Best of Bite and Booze: 10 Posts You've Viewed the Most

by Sydney Blanchard

Every now and then, in my role as Content Sheriff/Warden of the Web at Bite and Booze, I take a look at our blog stats to see what's working and what could use some tweaking. And the more I look, the more I learn about our audience.

Most of you are viewing our blog from the United States, followed closely by Portugal and then Norway. The majority of you (41 percent) are using Chrome to browse our site. And a large portion of you wind up reading our blog by clicking a link you saw on Facebook.

I'm also able to determine which of our posts are getting the most clicks to see what kind of content you, our audience, like to see on the blog.

From what I gather, y'all love boudin balls, fried food, yummy looking desserts, and women (in booze).

Below, you'll find a list of our top 10 blogs posts of the last year, as told by each post's page views.

Let us know what you'd like to see more or (or less of) in the comments!

1. Lucky Palace: You Either Get It or You Don't 3,128 views

Duck at Lucky Palace in Bossier City

"Here's the thing. Lucky Palace is situated in a seedy part of town within an interstate-side hotel. The parking lot looks like the kind of place where people meet up to buy or sell prescription pain medication. It's poorly lit, and getting to the restaurant requires entering through the yellowing, smoke-smelling hotel lobby. Entering Lucky Palace is akin to entering another dimension. Lucky palace exists in another place and time."

2. All Your Favorite Balls 2,612 views

Baton Rouge's best boudin balls

"We rounded up seven of our favorite balls from across the city, and left the deciding up to one man. Mr. Loup (progenitor of Blair Loup, Bite and Booze's Chief Confusion Coordinator) is a mustachioed, Opelous-born, Sulphur-raised Southern gentleman. Having grown up in "Boudin Country" and being accustomed to eating the best boudin the world has to offer, we felt Mr. Loup would be the perfect person to rank Baton Rouge ball scene. As an extra qualifier, he had never once eaten a Baton Rouge boudin ball before, so his opinion ethically lacked any preconceived notions."

3. Hymel's Classic Cajun Fare 2,407 views

Hymel's sign in Convent, Louisiana

"Recently, Team Bite and Booze had the opportunity to eat at the famous Hymel's in Convent, La., where beverages are served in gigantic fishbowls and seafood is served fried and in heaping quantities. Just about everything we ordered was fried."

4. Treat Yoself: A Sugary Sweet Dessert Roundup 2,160 views

Sour Patch Kid sorbet at Fisher's in Gulf Shores, Alabama

"Much to the horror of my dentist, I love to eat sweets. Gummy, stick-to-your-teeth candies rank the highest for me, followed closely by pastries, cookies, chocolate, and anything else that triggers tooth decay."

5. Fresh Takes on King Cake 2,103 views

Traditional King Cake from Calandro's

"The only time it's acceptable to accidentally bite into a baby, be it plastic or not, is when your slice of King Cake is the hiding space for the small trinket traditionally placed inside the cake."

6. Jay's First Thoughts on Crispy Catch 1,707 views

Surf and turf at Crispy Catch

"First things first: I enjoyed the food. No, it didn't stand out as revolutionary, inventive, or inspired. Then again, I don't believe anybody ever said that it would be."

7. Iverstine Family Farms, Uprooted 1,650 views

A curious pig at Iverstine Family Farms in Kentwood

"There’s a larger call to keeping your local economy booming by supporting people who are circulating their dollars into the local economy," Iverstine said. "Just like our animals work together on the pasture, there is defintiely this produce-consumer symbiotic relationship that has to happen."

8. Pam Sandoz: Professor of Pours 1,534 views

Pam Sandoz, owner of Slinky's

"Many things have changed around LSU’s campus over the years, but some things remain sacred. Slinky’s has held its residence on Chimes Street for 17 years. Home to the Lunch Box drop shot and underwear-ridden rafters, bar owner Pam Sandoz says each item on the walls has a story to tell, and she has more than a few."

9. Mary Lewis: Superintendent of Suds 1,490 views

Mary Lewis, Sales Manager at Mockler Beverage

"If there’s one thing Mary knows, it’s the beer business. Much of what we see as consumers is the boom of craft beers, which is a tiny speck in the universe of beverage distribution."

