Come to Papa

Art Bouvier grew up in New Orleans, where almost everyone he knew owned a restaurant, and he was pretty sure that wasn’t the life he wanted. He even moved north, seeking a corporate career that would keep him safely out of the hospitality business. But eventually the cubicle lifestyle wore him down. Good for us. In 2007, Bouvier left his seven-year IT career at Eli Lilly to open his authentically Cajun Papa Roux on the east side. “At the time, everyone thought I was nuts,” says Bouvier. “Now I don’t look so nuts.”

This month, Bouvier and his wife, Colleen, open a second spot, bringing family recipes for jambalaya and gumbo to City Market. The new location will focus almost exclusively on his mammoth po’ boys, French-bread sandwiches stuffed with options like pulled pork or boiled shrimp and piled high with slaw and a generous squirt of spicy mayonnaise that Bouvier describes as “Cajun remoulade with a Hoosier twist.”

Photo by Tony Valainis.

This article originally appeared in the September 2011 issue.