My friend Steve wanted me to have a look at a PC down at his office in Chalmette, so naturally we went to lunch down in Da Parish as well. While not as well known as Rocky and Carlo's, Bubba John's has been around for over twenty years. Bubba John's looks like a typical neighborhood restaurant, but the food here is far from typical. It's the type of place that people who work in the restaurant business come when they're not at their own places. In fact, there was an article from the paper hanging on the wall about how Chef Paul Prudhomme brought a bunch of chefs from Kansas City a couple of weeks ago.

When we walked in the door, we were greeted by a basket of boiled crawfish and a sign that said "try one." Hey, you don't have to tell me twice. It was a neat gimmick, and I'm sure it sells a lot of crawfish. The bugs were pretty good--spicy and salty. But crawfish weren't on the agenda today. The dining room was just about empty even though it was straight-up noon. St. Bernard neighborhood places aren't big lunch places. Chalmette is a suburban area, where most of the folks who live there either work in town or at one of the plants along the river. Plant workers pretty much bring lunch, so the big meal for restaurants is dinner. For us, this was a refreshing change from the hustle-bustle of the CBD lunch places. A quiet lunch downtown usually means going some place expensive enough that the average downtown worker doesn't bother. Anyway, we sat down and were immediately waited on. We both ordered the same thing, the lunch version of the "Bubba's Special." A Bubba's Special is a sixteen-ounce burger, hand-pressed patty, grilled to order. That's a bit much for most mortals, so for lunch they do an eight-ounce version. It's served with a cup of gumbo for $4.95. Resisting the urge to go back up to the front of the restaurant and grab a few more crawfish out of the "try one" bucket, we chatted until our food got there.

The décor at Bubba John's is Early New Orleans Neighborhood--wooden tables, plain wood chairs, tile floor, pictures of folks and news clippings around the walls. Lest you think that this style of décor is for low-rent places only, remember that Antoine's does the exact same thing in the back dining room. (Galatoire's doesn't hang things up because of the big mirror running the perimeter of the place. I don't know if they would anyway, but it's still a neighborhood place.) There's a second dining room to Bubba John's, separated from the front by one of those accordion-style sliding doors. Throw those two rooms together and you could probably have a fairly decent sized party, banquet or reception there.

The gumbo came up in short order, and it was good. I don't know why (probably because of Prudhomme's picture on the wall), but I expected it to be spicier. It was a pleasant reminder that "Creole" doesn't mean "burn your tongue off." This was a seafood-okra gumbo, where the okra is the thickening agent more so than a roux. The shrimp in this gumbo were especially good. Our burgers were coming out just as we were finishing up the gumbo. They were solid, good ground meat, fresh dressings, and, most importantly, they were cooked and dressed right. In these days of slipshod service at even some better restaurants, this aspect of lunch is becoming more and more significant. Service at the table was good as well. Of course, with only two or three tables in the place occupied, it wasn't hard. Still, our waitress was polite and cheerful, someone you'd look forward to having you serve you another time.

We didn't really linger over the meal that much; both of us had things to do that afternoon. Our waitress sensed this and got us the check right after clearing the table. As we headed out, I chalked up another place to my St. Bernard repertoire. If you get down to Chalmette, don't pass up Bubba John's. Once you've done your obligatory trip to Rocky and Carlo's, let Chalmette show you it isn't a one-restaurant community.