.com.
