Louisiana Legacy Sings Proud at This 38-Year-Old Houston Restaurant
At Zydeco Louisiana Diner in downtown Houston, 38 years of cooking keep Louisiana family recipes at the table. Co-owner Martin Venable, a Louisiana native, opened the cafeteria-style restaurant with two friends in 1988, after leaving college. His mother taught him to cook, passing along techniques he later used to make meals for his friends. Those friends encouraged him to open a restaurant, turning lessons learned at home into a business serving Houstonians. The menu changes daily, featuring dishes familiar around dinner tables in Acadia Parish, Louisiana, where those food traditions run deep. Options include chicken and sausage creole, seafood court-bouillon, jambalaya and crawfish étouffée, depending on the day's changing menu. Other dishes include seasoned baked chicken, shrimp and crab sauce piquante, and chicken and sausage gumbo with jalapeño cornbread. Martin Venable says some people drive past for years before finally stopping in, then quickly become regular weekly customers. The restaurant operated as a lunch-only spot before adding dinner service in 2016; many longtime favorites remain on the menu.
