By Chet Folkes
"Hard work, long hours and consistency of quality in the food and service" is Brian Blackledge's formula for success in the restaurant business.
Adhering to these rules has paid off for the young restauranteur, who in 1988 bought a small, little-known neighborhood bar hidden away in a corner of the Jefferson Plaza Shopping Center and turned it into a vibrant, popular restaurant which attracts a large group of customers. The restaurant offers an array of daily specials and more than 70 items of fresh seafood, chicken and salad dishes on the menu.
"We're doing incredibly," he said. So well, in fact, that he's looking around for a site to open a second restaurant.
Located in the rear of the shopping center at 7521 Jefferson Highway near Lobdell Avenue, the old Talawa Lounge had only eight tables and a 14-foot long, Art Deco-style back bar of mahogany that came from an old North Street bar when Blackledge purchased the business and named it Café Americain to compliment his jazz club on College Drive, Rick's Café Americain, which he had operated since 1986.
The names come from Rick's Café, the site of much of the action in the famous 1942 Humphrey Bogart movie "Casablanca."
After Blackledge's ownership, the hot dogs and roast beef po-boys which had been offered by the neighborhood bar soon gave way to a menu featuring a variety of seafood dishes, heart-healthy pasta creations and salads with house dressings which he and his father developed.
"I started from scratch with the recipes," he recalled. "We developed the recipes ourselves, increasing or decreasing the seasonings until we got it like we wanted it."
One of the restaurant's most popular items, the Shrimp and Corn Soup, was developed from a recipe provided by his mother, Perrie Roy Blackledge, who had served it to Brian and his five brothers when they were growing up in Baton Rouge.
Another popular dish which Brian and his family tested to get just right is the restaurant's Crab and Broccoli Soup, which the restauranteur said contains "just the right flair of crabmeat and broccoli together."
The menu, which features both grilled and fried platters, pasta dishes, daily specials and a variety of salads, has grown through the years. The latest menu becomes available this month and provides several new culinary creations such as Pork Loin with Orange Marmalade Sauce and Grilled Tuna Caesar Salad.
Brian's father, Glynn Blackledge, soon joined the operation and now owns part of the business, his son said. Glynn Blackledge, who had always enjoyed cooking, retired from his position as purchasing agent for the state in 1988, the same year his son entered the restaurant business, and has been instrumental in helping develop many of the items such as the salad dressings and cocktail sauces which have become signature dishes. Glynn Blackledge makes the restaurant's cheesecakes and has created a rich and popular pie made of melted chocolate bars in a purchased crust made by Oreo cookies.
By 1992, the restaurant was running out of space as customers who had "discovered" the sequestered little eatery crowded in to savor the crabmeat quesadillas, hot spinach and bacon salads and grilled tuna fillets. Blackledge made arrangements to expand by taking over the office space next door. A wall was removed to provide access to the large new dining area which includes a room that can be used for private parites, and the entire restaurant was redecorated.
The walls were painted green and hng with old mirrors and other antique decorative items, and a small brick wine cellar was built. The original space continues to function as the restaurant's bar with dining tables reserved for smokers, while the new area, four times as large, offers ample room for the increasing number of diners. The restaurant can now seat up to 160.
Born and reared in Baton Rouge, Brian Blackledge graduated from Catholic High School and attended LSU in marketing and management for three years.
He attributes his decision to enter the food and beverage business to his job in the early 1980's with John Fels, then manager of the Hilton Hotel on Corporate Boulevard. Blackledge learned the restaurant business by doing a variety of tasks when he worked for Fels in the mid-1980's, including a stint as food and beverage director at a resort hotel in South Padre Island, Texas, which was being managed by Fels.
Returning to Baton Rouge, he gained more experience at the Prince Murat Hotel, now the Ramada, on Nicholson Drive and the Inn on the Lake. He took a job with the Mike Anderson restaurant enterprises in 1985, helped start the catering and banquet facilities and the Mike Anderson Restaurant on Bourbon Street and here in Baton Rouge, and was one of the managers for the Bourbon Street Restaurant and Food Court at New Orleans' River Walk.
His interest in jazz and blues was picqued when he met the Neville Brothers, James Rivers and other top musicians while working in New Orleans and decided to buy Rick's Café Americain at 2363 College Drive from Fels when it became available in 1986.
The lounge continues to provide live music for local jazz and blues enthusiasts.
He divides his time between two businesses, but his interest in food and cooking has increased through the years.
To relax from the high-stress whirl of his business enterprises, Blackledge cooks shrimp and crawfish dishes, pastas and and other favorites at friends' houses and at the fishing camp he frequents at Cocodrie on Louisiana's coast. He's also become an avid fisherman and is looking forward to the speckled trout, redfish and crabs that will be abundant in the bays and channels and in the Gulf during May.
The father of two - Jason, 10, and Lauren, 8 - Blackledge contributes time to a variety of church activities and organizations which benefit children. He is involved with the Louisiana Council on Child Abuse and the Children's Miracle Network and assists at activities of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. He also sponsors a Catholic High School scholarship each year.
His recipe for the Shrimp and Corn Soup and his dad's Chocolate Pie Creation follow:
SHRIMP AND CORN SOUP
½ cup celery, chopped
2 white onions, chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped
2 lbs. Frozen white corn kernels (not yellow)
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
3 lbs. Medium-size shrimp, peeled
2 cups crushed tomatoes (fresh or canned)
1 can rotel tomatoes
3 quarts water
½ lb. Butter
1 cup flour
1 tsp. Parsley, chopped
¼ tsp. Creole seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1. In a three-gallon pot, saute all vegetables in butter
2. Stir in one cup flour
3. Add all tomatoes
4. Add water; bring to boil
5. Add corn and seasonings
6. Bring to boil. Turn off heat. Add shrimp, stirring constantly for 15 minutes
7. Allow to sit for 30 minutes before serving or freezing
Garnish with chopped parsley
GLYNN BLACKLEDGE'S CHOCOLATE PIE
8 oz. Hershey almond bars
8 ozs. Cool Whip (thick variety)
1 purchased Oreo pie crust
1. Melt chocolate bars on low heat in double boiler, stirring, for about 15 minutes
2. Add Cool Whip
3. Pour mixture into pie crust
4. Place in freezer for 15 to 20 minutes to firm
5. Remove from freezer to refrigerator for 10 minutes or so before cutting pie to serve
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