Now that it's finally warming up, Ferndale restaurants are setting up their outdoor seating. At Howe's Bayou, owner Michael Hennes is looking forward to another summer of serving New Orleans-inspired cuisine.
How'd you get into the restaurant business?
I've been in and out of the restaurant business since high school. I started out as a pot scrubber, but I like being out around people, so I moved up to busboy as quick as I could. And I'm still a pretty good one. I've worked at so many places. ... This was originally owned by Tom from Tom's Oyster Bar, and I went to work for him with the idea of learning the management business to get my own place. I was falling in love with it when Tom decided he wanted to concentrate on the oyster bars, so he sold it to me.
Have you been to New Orleans?
Yeah, once I got involved with Tom, I went down there on my own to research it. ... It never completely lost contact with the 18th, 19th centuries, that Cajun, Creole feel.
Did you change the menu when you got back?
It helped me refine some of the food, refocused it a little. Someone asked me the other day: "I know you have New Orleans food, but do you have American food?" People have the perception that it's all spice and heat, and it's not. New Orleans food has so many elements. It gives you a broad palate. You can go French, Spanish, even Caribbean.
What do you recommend?
I would start with the gumbo or the crawfish bisque. We get some crawfish from the gulf but mostly from farms. ... You do it in rice paddies after you harvest the rice. The crawfish come in and clean everything up in the paddies, then you harvest them and plant the rice. Another specialty is short ribs. Traditionally, people who lived in the country wouldn't get the best cuts of meat, so you have to cook them all day to tenderize them.
What else do you have?
Chicken, fish, steak, seafood. Lake perch, which isn't traditional New Orleans, but it's such a great fish. We cure our own salmon. I used to tell people that everything except the salmon and sausage was made in-house, then I thought: Why can't we do salmon? It's brined and wrapped for a couple of days to take on the flavor of the liquid and spices. You can add vodka or brandy. ... I'm not getting into making sausage -- too much mess.