10. Goin' Up on a Tuesday: Best Tuesday Eats in BR 1,489 views

Fried chicken and greens at Chicken Shack

"If you're like me, weekends can be as busy and stress-inducing as any weekday. Washing and folding laundry, grocery shopping for the week and running errands sometimes leaves me and my squad no time to party on the weekend. The only solution, then, is to go up on a Tuesday."

My First Thoughts on Crispy Catch

by Jay D. Ducote

First things first: I enjoyed the food. No, it didn't stand out as revolutionary, inventive, or inspired. Then again, I don't believe anybody ever said that it would be. Crispy Catch is what it is – a place to get fried catfish fingers, fries, hushpuppies (or as they call them, corn bobbers), and boudin balls akin to Tony's Seafood, which are some of the most snackable and magical boudin balls in the world. They finished second in our ranking of Baton Rouge balls. The restaurant itself is a new fast-casual concept seeking to bring the flavors of Louisiana to a hungry audience.

Immediately upon walking up to the restaurant that has been built out of the old, iconic Kean's Dry Cleaning building near the Perkins Road overpass, you get the sense that they are going for something bigger than just one location. The branding screams corporate, like they've already designed their logo and color palate to expand to numerous locations. It may work. There is clear evidence of utilizing a Raising Cane's model, which certainly paid dividends for them.

Catfish Fingers at the new Crispy Catch on Perkins

Like Cane's, which started at the nearby North Gates of LSU, Crispy Catch offers a welcoming environment and a simple menu. There are four main combinations to order with different amounts of fried catfish and extras. They also offer fish tacos, which I definitely want to try but haven't yet. I opted for the Surf & Turf combo – the meal that came with boudin balls in addition to the catfish, fries, cole slaw, and hush puppies. The total for the entire plate and a drink came out to just over $13.

Based on the way the combo came out on a plate with fries and catfish fingers, I couldn't help but to think of Cane's and their chicken fingers with crinkle cut fries. They even had their signature "Reel Sauce," a remoulade style sauce very similar to Cane's Sauce. All in all, the fries weren't all that much to speak of, though they were fries, and certainly not bad. They were plentiful and thin cut, but not to the point of being shoestring.The cole slaw offered very little to my taste buds, though I suppose a little tang to go with all the fried food isn't bad.

Compared to Cane's (not they have to be compared to Cane's, but they brought the compare and contrast on themselves), I noticed the absence of fresh squeezed lemonade and really good sweet tea. The beverage options were pretty much limited to a Coca-Cola lineup of fountain drinks, which I feel can be improved upon. If you want to be a local joint, bring in a cooler with some Swamp Pop and other regional beverages. If the idea is to build something that can be scaled to many locations, and you're copying Cane's anyway, don't underestimate the value of the beverages.

Another thing that makes Crispy Catch fast-casual but not necessarily "fast food" is that there is no drive through. Nothing wrong with that, though the convenience sales to night-owls in the overpass area could be a good business model. That being said, as of now the hours at Crispy Catch don't go into the late night market anyway.

The star of the show definitely proved to be the fried fish, with a nod to the boudin balls as well. At the end of the day, a place is judged on what they truly claim to be good at, and at Crispy Catch that's the USA farm raised catfish fingers. The don't do any whole filets of catfish. They don't fry shrimp or any other Louisiana seafood. The star of their limited menu is the catfish, and it lived up to expectations. The slender strips of catfish are marinated and battered in seasoned flour. It is a departure from the more common cornmeal style fish fry base around here, but I didn't mind. The catfish indeed had plenty of crispiness. The reel sauce and the house tartar sauce were both great dips for the catfish.

I also can't complain about the hush puppies or boudin balls. I'd even go back for the boudin balls. They really are very similar to Tony's, which again, is good in my book. In fairness, the owners of Crispy Catch are tied to the family that owns Tony's, though they no long share any stock in the famous seafood market. Still, I can see why if they wanted to put boudin balls on the menu that they'd go with a replica of the Italian-inspired boudin ball.

I can see myself going back to Crispy Catch, but I don't know how often. The very limited menu will make it hard to go often. And the fact that they aren't as convenient nor do they have all the intangibles as Cane's means they won't really get the quick-meal-on-my-way-home kind of business. And as much as I've compared Crispy Catch to Raising Cane's, it is missing perhaps the most important element: the "One Love" motto and attitude. I didn't feel it. I just had a decent fried catfish platter, but nothing else about the experience would make me identify with the brand. Perhaps in time they'll find their own motto.