Abbeville Oyster Bars

Driving through the marshlands and coastal prairies of rural south Louisiana, travelers can usually spot an area's culinary specialty about a mile outside the city limits. Passing the swampside town of Breaux Bridge, you learn that the town has claimed the title "Crawfish Capital of the World." Further down Interstate 10, the prairie city of Crowley pronounces its dominion over all other mill towns as the "Rice Capital of America." In Acadia Parish, you see billboards proclaiming Rayne, Louisiana as the hotly-contested "Frog Capital of the World."

Unlike other towns in the region, Abbeville doesn't seem to brag much. The town of about 11,000 hosts two annual celebrations -- the Louisiana Cattle Festival the first week of October and a Giant Omelette Celebration a month later -- but doesn't claim to be the world capital of either. It's the home of Steen's Cane Syrup and a working rice mill blocks from one of the town's two historic town squares. For decades, Abbeville's claim to local fame has been its restaurant culture -- specifically its oyster bars.

Changes in the Shell Game
If you live in New Orleans, you might trek across town for a dozen on the half shell, but in Acadiana, oyster lovers drive to the Vermilion Parish seat whenever they're hit with a powerful craving for fat, salty bivalves. Since sometime around the Great Depression, Abbeville has been home to at least southwest Louisiana's famed oyster restaurants, dynastic operations that inspire loyalty and fond memories for generations of Acadiana residents.

For decades, the Abbeville oyster scene consisted of two local institutions -- Dupuy's Oyster Shop and Black's Oyster House -- located about half a block from each other and a stone's throw from the slow-moving Vermilion River. Then in 1995 a third seafood house, Shucks, opened up a half-mile away, increasing the options for oyster-slurping locals and hungry pilgrims alike.

But a few months ago, a significant but subtle change came to the Abbeville oyster scene. Bryan Borque, the second generation owner of Black's, sold the restaurant to local chef Michael Frederick, ending his family's thirty-seven year run in the local oyster bar business. At the time of the sale, Black's was the oldest single-family oyster dynasty, a title which then passed to Shucks, until then considered the "new kid on the block."

The changes at Black's reflect a larger change in the Abbeville's resturant scene. The current owners of city's two oldest oyster houses represent a new generation in the business - both are in their early thirties and don't hesitate to assume the title of "chef" rather than "cook." Sautéed shrimp quesdillas and broiled tuna dishes are showing up on menus formerly dominated by bare-bones seafood options -- raw, fried or stewed.

Dupuy's Oyster Shop
108 South Main St.
Abbeville LA 70510
337.893-2336
Open lunch and dinner Mon. and Wed-Fri.
Dinner only Saturday
Lunch only Sunday

When Joseph Dupuy first started harvesting oysters from the Gulf, the round trip from Abbeville to the Gulf required patience and a whole lot of upper body strength. Throughout the late 1800s, Dupuy would take his boat out to the tonging grounds at Diamond Reef, following the current on the way out and poling his way upriver with a full load of heavy oyster shells. In the days before motor power, the trip would take the better part of a week, and Dupuy would sell his rocky cargo at his store near the bridge in Abbeville.

His son Ferdinand Dupuy took over the business in 1928, transporting the shellfish by truck and serving oysters on the half shell for five cents a dozen. During the Depression, every fresh shipment drew crowds downtown.

The white clapboard building where the Dupuys peddled their wares is the current home of Dupuy's Oyster Shop, the oyster bar in the city. With about twenty tables, the cozy dining room has all the hallmarks of a modern family-run Louisiana restaurant -- no-nonsense vinyl tablecloths, 50s-era cigarette machine in the corner, rustic pirogue replica hanging on the wall.

Thought the building and name have stayed in the family since Joseph worked the reefs, the restaurant acted the seed bed for the other Abbeville seafood restaurants. After Ferdinand's only son Roland took his turn running the show, a local named Wilton Bourque took the helm for a spell and eventually bought a competing oyster bar and opened it under his own nickname -- Black's. From the mid-1970s until the mid-90s, Dupuy's operations were run by the family who would eventually open Shucks.

The current owners, Jody and Tonya Hebert, bought the building from Roland Dupuy in 2000 and represent a new generation at Dupuy's. Their comparitively ambitious menu shows more complex contemporary influences among the Cajun country seafood classics.

"When we took over, all they had was oysters, fried seafood and a few soups," says chef Jody Hebert, "and we added the grilled and pan-fried dishes, soft shell crabs, pasta entrees. We added dinners to the poboys and platters and people really like that.

The updated presentations include a béchamel-bound crab cake topped with a crawfish/tomato cream sauce and an oyster sampler plate featuring grilled and Rockefeller variations. For a more traditional meal, it's hard to beat a dozen raw oysters and nutty, dark-roux crawfish etouffee.