Baton Rouge-based writer and musician Alex V. Cook has made under-the-radar places the subject of much of his writing, shown in his last book, Louisiana Saturday Night, about the state’s declining juke joint culture.
Now in Seat Yourself, The Best of South Louisiana’s Local Diners, Lunch Houses and Roadside Stops—out this month from LSU Press—Cook takes readers on a compelling tour of eateries located roughly along I-10. Some are familiar, but many have likely escaped your notice. All of them, Cook argues, are culturally expressive and worth experiencing.
I met up with Cook at one of the book’s 10 greater Baton Rouge subjects, Lindsey’s Diner. At the 16-year-old soul food restaurant on North Acadian Thruway and Choctaw Drive, we ordered meat-and-two specials from a compact and unassuming hot food line. I got the turkey necks with greens and candied yams. Cook ordered the same, along with the oxtails, and we headed to vinyl tablecloth-topped booths with food-filled Styrofoam boxes in hand.
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Owner Gladys Lockett’s fare of turkey necks in gravy over rice was somehow both hardy and delicate. The greens were punchy and fresh, and the yams went down like holiday dessert.
“So many people I know have ridden by here but never thought to go in,” Cook says. In the book, he muses on one of Lindsey’s notable—and intimidating—Friday specials, chitterlings.
Fresh air blew through the open front door as we talked about Cook’s selection process and what dishes still make him drool.
Where did the idea come from to do a book in this format, which combines personal narrative, cultural reporting and practical recommendations on what to order?
A few of them started off as articles, but the project was really a separate entity. I was interested in places where you could eat for under $15 and that spoke something about the people who ate there. I wanted those places that you ride by all the time, but might not go in, and also places that someone says, “Hey, you gotta try this.” That’s the kind of food experience I was looking for. This isn’t about special-occasion restaurants.
I loved your reference in the preface to the now-closed LSU-area soul food restaurant The Silver Moon Café. Do you feel like other divey spots are in peril of closing?
Yeah, and I think it’s important to support them. That’s actually why I wrote the book on juke joints, to find these places that are worth exploring in their own context, and this is the same format.
For readers who want to check out the places you’ve featured, where would you recommend they start first?
Start with the one that’s closest to you. And push yourself to try places that you might drive by, but not actually see. Eat where you are. There’s so much great stuff in south Louisiana.
You’ve included some great roast beef po-boy intel in the book.
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That’s a really authentic New Orleans food experience. You ask people what they think New Orleans cuisine is, and they come back with a very curated idea of it. Boiled crawfish is not New Orleans food, but cooked-down roast beef on a po-boy, where a little meat goes a long way, is.
Did you leave any spots on the table? Anything you didn’t have time to put in the book?
Oh yeah, plenty left on the table. But part of the fun is hearing from people who tell you what you missed. I love that.