"Cajian" Bringing Fast, Affordable Cajun & Creole to Tuscaloosa

Cajian, a new Cajun and Creole counter-service restaurant from the team behind Ajian Sushi, opens Saturday on University Boulevard in downtown Tuscaloosa.

As the Thread reported this spring, it's the third local concept from restaurateur Pete Zimmer, a Culinary Institute of America graduate with 42 years in the industry.

Next week marks Ajian's ninth anniversary. His Daq Shack turned two on Wednesday. Cajian comes right on cue.

"All three places will have had their opening within about 12 days of each other, so we'll celebrate all three birthdays in one month," Zimmer said with a laugh Thursday.

The new space, Cajian, is a collaborative effort with Paige Blankley, a New Orleans-born Cajun food truck operator working with Zimmer on something they believe nobody in Tuscaloosa has ever really done before.

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Cajun, Creole, Twisted

The tagline is Cajun, Creole, twisted, with that last word doing real work, giving the kitchen room to innovate on dishes that may not taste just like what you might find down in Louisiana.

The food concept draws inspiration from Yats, an Indianapolis-based Cajun chain Zimmer admires, but expands well beyond it. The model is quick-casual counter service - you order, get a number, sit down, and the food comes to you. Zimmer's goal is 15 to 20 minutes, in-and-out.

The engine of the operation is batch cooking. Thirty- to forty-gallon batches of gumbo, étouffée, drunken chicken, and red beans sit hot and ready throughout service. When a bowl is ordered, rice comes out of the warmer, the hot preparation gets ladled over it, Cajun garlic bread goes on the side, and it's on the table fast.

"A lot of times we're meeting the customer at the table before they even get their drink," Zimmer said.

Everything is made in-house, every sauce, every batter, every bowl item, which Zimmer points to as a genuine differentiator from previous attempts at the format in Tuscaloosa.

The menu is wide: four different étouffées, each built differently and carrying a distinct flavor profile; two gumbos, a Creole-style chicken and sausage with tomato and okra running daily and a true dark-roux Cajun seafood gumbo as a weekend special; po'boys; debris fries and much more.

Rotating specialty nights expected to feature jambalayas, crawfish and shrimp boils, fried gator and more will keep regulars coming back.

They will also offer vegetarian and low-carb options, plus loaded teas sourced from a Louisiana company, available to take home in 20 varieties.

Alcoholic beverages are coming as soon as the state liquor license is finalized, and the drink menu will include three flavored daiquiris, the 'Lil' Boozie' King Cake spiked milkshake, and a selection of beers and wine.

What to Order

For first-timers, both founders have recommendations. Zimmer said that at a friends and family night, guests raved about the half-and-half bowl, two preparations over one bed of rice. He also said Cajian is prepared to bring samples from the kitchen for anyone who wants to taste before ordering.

"We don't want anyone buying something and then going, 'Oh, I don't like the way this tastes,'" he said.

Blankley's pick is more decisive: catfish po'boy with extra hot sauce and debris fries, or as much drunken chicken as the bowl will hold.

Cajian opens Saturday at 2008 University Boulevard, in the old Clean Eatz space across from the Richard Shelby Federal Courthouse, just down the street from where Zimmer already runs Ajian Sushi and the Daq Shack.

A Fresh, NOLA-Fueled Feel

The space doesn't look anything like Clean Eatz anymore. Blankley and Zimmer said they walked in, took one look at the orange walls, and immediately vetoed them.

After getting purple, green, and a splash of Crimson Tide red on the walls, Blankley, her husband and a friend spent a weekend hitting every local artist and antique shop in New Orleans, coming back with vintage Mardi Gras posters, Frenchmen Street Festival prints, a guitar painted with Jimi Hendrix's likeness donated by Zimmer's son, and a print of a tassle-wearing alligator pole dancer named "Roux" Paul.

"Every little trinket in here tells a story," Blankley said. "Every time you walk in, you're going to notice something a little bit different. You're not going to take it all in on the first visit."

Zimmer closed a Thursday interview with something he says at every opening.

"What we are the day we open will not be what we are three months or six months down the road," he said. "We value feedback from customers. We will listen to what people want. Our goal is to build something long-term that's special."

Blankley puts it more simply.

"I just truly hope that everybody in Tuscaloosa who wants something that's not a chicken tender, a pizza, or a burger comes in and tries it," she said. "This is what people have been begging for for years. Our menu is going to be seven panels on the wall - there is something on there for everybody."

The new concept opens Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Follow Cajian on social media for updates on their menu, specialty nights, and more!

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