Taste of the South

ARTICLE BY VANELIS RIVERA

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY MOORE CLARK

Terry and Robin LaForge have provided a dining experience that is distinctly Louisiana in taste, feel and service for nearly thirty years.

WHAT STARTED AS AN ACTUAL FOOD shack in 1993 is now a spacious seafood eatery boasting “tail whopping good” food. Terry and husband Robin LaForge purchased a timeworn building that had been a barbecue pitstop 20 years earlier. Along with adding a patio, they painted their new restaurant barnyard red and set up the five tables that would make way for an eager and consistent customer base. Thus far, Cheniere Shack has stood the test of time thanks to the careful and caring attention from Terry and Robin. Not only have they added and expanded over the years, but they have managed to create a space that celebrates the flavors and people of Louisiana. 

“We did corporate America for years,” reveals Terry, who used to work for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation while her husband worked for a tobacco company. “We just decided to move back home and open a restaurant,” she adds. From Shreveport, they traveled back to their hometown West Monroe with the hopes of settling into a slower-paced lifestyle. “It didn’t work that way,” laughs Terry, acknowledging that regardless of their small-scale operations at the time, the restaurant business is a hurried world. As she walked back to the main seating area, Terry pointed out the bones of their former establishment. “The original building was between those two poles,” she says. Light-colored, hardwood booths line the perimeter of the rectangular floor. Light seeps through the windowed walls, stained from the outside with an impressive mural of a bayou scene, complete with a curving waterway, cypress trees, white herons, crawfish, and the occasional floating gator. 

Though they didn’t slow down, the LaForges appreciated no longer having to break their weekly routine with work-related travel and were glad to experience a workweek outside of the tedious 9-to-5 hustle. Back to familiar stomping grounds and with the added freedom of becoming their own bosses, the demanding attention to detail required of restaurant ownership felt more like community service than work. “We thought, if it doesn’t work, we’ll just go back to what we were doing. So you know, we started out small and just grew as we could,” says Terry. 

MUCH LIKE THE INTERIOR OF THE RESTAURANT, THEIR menu has also transformed. “We started out strictly mostly barbecue and burgers. And then we kind of evolved,” says Terry, referring to the inquiries their customers were making concerning their favorite Louisiana seafood staples. The couple happily obliged, and with a few family recipes, they began to add food items to their menu that more closely represent a taste of Louisiana. For Terry, that wasn’t a difficulty, as she grew up learning her way around the kitchen. “I’m just a different generation from you. We all had to cook at home, you know. I just grew up with my mom and grandmother’s cooking. So we just brought the recipes we use at home to the restaurant,” she explains, adding, “Everything here is homemade.” All of the sauces are made from scratch. Their cocktail sauce is from a recipe that belonged to Terry’s “older aunt.” Their 11-ingredient remoulade sauce has been refined by Terry herself, who asserts, “It’s just amazing.” Other popular sauces include their tartar sauce, coleslaw dressing, and cajun ketchup dip. 

The restaurant prides itself in cooking food to order. One of their specialties is on the appetizer menu, fried banana peppers! We have Robin to thank for this crispy, tangy, and satisfying rarity. “We’re gonna try something different,” has been the impetus for most dishes on the menu, such as their half pound hamburger steak. To give this mainstream dish a bit of a twist, Terry decided to add sautéed onions, bell peppers and mushrooms, then top the sizzling vegetables with cheese and gravy. “It’s a little bit surprising,” admits Terry, but the result is a richly flavored classic. On the seafood side, customers can choose platters and combo platters of shrimp (butterflied at the restaurant), oysters, catfish, and stuffed crab. “I like the fried catfish because I think I’d compare ours to anybody,” adds Terry. Seafood is prepared fried, blackened, or grilled. “I think we have some of the best seafood in town hands down…because it’s just freshly prepared and comes to your table.”

Cheniere Shack po’boys are also a hit. The menu specifies they are served on “authentic” Gambino bread, dressed with mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato, and come with fresh cut fries and gravy on the side. Currently serving shrimp, oyster, catfish, blackened chicken, fried chicken, and ham, and any of these traditional Louisiana sandwiches are sure to satisfy your lunch or dinner craving. It’s imperative to leave room for dessert at Cheniere Shack, though the feat seems almost impossible between their burgers, melts, and startling amount of entrees like their chicken fried steak, fried shrimp, fried catfish, red beans and rice with sausage or chicken strips. But no matter how full you find yourself at the end of the meal, don’t leave without purchasing a slice of Terry’s sour cream coconut cake, their number one best seller. Minimally decorated, this four-tiered slice of heaven is the kind of pick-me-up every dessert aspires to be. If you don’t have a taste for coconut, you’re missing out, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a sweet treat you can’t leave with. Their bakery display also contains pecan, chocolate meringue, and chocolate coconut meringue pies. “During the holidays, we do a few more things,” says Terry, who notes that a new addition to the restaurant has been their frozen entree fridge, with single and for-two servings of chicken, sausage, and shrimp gumbo, sweet potato casserole, spaghetti and meatballs, hamburger steaks, red beans and rice with sausage, and chicken and dumplings. 

What began with one grill and a fryer is now a happy rejoinder for those craving Louisiana home cooking and an eating space that conveys a small town feel. Mounted on the walls are parts of Terry and Robin’s distinct personalities and interests. Most impressive are the music album covers. Fleetwood Mac (Robin’s favorite band), ZZ Top, The Beatles, and Terry’s favorite, The Supremes. “I have about all their original albums,” she says. The decorations have even become a talking point among customers who get ideas for albums they want to get and/or reminisce on albums they used to have. In fact, a customer browsing the musical decor noted that the restaurant was one Kiss album away from having the complete collection. “I have that album; I’m gonna bring it to you,” he told Terry. Another customer, hearing Robin bemoan not having Hotel California (1976) by the Eagles, offered a second copy he had. “People have also traded stuff, too. So it’s kind of neat.” Their spacious banquet room, a busy room during Thanksgiving in particular, also features more album covers and music-themed photographs. In the back corner of the restaurant, Robin’s choice of wall furnishings is most prominent. Framing a flat-screen TV, two walls display signed boxing and football memorabilia. “My husband is a big football fan,” Terry emphasizes. Another far corner nods to their daughter’s alma mater Louisiana State University, by way of more football photography.

There’s something about being one of the faces of local dining, especially when you’ve been in business for close to 30 years. “We try to offer a lot more personal service. Most people who come in know me and know my husband,” says Terry, who is grateful for her regular customer-base, people who call her by name and whose to-go orders the servers have memorized.“We’ve been very fortunate in that we’ve had some good wait staff,” she adds.  Between the two, they have put a lot of work into what the Cheniere Shack is now. Robin took on all the remodeling and ended up getting licensed as a commercial contractor based on the renovation work he endeavored to kickstart at the restaurant. “We laugh and say we’re a jack of all trades, master of none,” says Terry. Clearly, this formidable team’s versatility and adeptness have graced Cypress Street with a must-stop dine-in experience that is distinctly Louisiana in taste, feel, and service.

Cheniere Shack is located at 7975 Cypress St, West Monroe, LA 71291. They are open Tuesday through Thursday between 11 AM to 8 PM and Friday through Saturday between 11 AM to 9 PM. Follow them on Facebook for weekly specials and any upcoming seasonal desserts.