Luckily for local food lovers, there are two locations of Bergeron’s Boudin and Cajun Meats in Shreveport-Bossier, and they’re both great in different ways. While the Bossier City location serves some of the best smoked hamburgers to be found in either city, the Shreveport location (7805 East Kings Hwy., Shreveport) has recently become one of my favorite places to grab a quick, delicious lunch. Their daily plate lunch specials, which include gumbo, barbecue chicken, St. Louis-style ribs, and jalapeño cream cheese-stuffed tenderloin, are outrageously good.
For about $10, plate lunches typically include a huge protein (the barbecue chicken served on Wednesdays, for example, includes a full half chicken), two sides, a yeast roll, and a piece of pound cake for dessert. A relatively new dining room welcomes customers to sit down and enjoy their lunch, which is likely to reduce traffic accidents caused by people attempting to eat ribs while driving. Because the menu is limited to a few plate lunch options each day, service is lightning fast. I received my food within a couple of minutes of ordering.
The barbecue chicken is perfect: smokey, juicy, and shellacked with tangy barbecue sauce. The sides are fine, but the dessert – a hunk of “old fashioned” pound cake – is every bit as memorable as the chicken. I’ve never been a fan of pound cake, which strikes me as just about the least decadent dessert imaginable. But this pound cake, which is billed as “old-fashioned,” but was new to me, is like a cross between pound cake and a rich, homemade brownie. It’s really, really good.
There are lots of plate lunch options at Bergeron’s Boudin and Cajun Meats that I haven’t tried – I’d like to try the stuffed ribeye wraps served on Mondays, and the cornbread-stuffed chicken breast on Thursdays. But I don’t know if I’ll ever get to those options, as long as Bergeron’s continues to serve as an illustration of how to correctly smoke chicken, ribs, and burgers. Whatever you end up having for lunch, don’t pass on the pound cake. Life is too short.
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