Blue Dog Cafe - Lafayette, LA

One of the last stops on our weekend tour of Lafayette was the Blue Dog Cafe for brunch. Some of you may already know that brunch is my favorite meal of the week. The Dining Companion is not as big a fan as I am but he let's me drag him off to brunch on the occasional Sunday.

The Blue Dog (art, not cafe) is the creation of George Rodrigue, a Louisiana artist. As you can imagine with the name, his art is featured in the cafe. I'm a huge fan of the late Mr. Rodrigue and the art displayed around the restaurant is a big plus for me.

One of my favorite Blue Dog paintings

Let's face it, the art is great but we were there for the food. That didn't disappoint either. Brunch was a mix of standards and some Cajun specialties. There were bagels and lox, salads, eggs and bacon. Also a carving station with roast beef and a nice dessert table.

Carving station and breakfast standards

For me, where brunch really shined, was the non-standard offerings. It's hard to see my stuffed plate clearly but this is what I had...

From the top clockwise: Cornbread dressing, Shrimp Etouffee, Crab Cake Benedict, Sweet potato bake, roast beef with horseradish sauce, sauteed veggies and somewhere in the center, Smothered Cabbage

This was by far my favorite dish of the day, grillades with cheese grits. (notice it got its own plate) Grillades are medallions of beef (pork) dredged in flour and sauteed. They are then covered in a flavorful gravy made with tomatoes. Although all of the  grillades I've ever had were made with beef these were made with pork and were fantastic.

Cheese grits & pork grillades

 Desserts rounded things out. Of all of the items I had these were the least exciting. I expected more from the Banana Pudding but it was a little bland. The bread pudding and chocolate pudding were pretty tasty.

All in all brunch at the Blue Dog Cafe was a big hit. Once again Lafayette delivers on its promise of being one of the south's best food cities.

There were a few places on my list that I didn't get to. They were closed over the holiday weekend which caused much sadness on my part. Needless to say I'm working on a plan to get back there and remedy this injustice. Also, I would like to pay a visit to a couple of the local attractions, most notably the Acadian Village.

That wraps up this trip to Southern Louisiana. Next stop: more BBQ!

As always,

Happy travels!