If you’re from Louisiana or just love Cajun food, it’s time for you to discover Where Y'At Seafood Market & Restaurant.
Located at 4233 Hwy. 87 in Navarre, it’s easy to miss unless you’ve been there before.
The pride and joy of T-Paul Ruiz, Where Y'At Seafood Market & Restaurant is a family affair. Stepsons Will and Courtney Lumpkin and their wives Miriam and Whitney, along with dear friend Grant Miliate, handle the cooking. Those who work there that aren’t blood related are treated like family anyway.
“We are ‘mom and pop’ to the bone here,” Courtney said.
Will Lumpkin explained the evolution of the family business.
“We had a seafood market on the sound in Navarre, and we threw an occasional boil Lumpkin said. "Folks who attended begged us to open a restaurant and serve our food on a regular basis, so we started by buying a trailer, and we did some catering out of the trailer too.
"Pretty quick that wasn’t enough to accommodate our crowds either, so we moved here," he added. "We’d built up a lot of good local support by then, and folks followed us over here to our new location last November.”
Will’s stepbrother Courtney discussed what makes their family business so successful.
“T-Paul grew up in Louisiana in a family of catering cooks, so he always enjoyed cooking," Courtney said. "He added to his family recipes while he was in the Air Force in places like Korea.
"So all of the recipes we use here are T-Paul’s family favorites, and this includes everything from our gumbo to our etouffee," he added. "We make traditional Cajun boudin balls, but then we also offer a few things like Cajun egg rolls, which is T-Paul’s version of a family favorite with an Asian twist.”
Server Jessica called their beignets as “little pillows of heaven sprinkled with angel essence,” while Courtney said their bread pudding is unrivaled.
Not only is the food memorable, but Where Y’At Seafood makes it a point of giving back to their community.
Courtney said that a lot of the military folks who are out of the area return in November, “so we always throw a welcome home boil for them, on us. We also do a big thank you event free to our local first responders.”
Where Y’At is tucked into a grove of trees next to Al’s Motorcycle Repair, so unless you want to miss out, keep your eyes peeled.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosas Press Gazette: Where Y'At brings Cajun flavor to Navarre