Cajun Dave’s in Kent’s Water Street Tavern isn’t a typical college-town eatery. It’s better than that — a little taste of Southern-style comfort foods right here in Northeast Ohio.
It’s an unspoken rule that most college restaurants serve low-quality, cheap food in mass quantities, hoping to score customers via outrageous marketing campaigns. Cheap, fast and stylish: That’s what customers expect from restaurants near universities. And for many students, the bar is set so low that anything tastier than ramen noodles is orgasmic.
Cajun Dave’s is different. It’s like chef Brian Bower took the college-dining rulebook, doused it in gasoline and lit it ablaze. Even better, he’s taking that fire and dishing up some of the best Southern-inspired food I’ve eaten — and I lived in the Carolinas for years.
Bower uses all-natural, often locally grown ingredients to bring iconic Southern flavors to Northeast Ohio, including pulled pork, grits, jambalaya and gumbo. Even the menu items that seem to fall into the “bar bites” category are re-invented: They’re pub grub for a new, more sophisticated breed of bar-goers.
For instance, the sweet-potato chips. The chips are thinly sliced and topped with a portion of crumbled blue cheese, chives and a homemade balsamic reduction. The dish is a clever play on nachos — nachos with a PhD., if you will. The subtle sweetness of the balsamic is a great contrast to the sharpness of the blue cheese. It’s a wonderful ensemble of tastes.
But there’s more.
If a sandwich is more your style, don’t worry. The Cajun feel permeates deep into the sandwich menu, with selections like New Orleans-style po-boys, barbecue pork and blackened mahi-mahi soft tacos. Most sandwich selections come with homemade fries. Burgers are also available, made to order and topped with anything you can possibly want.
And finally, the entrees. Here’s where Cajun Dave’s shines. Many Northerners are a bit hesitant about ordering grits, because they’ve never had grits done right. Eating Cajun Dave’s shrimp and grits is like receiving a hug from a long-lost Southern grandmother. The grits are creamy-smooth and smothered with cheddar cheese, andouille sausage and sautéed shrimp.
The South is often defined by its food. Eating at a Southern dinner table isn’t about eating; it’s about the culture of a meal, to be enjoyed with friends and family. It’s what we Northerners refer to as “Southern hospitality.” Cajun Dave’s is a manifestation of the Southern ideal. Though it serves gourmet food, Cajun Dave’s doesn’t squelch conversation with a stuffy and inaccessible atmosphere. You talk directly to the people making your food.
That’s the pure genius of the place. The very act of ordering your meal from the person preparing your food is something that’s often lost in today’s restaurant industry. The system of waiters, waitresses, expediters and hostesses necessarily separates the customer from the kitchen — and according to the code of Southern hospitality, that’s near blasphemous.
