If you are in Louisiana, you are required by law to eat some sort of Cajun food, so I have heard, but after finishing a day of business on the road, my co-worker and I didn't have the urge to go driving all over the place looking for the official Cajun Restaurant of Shreveport. Instead, we asked the front desk lady at our hotel for something close and she suggested a place called Becca's - next to the O'Reilly's Auto Parts. Make no mistake, you can get your crawfish etoufee and some spark plug cleaner in the same stop, and I'm all about efficiency.
When you first pull up, think of a San Antonio hole-in-the wall; this isn't going to be fine dining on the top of a tower, but it just might be something good inside. Right away, we were greeted and the staff (all of them) greeted us and was happy to hear that the hotel had recommended the place. For just a split second, I wondered if they were surprised, but maybe they weren't.
The interior of the place has a nice rustic feel to it. You've seen that look before where they try to make you forget you are in a shopping center by making the place feel rustic. Lots of moss and tree limbs and such. I enjoy eating in a place like this because they know if I was looking for something a bit more elegant, I wouldn't have pulled into an O'Reilly's for dinner in the first place.
I didn't know it when we walked in or even until I read the sign on this door, but they have some of that video poker action going on. Yes, get some Jambalaya and win some money. Of course, we passed on the poker and got straight to the vittles.
The special was Snapper Barataria, and though I have never heard of it before, our waiter recommended it over the blackened catfish I had originally ordered. And I should mention that our waiter was awesome. He could have been a character in a movie and I don't mean that in a bad way, just that he seemed to embody what I would imagine someone from the area would be like. I hope that isn't stereotypical or anything.
The dinner came with a house salad. I ordered Ranch dressing, but the waiter brought their house dressing. And he was right. I have never had a salad clear my sinuses like this one did. Good stuff! 
My co-worker ordered the same, but he also got a cup of some crawfish soup. It looked inedible to me, but he ate it up pretty quickly. I guess I'm just not ready for that.
When dinner came out - pretty quickly in fact - it smelled fantastic. In addition to the salad, the snapper was served with a "twice baked" potato. Mine had been baked at least twice, maybe more; but it was good on the inside gooey, cheesy parts. From what I gather, the Barataria comes from the name of a town in Louisiana and is also French for the word "fraudulent". I'm guessing this Snapper Barataria is named after the town and not the French word. It had some sort of white sauce with little shrimp mixed in it and lots of seasoning. I love hot, spicy foods and this hit the mark in a big way.
Our waiter and other folks on the staff kept in touch but weren't intrusive. We never had to worry about iced tea glasses being filled, but at the same time, they never hovered. For example, my co-worker casually asked about the possibility of hush puppies, even though they weren't part of the platter we ordered, and within several minutes, our waiter returned with some he had just fried up. Then when we both asked for take-out boxes, he brought us some more hush puppies to take with us. Outstanding.
I am no expert on Cajun food - I have to confess that most of the names of the dishes just make me queasy in spite of not even knowing what they really are. I can't tell you if Becca's was best place to eat around this part of Shreveport, but it sure hit the spot. That and extremely solid service and friendly folks make it worth a visit if you happen to be here.
I'm on the road at the moment and the group of folks I'm with decided we needed to escape the high class area near our hotel and scoot over to Alexandria, VA (less than ten minutes away) for some lunch. We have been to an Outback and some Italian place, and really needed to get something different.
I have driven through Alexandria and walked through Old Town before, but this was the first time I had my camera with me. Just a few representative pictures to give you an idea of how beautiful the place is.
I don't know the specific real estate situation, but I'm going to guess a town home in this area isn't going to be in my price range. From the tree lined streets to the brick sidewalks (a lawsuit waiting to happen, in my mind), everything is beautiful. IT doesn't hurt that the weather here is perfect - apparently cooler than normal. It was breezy and about 80.
I did not know that Old Town was the wig capital of Virginia.
So down by the waterfront is The Strand and aside from some art places, we found the Chart House restaurant. I think this place is a chain, and in fact they may have one in San Antonio.
The place is heavy on seafood and cater toward a class of visitor used to something a little more classy than the standard butcher paper and Styrofoam cups.
We had a really excellent waiter overseeing a new waiter on his very first day. Aside from the fact that he was just clearly nervous, he did great. I would never make it as a waiter, much less a waiter in a fancy place. I wish I had a picture of it, but this guy had a little metal trowel that clipped to his apron made specifically for scooping up crumbs. I'd whip out a Dustbuster. While the people ate.
Anyway, I started with a bowl of Clam Chowder. Extremely wonderful! I was a bit put off by the fancy little serving kettle but the chowder was awesome.
After the soup, I opted for the salad bar and to insure that I would not be going out for a later dinner, I opted for seconds.
There is nothing like a well stocked salad bar complete with fruit, pasta, and all sorts of stuff to throw on top. Bottomline: Good. A pit pricey, but add in the nice walk in Old Town, and as an overall package, it was worth it.
Oh, that is until you figure out that the Alexandria Police enforce the parking meters within seconds after they expire. When we first parked, having no idea where we were going to eat or how long we would be gone, we put in enough change (actually, all the dimes the group of us had), for an hour and a half.
As we were walking up to our parking spot, I knew that we were going to be at least 5 minutes over our time and sure enough, there was meter maid.
And of course, like several other cars, we were recipients of a ticket.
And at $35.00 a pop, I wonder how much Alexandria makes in a day?
When you first pull up, think of a San Antonio hole-in-the wall; this isn't going to be fine dining on the top of a tower, but it just might be something good inside. Right away, we were greeted and the staff (all of them) greeted us and was happy to hear that the hotel had recommended the place. For just a split second, I wondered if they were surprised, but maybe they weren't.
The interior of the place has a nice rustic feel to it. You've seen that look before where they try to make you forget you are in a shopping center by making the place feel rustic. Lots of moss and tree limbs and such. I enjoy eating in a place like this because they know if I was looking for something a bit more elegant, I wouldn't have pulled into an O'Reilly's for dinner in the first place.
I didn't know it when we walked in or even until I read the sign on this door, but they have some of that video poker action going on. Yes, get some Jambalaya and win some money. Of course, we passed on the poker and got straight to the vittles.
The special was Snapper Barataria, and though I have never heard of it before, our waiter recommended it over the blackened catfish I had originally ordered. And I should mention that our waiter was awesome. He could have been a character in a movie and I don't mean that in a bad way, just that he seemed to embody what I would imagine someone from the area would be like. I hope that isn't stereotypical or anything.
The dinner came with a house salad. I ordered Ranch dressing, but the waiter brought their house dressing. And he was right. I have never had a salad clear my sinuses like this one did. Good stuff! 
My co-worker ordered the same, but he also got a cup of some crawfish soup. It looked inedible to me, but he ate it up pretty quickly. I guess I'm just not ready for that.
When dinner came out - pretty quickly in fact - it smelled fantastic. In addition to the salad, the snapper was served with a "twice baked" potato. Mine had been baked at least twice, maybe more; but it was good on the inside gooey, cheesy parts. From what I gather, the Barataria comes from the name of a town in Louisiana and is also French for the word "fraudulent". I'm guessing this Snapper Barataria is named after the town and not the French word. It had some sort of white sauce with little shrimp mixed in it and lots of seasoning. I love hot, spicy foods and this hit the mark in a big way.
