Digging Depeaux

“How was your day?” the woman at Depeaux (303 E. Howard Ave., Decatur, 404-474-2591) asked me.

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I glared at Wayne. “I’ve had better days,” I said.

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“I’m sorry to hear that,” the woman said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Can I do something for you?”

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“Yeah, smack Wayne two or three times with a catfish,” I wanted to say.

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We’d had an argument in the car on our way to this new Louisiana-style restaurant in Decatur’s 115-year-old Georgia Railroad depot. My point is not to air our dirty laundry, but to say that I was genuinely surprised by the woman’s sincerity. The niceness only grew thicker with our server, Jennifer, who was witty and full of good advice about the menu.

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The restaurant is a major undertaking. Some months ago, the Decatur Preservation Alliance spent $250,000 to move the depot 30 feet from its original location. It was last home to the Freight Room, a music club and restaurant forced to close in 1999 because of the deteriorating building. The Freight Room was always fun, and its shabby appearance was part of the charm.

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You’ll hardly recognize the place now. Bill and Kelly Sharkey have spent $700,000 renovating the structure without disturbing its original look. The exterior is particularly pleasant, with walkways, patio and landscaping. The longtime restaurateurs have created a cavernous but warm dining room, as well as a large bar at the other end of the building. (They also reportedly have plans to open another restaurant nearby.)

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I always issue a caveat when I review Cajun and Creole cooking. I find that, just like Southerners and barbecue, nobody ever agrees on what constitutes good Louisiana-style cuisine. Everyone’s an expert, and everyone else is a dumbass.

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We ordered quite a lot of food, most of it tasty and with unusual zing to my palate. We started with three appetizers – a cup of gumbo, some fried “gator bites,” and some red beans and rice. The gumbo combined shrimp with andouille sausage and chicken. I thought its roux was a bit light, and I was surprised, considering the season, not to find any okra in it. (“Gumbo” derives from an African name for okra, “gombo.”) I liked it, but purists will argue that seafood should not be combined with chicken and sausage.

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Let them eat red beans and rice, which was full of oversized chunks of andouille. The gator bites had quite a peppery bite themselves. Wayne ordered them. I’ve never been able to eat alligator without being haunted by the image of Capt. Hook.

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To get a good sampling, we ordered a fried-seafood platter and a crawfish platter. Let me dispense with my only major dislike here: the étouffée, part of the crawfish platter but available separately as an app or entree. It had a strangely fishy taste and a watery, bland sauce. This pained me since étouffée is my favorite Cajun dish.

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Other variations on the crawfish theme were fine, especially the fried one. There was a seafood au gratin that was irresistible despite its Velveeta-like color. A crab-and-crawfish boulette, a hush-puppylike globe of seasoned seafood, tasted like it might have been cooked far ahead of its serving. Hush puppies on the plate were not a letdown.

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Wayne’s platter included fried shrimp, catfish, crawfish, oysters and boulette made with oysters and crawfish. I liked his boulette more. All the seafood was well-done, crispy and juicy. I’m not a huge catfish fan myself – I remember my father telling me to chew up the bones when I was a kid – but Depeaux’s is almost delicate.

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For dessert we split perfect bread pudding with whiskey sauce.

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The menu also includes po’boys and salads.

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Here and there

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