Photos by Cheré Coen
Birds are abundant in the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, from regular residents such as this egret to migratory birds in the spring and fall
Lake Arthur has been called one of Louisiana’s hidden secrets, an enormous freshwater lake south of Jennings and midway between Lake Charles and Lafayette that’s been attracting hunters and fishermen for years. Since the opening of the Regatta LA Seafood & Steakhouse Restaurant on the water’s edge in 2011, the lake has been culling new visitors, many of them day-trippers looking for a chance to relax and watch the sun set over the lake.
Now there’s a hip, new place for day-trippers to stay. Bobby and Roberta Palermo have converted a 1960s Jeff Davis Bank building into a boutique hotel called L’Banca Albergo, or The Bank Hotel. The couple renovated the property in 2013, adding a second story complete with a New Orleans-style balcony across the front. The hotel also offers eight luxury suites, comfortable seating areas, and a bank vault containing select wines for sale.
The rooms are named instead of numbered—The Prestyn for the couple’s granddaughter, for instance, or The Chapman for Roberta Palermo’s grandparents, who helped settled the Lake Arthur community in the late 1800s. The most popular room, however, is the Bank Room, which contains the original night depository and drive-through window accented with authentic bank accessories such as coin collectors and an old door refashioned as the bed’s headboard.
In the lobby, the front desk resembles an old-fashioned bank window with bars for protection, although the entire piece was reconstructed from cypress posts reclaimed from an 1800s home, explained Bobby Palermo.
Left: L’Banca Albergo is a boutique hotel located in a former Jeff Davis Bank building in Lake Arthur. The second floor was added during the renovations, giving visitors a place to relax on the porch.
So far, the hotel—the first in the area for decades—has become an attraction in itself, Palermo said. Visitors have ranged from hunters enjoying duck season to international guests perusing Louisiana’s back roads and stumbling upon the accommodations.
“We had an African prince stay here about three times,” Palermo said. “He loves it.”
Boat and swimming access to Lake Arthur exists at the end of Arthur Avenue, the main drag through town on which most businesses operate, including a couple of bars, gift shops, and the Southern Family Entertainment arcade for teens. There’s a park at the water’s edge, complete with a manmade beach, walking pier, and bandstand. Boats may also tie up alongside the Regatta restaurant for a meal six days a week.
The Regatta is the place to eat, with its cozy fireplaces and vibrant nature photography, plus an oversize deck for outside dining if the weather holds. Naturally the menu focuses on seafood, but also offers steaks and pastas. Be sure and sample the rich duck and andouille gumbo, a local favorite.
Other Lake Arthur restaurants include Nott’s Corner, easy to find due to the giant crawfish out front, and Main Street Desserts & Deli, which serves up a large menu of sandwiches, salads, and delectable sweets. On Sundays, Regatta is open for lunch; otherwise the town closes down. Late weekenders and Monday visitors looking for a meal must drive twenty minutes north to Jennings, to grab a bite at the mini-marts, which cater to sportsmen, or pick up a burger and fries at Pappy’s Drive-in.
For those wanting to get on the water, Muddy Water Rentals, located next to Main Street Desserts & Deli, offers kayaks. Visitors must call ahead during the winter months.
LACASSINE POOL
The Creole Nature Trail, a 180-mile National Scenic Byway that casts a giant lasso around southwest Louisiana, includes a destination at the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge just west of Lake Arthur. To access the most visited spot at the refuge, head west on Louisiana Highway 14, then south on Illinois Plant Road through rice fields dotted with migratory and resident bird life.
At the end of the road lies the Lacassine Pool, a great place to spot alligators, nutria, deer, and a variety of wintering birds. The sixteen thousand-acre wetlands is home to wintering ducks and geese and is one of the largest wintering sites for the pintail duck, which can number around four hundred thousand, according to the refuge’s web site. Because of its location on the Mississippi and Central Flyways, thousands of ducks, geese, and migrating songbirds may be found here in the spring and fall as well.
The best way to enjoy The Pool is to drive the three-mile wildlife loop that’s open daily from dawn to dusk, stopping at the observation tower for a wide view of the marshes. Other creatures to keep an eye out for are black beers, coyotes, mink, otters, and bald eagles.
LORRAIN BRIDGE
One of the state’s oldest wooden bridges lies just outside Hayes, not too far from the Lacassine Pool and well worth a visit. The bridge crosses Lacassine Bayou and is bookended at one end by Lorrain Park with RV and tent sites, showers, and a boat launch.
The site makes for a great picnic adventure if the weather cooperates. Alligators and birds frequent the area, and a trip to the other side leads to bayous and a stretch of live oak trees that’s quite lovely.
Louisiana Tourism guides visitors down West Niblett Road from Highway 99 outside of Welsh, but it’s best to access the bridge and park from Highway 14, then north on Highway 101 to Lorrain Road.
