Crystal Wise
When Phil Tullis opened THE Cajun Market last year, in a former farmers market building on Highway 26 in Colleyville, he wanted to recreate the sights and smells of something he says he misses dearly: home.
Home for Tullis is Houma, Louisiana, a small town in the Acadiana region of southern Louisiana. By all indications, his goal to recreate a restaurant that echoes the upbeat atmosphere and authentic Cajun fare he grew up on has been an unmitigated success.
By the time we arrived on a recent Saturday afternoon, a lively crowd had already gathered. It was one of the first days Phil and co-owner wife Debbie were hosting crawfish boils.
Brought in fresh from various crawfish shacks scattered throughout Acadiana and the Atchafalaya Basin of Louisiana, mudbugs are Phil and Debbie’s signature item.
“An authentic Louisiana crawfish boil is a lot different than what most restaurants here call crawfish boils,” Phil says. “We boil the crawfish in a very specific way: They’re boiled first, then soaked in seasoned water. That’s the best way to season them. Most places here boil them quickly, then throw on the seasoning. The way we cook them is true to how they’re prepared in Louisiana.”
Many of Phil and Debbie’s cooking techniques, as well as their recipes, are deeply embedded in Louisiana traditions. Some of their recipes, Phil says, date back 100 years.
“The gumbo recipe has been in my family for at least 100 years, maybe even longer,” he says.
During our visit, zydeco music boomed out of speakers while diners yelled their orders to the friendly help behind the counters.
“This is what it’s like to eat in a little bitty place where I’m from,” Phil would say later. “People sitting around, peeling and eating shrimp and crawfish. There’s fun music in the background, and you can smell the food as it’s cooking.”
The dining experience at THE Cajun Market is as fun as it is bare-bones: You order at the counter, then wait for your name to be called and your food to be delivered to your table.
You can either wait at communal picnic tables, snacking on cracklings, or peruse the shelves for Cajun food cooking products. One unique aspect to THE Cajun Market is that it is, in fact, a market. Next to the cooking supplies is a cooler filled with frozen or refrigerated dishes ready to roll, all cooked in house, including chicken-sausage gumbo, pork chops stuffed with sausage, and crawfish etouffee.
“One thing I wanted to do here is take care of the to-go people,” Phil says. “Not everybody wants to sit in a restaurant these days. If you don’t want to, all you’ve got to do is come in and grab something frozen to go, and you can throw it in the oven or microwave whenever you want.”
Most of what’s on THE Cajun Market’s menu comes directly from Louisiana, from the crawfish to the bread for the terrific po’boy sandwiches to the shrimp, oysters, and frog legs.
“You cannot fool someone from Louisiana,” Phil says, laughing. “They know what Louisiana cooking tastes like. They know exactly how frog legs should taste, how jambalaya should taste. And that’s what I hear from Louisiana natives who come here: ‘This tastes just like the food I grew up on, the food I had at home.’ There’s not a better compliment in the world.”
THE Cajun Market 5409 Colleyville Blvd. thecajunmarket.com
