Seafood seekers: Follow the locals
Living within 15 miles of the state line makes it likely I would be familiar with shopping and restaurants in Louisiana. In the past, I have mentioned several north Louisiana restaurant picks. Here’s another favorite that I feel is worth a journey, to coin Michelin’s special restaurant category.
The Mohawk Tavern in Monroe, La., just over an hour’s drive from El Dorado, offers prime Gulf seafood and a special ambiance. It’s a casual drive on the interstate, or you can cruise through the north Louisiana backwoods for a quicker and more direct route.
The restaurant, in an easy-tomiss older building at 704 Louisville Ave., is a few blocks from the Ouachita River Bridge that connects Monroe and West Monroe. It’s usually very busy during prime time; try to arrive either early or late.
When you enter the restaurant, which opened in 1952, it’s almost like you’re walking through the kitchen, which is just behind the wall. That’s where the cooks prepare a variety of quality seafood and pass it over to where the servers are standing. Several servers have been there for years, adding to an already inviting atmosphere.
Since ambiance is a good part of the Mohawk Tavern experience, I suggest sitting in a booth in the bar area; if the booths are taken, you can sit at the bar. The front-room seating that’s separated from the bar area is certainly OK, but the bar itself is one of the reasons I will drive there.
The bar is a slice of historic Louisiana life which is displayed all around on the walls, including racks of deer antlers and a stuffed marlin.
One of the more unusual items in the bar is a beer advertisement from the late 1940s depicting Custer’s last fight. It brings back a memory of when the Old Hickory, an El Dorado barbecue and beer joint, displayed the same sign.
The Old Hickory is gone. I was about 8 years old when my dad and I would stop there for lunch, and the sign always fascinated me. Today it is not politically correct because of graphic images and negative depictions of Indigenous people in a panorama showing General Custer standing tall in the middle of a chaotic scene with his few remaining cavalry soldiers being scalped and slaughtered by hordes of Indians. That’s just a taste of what the old bar has to offer.
There’s also a 1950s-era menu advertising oysters for $1 a dozen. That’s really the reason to dine at the Mohawk, because the seafood comes straight from the Gulf of Mexico. The oysters have risen in price over the past 70-plus years, but the quality remains the same.
We have lived on the Gulf Coast and sometimes bought shrimp and crabs practically right off the boats, so I am always looking for soft shell crabs on the menu. Mohawk is one of the few restaurants that almost always has them. The perfect size of the crabs needs to be just bigger than a very large spider, which are then either sautéed or deep fat-fried. Vertis always raves about the Shrimp Delight Salad. Fresh oysters on the half shell are a standard on the menu, as well as a variety of Gulf fish. A selection of some 20 beers is available as well as a variety of wines by the glass or bottle.
You can also enjoy fried catfish, crawfish etouffee, chicken, or spaghetti and meatballs.
Mohawk Tavern is where the locals eat. Our north Louisiana friends always smile and nod when we mention driving to Monroe to dine there. It is worth the journey.