Crispy Cajun: Where Value Meets Amazing Flavor
Crispy Cajun owner, Nyki Davis and her daughter, Natalie.
This month’s restaurant of the month takes us south, to Clearwater. With inspiration taken from her childhood in Eunice, La., owner and chef Nyki Davis is the one who brings the flavor to Crispy Cajun. Her daughter, Natalie, took our order and kept us on the right track foodwise.
Bill ordered his jambalaya hot.
“Can you handle it?” Natalie asked.
“Yes,” Bill said boldly.
“No, really?”
“Yes.”
Natalie looked him directly in the eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I can take it,” Bill responded, though he seemed slightly less confident. He later admitted that his meal was indeed quite hot, just how he likes it.
I ordered one chicken breast with a side of red beans and rice. The lunch portion was so large I took some home for dinner.
Kyle ordered eight pieces of fried chicken, thinking they would be the size of what you’d typically get at Publix. Natalie asked Kyle if he planned to take some home because that’s a lot of chicken. He changed his order to three pieces, and it was more than plenty. Just so you know, the portion sizes are “ginormous” to borrow a word from Buddy the Elf.
Portion sizes run large at Crispy Cajun. Above is a sample of buffalo wings, chicken breasts and red beans and rice.
Now that our table overflowed with delicious food, Nyki took a break from working in the kitchen to join us and tell us how it all began.
“I loved to cook since I was little,” Nyki said. “Cooking is like relaxing.”
Her family owns a Crispy Cajun in Eunice, La. When she decided to open a restaurant here in Clearwater, she went there to see how she liked it. Well, she realized quickly she did not want to live in Louisiana, especially when it’s cold and apparently, “the mosquitos bit right through my ski jacket and my jeans!”
In the end, she did not agree with everything done at that location and decided to create her own menu. “They do 300 pounds a day of fried chicken,” Nyki said. “Mainly fried chicken and catfish. No gumbo or jambalaya, but I like this, so I created it for my restaurant.”
In order to create her signature gumbo and jambalaya, Nyki spent eight months trying different recipes and ingredients. She is proud that she can serve up a customizable jambalaya. Because it’s made on the spot, you can add shrimp or crawfish or sausage, or leave something out. She thought of making it this way because of all the people who have different food allergies, so they could enjoy it as well. The gumbo is different because it has many ingredients stewed together over a period of time, so it cannot be customized by taking things out, but you can add anything you’d like.
Asked why she decided to open her restaurant, Nyki replied, “The idea came about because I wanted a place where food is affordable and you get a lot for the buck and a hole in the wall.”
People from all over have come in. About five years ago a food blog writer from Puerto Rico came in and wrote about Crispy Cajun for his local newspaper, saying it was the best Cajun food he’d ever had.
“We are Vietnamese and I don’t think we can go a day without eating spicy food.”
“We make everything from scratch,” Nyki said. “Like right now, I’m cutting up ingredients for gumbo and jambalaya. We hand cut everything. If you want chicken strips, we hand cut and hand batter them. Same thing with the seafood: If you want shrimp, I kill the shrimp, I devein the shrimp, and I hand batter them.”
Then there’s the chicken. She makes 1,000 pounds of fried chicken a week!
“My fried chicken is different from the kind they serve in Eunice,” said Nyki, who marinades her whole chickens in Cajun spices. “This chicken is hormone- and antibiotic-free with no preservatives, and is fresh cut and hand battered every day.”
A trio of sauces that are made in house from scratch: Jalapeno, Tartar and Remoulade.
She also makes a lot of sauces; all made from scratch and available to purchase.
“The Buffalo sauce is our most popular sauce,” noting that Crispy Cajun serves 5 gallons a week.
Natalie brings out an assortment of sauces for us to try. Remoulade sauce is a Cajun sauce that is a little sweet and a little sour, and is not spicy. “I make it from scratch,” Nyki said. “And if I switch out an ingredient my customers notice.”
Nyki put a lot of time and effort into perfecting this particular sauce. It has 21 ingredients compared to other remoulade sauces that may have only four ingredients.
The jalapeño sauce is actually not spicy, Nyki said. “It has a lot of flavor and is great on our rice bowl.”
Then there’s the “O” sauce that she made specifically for onion rings, but is also great on crab cakes. She also makes tartar sauce, and her honey mustard is made with real honey, not sugar.
Crispy Cajun has been at their Drew Street location for eight years now. A lot of their business comes from catering, especially for local realtors and auto dealerships from Palm Harbor to St. Petersburg. She believes her success harkens back to why she started in the first place, to provide good, affordable food. When she caters, she works within her customer’s budget.
“Where can you get jambalaya, red beans and rice, coleslaw and two pieces of chicken for $5 a head?”
Exactly.
Crispy Cajun • 2097 Drew St. • Clearwater, FL 33765 | 727.441.8886 | Mon - Sat 10:30a - 10p & Closed Sun