This Cajun restaurant is bringing 100-year-old recipes to downtown Biloxi
Two friends combined the look of a fish camp with Cajun family recipes to bring a taste of Louisiana to their new Parrain’s Jambalaya Kitchen in downtown Biloxi.
They had lost touch for 40 years, but now have joined their skills to open the restaurant at 179 Reynoir St., diagonally across from the Saenger Theatre.
While the restoration of the Saenger and the revitalization of Howard Avenue will take awhile, Mike Alise said he expects downtown development to drive business.
Transforming the empty building into their restaurant took a lot of work, he said. Co-owner Marlen Babin fashioned tables out of pallet wood, the same as he used to panel the walls. They turned jambayala pots into sinks for the restrooms.
More dining space was added outside, and they plan to show movies on the deck in warmer weather. The friends also plan to branch out, possibly opening a second location in Gulfport.
Alise stirs up chicken and sausage gumbo in 30-gallon pots.
Babin makes chicken or pork and sausage jambayala and also pastalaya, using noodles instead of rice.
Chef Daniel Landry adds to the one-page menu, and reading down the list draws from Alise like “That’s so good” and “It’s amazing.”
Crawfish Etouffee, hog head cheese, fried boudin balls, boudin eggroll and boudin po-boys with or without crawfish are on the list.
It’s Cajun
It’s not health food, and it’s not too spicy. Instead of pouring on the hot sauce, their food is well seasoned like all authentic Cajun cooking, Babin said.
The stuffed po-boys with fried bread come filled with shrimp, catfish, boudin and even crawfish etouffe. The cracklins are real. The “Not Your Mama’s Potato Salad,” made with potatoes cooked in crab boil, and other sides are priced low and plentiful.
Most of the entrees are under $10, the sides run $1.49 and desserts are priced below $4.
The restaurant is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and customers come in for a traditional egg plate, a Big Bayou Breakfast or sweet and savory blueberry maple syrup sausage beignets.
Parrain’s beignets, as flaky as those people wait in line for hours to buy in New Orleans, also are used to make their white chocolate bread pudding.
“All our recipes are probably 100 years old,” Babin said. One of the favorite is Maggie’s Gourmet Pecan Pie that his grandmother concocted for his grandfather, who Babin said didn’t have any teeth. She started with a graham cracker crust, powdered the pecans and put them in the batter. The result, he said, is solid pecans Instead of gel in the middle.
Shared food heritage
Alise owns Gulf Coast Produce Distributors in downtown Biloxi and Fat Baby & Alise’s on Popp’s Ferry Road with his wife, Christi Alise.
Babbin, who owns Anytime Fitness in D’Iberville, was at the gym when the Alises walked in to join.
The two men who grew up in Gonzales, Louisiana, and went to school together 40 years ago didn’t recognize each other. But soon they discovered their shared heritage and decided to open the restaurant together.
In addition to table service, they offer delivery through Waitr, Door Dash and Uber Eats along with catering.
Even before opening their restaurant, they cooked for the Biloxi Police Department the day after the shooting of officer Robert McKeithen, at the Thunderbirds show over Biloxi, for Cruisin’ The Coast and for the Biloxi Cemetery Tour, where they served 400 plates before they ran out.
“The people loved it,” Alise said.
“We bring Louisiana food to the Coast,” Babin said.
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
