Gumbo weather at Magpie Café

There’s a stretch of businesses around the Perkins Road overpass that has the area buzzing. It’s a community within a community, thanks to its range of cuisines and everyday shopping stores. Among those stops is Magpie Café, a local coffee shop and café that is fixated on local, seasonal and organic ingredients as well as third-wave coffee.

James and Lina Jacobs opened Magpie in May 2012. And while the coffee and select soups and sandwiches have quickly become popular, it’s the Jacobs’ shrimp, crabmeat and okra gumbo that also has customers coming back in droves.

James says the gumbo isn’t available every day in the café, but he tries to time it with the weather. James says a small batch will be ready this Friday for the cold weather on the way.

The Bogalusa native says Magpie’s gumbo has an especially dark roux and a not-so-secret ingredient—a little bit of espresso, which is what James calls “a little calling card.”

Before James got to Baton Rouge, he wasn’t what you would consider a big gumbo eater. However, he has perfected his batch with a range of hearty ingredients.

“I became a gumbo fan here and learned how to cook it myself,” he says. “We like to use large, lump crabmeat and add some of the claw meat in there as well. We also use pretty large shrimp. When we make it, we’re [focused on] freshness and quality.”

For more information on Magpie Café, click here.