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Look inside a wild, new Cajun restaurant called Bongo Beaux’s Bourre Palace in Celina

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Customers won’t want to miss the bathrooms: They’re a colorful mess. In a good way.

Inside a new restaurant named Bongo Beaux’s Bourre Palace & Cajun Kitchen in Celina, director of food and beverage Chad Kelley is sitting comfortably at a table, his hands inside the mouth of a taxidermied alligator. He’s talking about the eclectic restaurant’s menu — a crazy and fun smattering of gumbo, po’boys, jambalaya and the like — but it’s hard to take him seriously as he fiddles with the alligator’s teeth.

The Big Breaux is a French roll stuffed with crab, crawfish and cheese at Bongo Beaux's Bourre Palace & Cajun Kitchen in Celina. The sandwich is spicy and sloppy.
The Big Breaux is a French roll stuffed with crab, crawfish and cheese at Bongo Beaux’s Bourre Palace & Cajun Kitchen in Celina. The sandwich is spicy and sloppy.(Anja Schlein / Special Contributor)

Actually, it’s hard to take anything here seriously, besides the food. I’m drinking out of a water cup with Christmas wreaths all over it, and it’s the day after Halloween.

“I think this is one of the most fun restaurants we’ve done,” says John “Sparky” Pearson. His Radical Hospitality Group has made a mission out of creating funky restaurants in the far north ‘burbs, like LSA Burger Co. in Denton, Barley & Board in Denton, Bumbershoot Barbecue in Argyle and others.

The menu at Bongo Beaux's Bourre Palace & Cajun Kitchen in Celina looks like it's been there forever, but it's actually only been up and serving guests for a few days.
The menu at Bongo Beaux’s Bourre Palace & Cajun Kitchen in Celina looks like it’s been there forever, but it’s actually only been up and serving guests for a few days.(Anja Schlein / Special Contributor)
Bongo Beaux’s was inspired by the group’s mutual love for New Orleans and Cajun culture, and they went wild designing a restaurant that feels straight outta Bourbon Street, despite its actual address on Walnut Street on the adorable Celina square. The restaurant was outfitted solely by the staff at Radical Hospitality — no high-dollar designers here — after dozens of trips to thrift stores to buy mismatched plates, weirdo salt and pepper shakers, a boat (now beached), and tons of strings of colored Christmas lights that hang haphazardly from the exposed ceiling.

Here's a peek inside the women's restroom. Go into the larger stall and there's a mirror across from the toilet — so you can look at yourself while you go?
Here’s a peek inside the women’s restroom. Go into the larger stall and there’s a mirror across from the toilet — so you can look at yourself while you go?(Anja Schlein / Special Contributor)

Bongo Beaux’s has been open since Oct. 31, but it feels like it’s been there for decades. It looks like your favorite bar, the one whose bartender will hang your random keepsake on the walls if you’ve drank enough beer there.

General Manager Matt Elgiar, who’s from Metairie, Louisiana, helped the team create a Cajun menu that respected Louisiana culture yet allowed for some creative left turns. Pearson explains Bongo Beaux’s as “our version of things” rather than a direct Louisiana export.

“When you understand the history, then you can build your own version,” he says.

 

See the full Dallas News article

By Sarah Blaskovich

4:10 PM on Nov 4, 2019

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