Bayou Teche Brewing — Restaurant in Breaux Bridge

Cajun Saucer Pizza is the restaurant that adjoins Bayou Teche Brewery. Its name is apt. The Brewery’s remoteness would make it a great location for saucers of the flying sort, abductions and all the accompanying probings. As my associate and I proceeding North from Interstate 10, we became increasingly worried as signs of civilization waned. Even the Dollar Generals, which commonly average 1 per 500 ft, began to peter out. After what seemed an eternity, we had resigned ourselves to fate, but just then, the beautiful oasis that is Bayou Teche Brewery appeared. It is a large steel warehouse building, painted with elaborate and wonderfully bizarre murals, with a big welcoming gravel parking lot in front. We felt joy akin to castaways who had finally reached dry land after weeks at sea. No more eating our shipmates and drinking saltwater, it’s time for beer! In truth, the brewery is just south of the small town of Arnaudville, but when heading from the South, as most visitors are apt to do, it does feel like you are heading into a rural abyss. Fortunately, this brewery proved well worth the 9-mile detour.

The brewery has a good setup. On the outside there is a large, graveled seating area where you can sit and carouse with friends. Upon entry, you’ll land in the restaurant, Cajun Saucer Pizza. Nice, cool, and clean with lots of tables and delightfully bizarre artwork adorning the walls. There were two recalcitrant claw machines near the door. After plying them with quarters, they refused to give up cough up their prizes, so they are on my poop list. My associate and I sampled the food of course. The pizza was excellent and the boudin egg rolls were even better. The staff proved friendly and personable.

The taproom is adjacent to the restaurant through a small entrance. It is a bit of a windowless cave. Morlocks would appreciate this space. I’d like to see them knock down the wall between the taproom and restaurant and let the bright light of day shine on us beer drinkers. In reality, you can just walk 15 or 20 steps and bring your beer to your table… but still! I caught a glimpse of a vast array of stainless-steel machinery through the window of an entrance door. So, I did confirm the existence of the brewery. But I’d like to see the brewery more on display. A full viewing platform would be preferred so I can sip my IPA and knowingly gaze upon the machinery. In actuality, I’d have no clue what I was looking at, but I like process of appearing to know, like a Cliff Clavin of breweries.

I sampled the Swamp Thing IPA and my French Acadian associate sampled the Acadie French Farmhouse Ale. Both were confirmed to be delicious, especially in combination with pizza and boudin egg rolls.

An unforeseen accoutrement of this establishment is the substantial arcade that occupies about half the bat cave like taproom. Having a big handful of quarters left in the center console from a previous expedition, I felt Fortuna had ordained this meeting. They’ve got a few new/expensive machines in there, including at least a couple nice pinball machines. All proved receptive to my practiced hands and were thoroughly enjoyable.

The swag nook was just adequate, perhaps an example of unrealized talent, like myself. The brewery hosts so much wonderful art, from the walls to the beer labels. I’d love to see more of this translated into t-shirt and tin tacker form. Hell, I’d even love a Cajun Saucer Pizza shirt. My associate selected the “Cajun AF” shirt, because, well, she’s Cajun. Later we had to inform our 8 year old street urchin that AF stood for Atchafalaya, because, well, the brewery is adjacent to the Atchafalaya Basin.

All in all, Bayou Teche Brewery is a good example of what happens when someone goes all in and follows their dreams to the max. The owner(s) of this brewery are bold, but results don’t lie, I had a great time and...

This was our first visit to Bayou Teche. They have a large variety of beers on tap, and the music is awesome. The tour was fun and interesting. The machinery involved in the brewing was impressive. There's a lot of seating inside for sticky or cold days, but the real draw is the outside set-up. There are tables and picnic tables under large trees, which mostly protected us from the light rain that fell frequently. There were a lot of people there, many obviously local, and they were very friendly. Teche Brewery is kid and dog friendly, which I love. There was a snowball stand selling nachos and other snacks besides snowballs. The only fly in the ointment was a young barmaid (or bartender or whatever she calls herself) with long black hair, high-heeled boots, and a whole lot of makeup. I don't know what her problem was, but she wasn't happy. We brought in a Groupon deal for 2 flights of beer and 4 souvenir glasses. She actually made a face at us when we handed it to her. We tipped well on it, and on all the additional beer we bought, but her mood didn't improve, and her quietly hostile demeanor made us very uncomfortable. Eventually, we decided to stay out of the taproom and just enjoy the music. She came close to ruining the day for us, which I didn't appreciate, especially considering we'd traveled a good ways to get to there. We'll probably return for the music and outside atmosphere, but we'll know what to expect from...

Any expectations we had for this Harvest Host site were exceeded way beyond our dreams. I called 2 days prior and was told to arrive early if possible as there was a Mardi Gras party planned with a live band and they expected a large crowd. We arrived at around 11am and the parking lot was open with only a few cars. We checked in with the staff and they told us to park anywhere I wanted and even offered a nice secondary parking lot next to the main lot. We set up on level gravel near the road and then had the time of our life enjoying the handmade cajun pizza and over 20 hand crafted beers as we danced the night away. The parking lot did fill up and we were glad we'd arrived early. However, there still would have been room in the secondary lot. Words can not express our gratitude to this host for a most wonderful time. I highly recommend this Harvest Host site and if there is a planned event, try to get there early and you will not be disappointed.Be aware the six or 8 miles of road from the main freeway is really bumpy and 40 mile an...