JENNINGS
The closest town to Lake Arthur is Jennings, about twenty minutes north on Highway 26. The parish seat includes a quaint downtown with great antique shops and two unique museums: the W.H. Tupper General Merchandise Museum at 311 North Main Street and the Zigler Museum at 411 Clara.
W.H. Tupper’s store opened in Jennings in 1910. Upon its closing in 1949, Tupper simply locked the doors and left everything as is. When his grandson later revisited the inventory in 1971, he realized that the store and its thousands of items, representing the contents of a typical rural general store from the turn of the century until World War II, would make a great museum. Also located on site are the Louisiana Telephone Pioneer Museum and a collection of prized Coushatta basketry. The Zigler Museum offers the largest private collection of artwork by African-American artist William Tolliver, in addition to more than two hundred works of art.
Other historical buildings in town include the Strand Theatre on Main Street and the Carnegie Library, the latter of which is a delight with its creaking flooring and genealogy collection. Make sure to visit the library’s basement and the unique collection of Jennings resident Lucius Lyman Morse, who traveled the world and brought back artifacts and souvenirs.
Antique lovers will not want to miss the RE Market at 303 North Lake Arthur Avenue, about ten thousand square feet of antique mall housed in the former 7-Up bottling plant. Entrepreneur Nova Barnes has assembled an eclectic collection of antiques and gifts at the Steamer Trunk at 526 North Main Street; and When Pigs Fly antique mall exists about three blocks north.
For lunch, stop at Mike’s Seafood at 919 North Lake Arthur Avenue, the Boudin King at 906 West Division Street, or Evangeline’s sandwich shop on Main, all conveniently located in downtown Jennings.
WELSH
Vickie Ford of Welsh cut hair for a living, but her passion was in creating traditional South Louisiana fig cakes like her grandmother used to make. For years she borrowed friends’ restaurants after hours or rented buildings to bake while she worked as a hairdresser and raised a family.
“For twenty-five years I baked cakes on the weekends and did hair on the weekdays,” Ford said.
A recent college graduate, Ford has just opened The Vraiment Bon Kitchen in the heart of Welsh, a petite bakery that serves up cakes, breads, cobblers, quiche, and dark roast coffee.
“It’s taking me a while but I did it, and I’m having so much fun,” Ford said.
Her specialty is fig cake, based on old recipes from her Houma family. She adds other ingredients to the mix such as pears, sweet potatoes, and pecans and uses locally produced items, such as regionally milled sugar, as much as possible. Other sweet offerings include fig rouxtins (fig and pecan cookies) and froux douxs (nutty fig brownies).
The most interesting item on Ford’s menu was her fruit beer. On the day we visited she had produced a pear and fig “beer” lightly fermented with yeast but not long enough to produce alcohol. The result was something akin to a non-alcoholic cider. We enjoyed iced glasses of beer in rocking chairs that fronted the neighboring park.
Ford does much of her business to order, including shipping cakes, although visitors are welcome to sit outside the café at a long table just for dining. Gift and antique shops exist in the same block and next.
Closer to the Interstate in Welsh is Cajun Tales, a seafood restaurant owned by the town’s mayor that serves up traditional South Louisiana specialties such as gumbo, seafood platters, and poboys, plus a daily special.
BAYOU RUM
One exit west of Welsh on Interstate 10 is the newly opened Louisiana Spirits distillery, where different types of rum are produced from one hundred percent, Louisiana-grown sugarcane and molasses. The distillery opened in 2011 by Lake Charles natives Tim and Trey Litel and Baton Rougean Skip Cortese, all of whom had experience with environmental service companies, entrepreneurship, and marketing distilled spirits. In addition to producing the popular Bayou Silver and Bayou Spiced rums, the company recently introduced its Bayou Satsuma Rum, a more delicate liqueur incorporating Louisiana satsumas.
Distillery tours that showcase the ins and outs of rum production are offered between 10 am and 3 pm weekdays and 10 am until 4 pm Saturdays; but the distillery and gift shop are open from 9:30 am until 5:30 pm Tuesdays through Saturdays.
Heading home, make time to stop at the Jefferson Davis tourist information center at the Louisiana Oil & Gas Park (Exit 64 off I-10) and visit the Gator Chateau to view alligators on display. The center is also a great place to pick up information on the Creole Nature Trail and to obtain a birding list of wintering feathered friends.
Details. Details. Details.
L’Banca Albergo Hotel 233 Arthur Avenue Lake Arthur, La. (337) 774-7249 • labankhotel.com Regatta LA Seafood & Steakhouse 508 Hawkeye Avenue Lake Arthur, La. (337) 774-1504 • regattarestaurantla.com Muddy Water facebook.com/MuddyWaterRentals Lacassine Pool fws.gov/swlarefugecomplex/lacassine Creole Nature Trail creolenaturetrail.org Vraiment Bon 113 South Adams Street Welsh, La. Jefferson Davis Parish Tourist Commission jeffdavis.org
