Johnson's Boucanière — Restaurant in Lafayette

Firsts are unforgettable. There are no expectations. No comparisons. The awesomeness of a first will always be unparalleled. I will probably never have Johnson's smoked meats again, because it is far from where I live my life. There is sadness to that thought, but at the same time this will mean that the sensations I experienced during a singular, never to be repeated visit will be etched perfection in my brain. My first memory is the plainness of the place. Parking next to a local's truck in our rented Dodge Ram (an unplanned fortunate event). A deep grey cloudy sky overhead, following the end of a tornado watch warning. Wet wooden stairs and tables. A simple interior with charming handwritten notes from many visitors. Sodas of varying hues in the refrigerated cases. A middle aged (young side of that) woman in a kerchief with a friendly smile and welcoming manner. Explaining to me in an understanding way that Boudin is a bit different than my German heritage Bloodsausage, and that you can, but don't typically, eat the casing. Sweetly telling me that Boudin is like blood sausage but without the blood. Tough as it is to decide on just one item we order our meal and head to the dry part of the outdoor tables. Soon we receive our mana from heaven. For me it's what turns out to be exquisite, melt in your mouth, smoked chicken, with garlic smoked sausage, just meaty enough, not too fatty, between a (before unknown) fresh Evangeline Maid bun made within the past 24 hours. (It's a thing in South Lafayette) The wonder of the succulent and perfectly balanced flavors stays with me. I'm home now. I had wanted to return the next day to repeat the order, to take it on the plane home. There was not time. And perhaps it's for the best. Because the expectation of perfection might have resulted in disappointment. Instead, I will always cherish Johnson's Boucaniere. (hubby had stuffed grilled cheese with brisket, and that was so good he had seconds, with pulled pork) Headed to Lafayette? Stopping at this slice of...

A great lunch spot if you stick with their Boudin links. The traditional boudin in the casing was the best thing here. Ridiculously good. Very rich, lots of meat filling, and spicy without being hot. The Drew's boudin patty/pulled pork grilled cheese sandwich was a distant 2nd place even though it had no BBQ sauce. A lot of things at this place are pretty dry.

The sides were pretty lacking. I ordered three 4 oz sides ($1.75 ea) and the potato salad was the only one I finished and it was creamy but mostly tasteless, but better than what you could get at the grocery store. The mac and cheese was flat out awful and thrown away after three bites, it was dry to the point of being crusty and was basically macaroni noodles with shredded cheddar thrown on, no sauce, just dry macaroni and cheese. Very uninspiring. The coleslaw was likewise dry and mostly cabbage with no sauce. It could partly be salvaged by putting it inside the Drew's grilled cheese but by itself was just too bland and not enjoyable.

6 ft rule here is very awkward, nobody knows what to do and the staff seems to be trained to be afraid of other people. I get the whole pandemic thing, but your phone carries more germs than a person breathing 5 feet away with a mask on. There's city mandates that you have to follow as a business because you're required to - and then there are businesses that fear monger and take it to another level unnecessarily and I got a bit of that vibe with this joint.

I hate giving this place only three stars as the Boudin was very good, but there were some glaring flaws in my experience....

The grey haired guy with the man bun was so rude to me and my daughter from the time we arrived. He looked at us as if he was trying to figure out why we were there. He never spoke to us, just stared as he pretended to be busy, even though at that moment we were the only customers inside the store. 10 minutes later when two male customers arrived in the store, he took our ticket order (we were already waited on by a wonderful young woman who gave us exceptional customer service) to rush me pay so I would leave the counter to make room for the male customers that looked like him. The other customers were patiently waiting their turn and trying to decide what they wanted, they were cool. I told him that he can serve the other customers and that the young lady is helping us. He shot me a dirty look, still never speaking to me. And walked away from us indigent towards the other customers, but spoke to them kindly. I'm giving 3 stars because the food we order was good and the young lady who helped us never rushed us and even gave us samples to help us decide what to order. If it was for her and the food I would have given 1 star because that guy...