Food, Art, And Fire

2025 was a year I checked three things off the bucket list: the Kentucky Derby in May, Lake Tahoe and a return to Napa in August, and the Christmas Eve bonfires on the levee just down the road in the River Parishes. In the past two years, Tom and I went to see the “masterpiece” as I called it, but we couldn’t stay to see any bonfires lit. This year I was determined to see it through.

The “masterpiece” is the one built right near the water tower at Edgard, though the town of Edgard is across the river from the bonfire side. This star of the bonfires became a masterpiece about ten years ago, I’m told. I spoke to the guys who craft it, and they told me that they grew up in the same neighborhood, making structures for bonfires every year. The first really special one was the Edgard bank building, and then they moved on to wildlife.

I came into this adventure when they did the alligator, which was so intricate and detailed it was jaw dropping. That was followed last year by the deer which was majestic and so large I again could’t believe the craftsmanship. This year it was a family of Mallard ducks.Then producer of The Food Show Patty explained that they can’t even start building these structures until after Thanksgiving, and that started sort of an obsession with me. I had to go see this all the way through, including following the road to see how far these went. Conveniently, we did not have a show on Christmas Eve, so I started early in the afternoon, wanting to catch a meal somewhere. 

There is a place in St Rose that has been on my radar for a while called Boudreaux’s River Road Cafe. I became interested in it when it was Truck Farm Tavern. I remembered it as a really cute place in LaPlace I would never have stumbled on had Tom and I not been driving to Manresa. Then Patty told me that the people who own Frenier’s Landing in LaPlace owned it. That made me even more curious. Frenier’s Landing has many adherents but I am not one of them. The place is very interesting and is in the strangest location. But the food was ordinary. I don’t remember it beyond that. My expectations for Boudreau:s went down when Patty told me about its owners from Frenier’s. I still wanted to visit the place again to see what had replaced Truck Farm Tavern. 

Boudreaux's closed at 2 on Christmas Eve, and I arrived 15 minutes before that. I felt bad about that but just couldn’t make it much before then. There was one table filled inside and the bartender told me they were closing and she couldn’t seat me, but I could pick up food. She said I had to check first with her to see if the kitchen would do it. We picked out a few things on the menu that were approved and I asked her if I could sit outside on one of the back picnic tables. I don't remember the area in the back looking like that when it was Truck Farm Tavern. It was more of a parking lot back there, but this is now a beautiful entertainment space. 

At first she told me I couldn’t stay and eat because they were all leaving. But then she told me I could sit back there because the table filled with the group that arrived before me had just received their food. By this time I had already decided to sit on a bench out front in the sunshine watching the traffic on River Road grow as the bonfire phenom got closer.

Good thing I didn’t drive off because she came out while I was eating with my credit card. I almost never do that and this was the last place anyone should do that. The River Parishes are the Boonies to me, and a full tank of gas is a good idea, especially when one will be inching along in the dark after the bonfire carnival begins.

The food from Boudreaux’s looked great, at first. I got a barbecue plate with potato salad, an oyster poor boy and crab bites as an appetizer. The barbecue looked suspicious, with grill marks instead of a smoke ring. The brisket was obviously not cooked long enough. It should have been far more tender. It had that elastic quality brisket can have if not cooked long enough, or with enough finesse.

I ordered potato salad with this because I’ve sworn off ordinary frozen fries. The potato salad was so creamy there was no definition of ingredients and a texture I find off-putting.  There were no redeeming qualities to this.

I still wound up with fries because they came with the oyster poor boy. As frozen fries go, lightly battered and a little crispy, they weren’t too bad. It was the oysters that caught my attention. They were enormous at first glance. Golden brown and greaseless, I got excited to see these. But when I bit into one, there was a shell around the oyster, which was tiny. This was the first and only time I have encountered this. They looked great on the outside, but were a hard crispy shell encasing the tiny oyster, completely separating from the protein. Weird. I wondered if the oysters had already been fried and because they were so close to closing they just used ones already done? The rest of the sandwich was nice.

The best thing about this meal was the appetizer bites. They were small and nicely breaded, deep-fried and soft inside. They were a little like arancini, with a bit of melted cheese inside.

While the food was not impressive, I want to think that it was because of the circumstances of my late arrival. All the food that went to the other table looked promising. It was all fried seafood. I would return again, if for no other reason because the environment is so nice.

The bartender explained that it was for a long time some other named tavern, then it became Truck Farm Tavern. That lasted a few years before Ida closed it. It came back as Truck Farm Tavern again but lasted only one year. The Frenier’s Landing owner has owned the building a long time. They decided to just put their own restaurant in it, and Boudreaux’s River Road Cafe arrived.

As I left I collected my thoughts on this outpost in the middle of nowhere.There is very little else out there, so that makes it even a little more appealing than it maybe otherwise would be, but it’s a cool place regardless. 

I drove down the road and around the area as I waited for things to crank up for the evening. As I drove I remembered I didn’t do the St, Joseph walk at Manresa this year. Tom and I have been doing this for about five years, and I decided since I was in the “neighborhood” I would. It also gave me a chance to see just how far the bonfires went. And I got to explore the river part of the walk, something I couldn’t do with Tom.

It’s quite beautiful there, and the river bends in a way that makes it quite accessible, though for what purpose I can't imagine. It’s lovely though, and it was quite busy there with people stopping to see the Nativity scene.

By the time I left dusk was approaching and activity was ramping up. Paulina was particularly hopping. When I return to hang out here it will be in Paulina. Lots of bonfires and people, food trucks, and electricity in the air. Kids and grownups sliding on cardboard down the levee, people preparing their structures for burning.

It was driving through Paulina that I formulated a game plan of the right way to do this. You get a group together and have a truckload of food and chairs and set up a camp someplace like Paulina (a four wheeler would be helpful for traveling around these parts) and sit back and walk around and talk to people and soak up this unique cultural experience.

I managed to inch my way back to the masterpiece installation for the scheduled time. Crowds had begun to gather, and it became like a carnival. The creators of the masterpiece were busy taking pictures in front of it with their families and all those who had worked on it. A floodlight illuminated it all, giving a different perspective on the art. To not get a very close view of this Mallard pair and their duckling was to miss the intricate work here. There were pieces of driftwood in back and such detail it made me want to study pictures of these creatures. By 6pm a crowd had gathered and there were things being thrown, like tee-shirts and glow sticks. Every phone was up filming the scene. People had found their way here from all over, and I mean far away. I was asked questions by people from Europe. Too bad I didn’t have the answers.

The creators from the Blood, Sweat, and Bonfires group were pouring something on the ducks. This made me a tinge sad, but its time had come. I was not expecting what came at 7. They put a torch to the female duck first and at the same time a fireworks display started that was intimidating. It came from behind the levee but was so powerful I left. It was deafening and so intense it felt like I was right at a professional display that is usually separated from a large crowd by a lot more space than this.

It didn’t take long for the male duck to catch fire, and it seemed like it might be over fairly quickly. I headed east to get home sooner, before the traffic became impossible. Most of the fires were west of  the ducks, but I was pleasantly surprised to see enough of these smaller structures burning on my way east that I felt like I had seen something. It would be nice to just accept the traffic and inch along the 25 mile stretch to see them all.

All of this adds up to an interesting cultural phenomenon. It’s a testament to human ingenuity, timeless values of camaraderie, teamwork, and the methodical and meticulous completion of a task. Definitely worth the trouble to see it. Just bring your own food.