TASTE OF LOUISIANA CAFE NEWS

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THE LIVINGSTON PARISH NEWS
DENHAM SPRINGS, LA - A Taste of Louisiana restaurant tastes a lot like home cooking

Home cooking. There’s nothing like it. And when the home cooking is from Louisiana, it’s really something special.

A Taste of Louisiana, owned and operated by mother-daughter Kim and Amber Hampton, is something special as well. Both had experience working in other restaurants, both wanted to work together and they wanted to own their own business.

“My mom and I have worked for years in other restaurants and wanted to do something together,” Amber said. “We realized we were working for other people and wanted to go into business for ourselves.”

A Walker High School and LSU graduate, Amber was well aware of the odds against success, and that was without factoring Hurricane Katrina into the equation. Only about one in 20 restaurants survive their first year in business.

Yet the Hampton family has some assets. The first is talent. Their food is simply delicious, authentic and of the highest quality. The second is the close-knit collaboration of a family. Besides Kim and Amber, the kitchen crew includes Cary Dugas, Amber’s fiance, and Michael Hampton, her brother. Amber said one final advantage in succeeding was the fact her mother spent years staying at home, cooking and running the household.

“My mom was a stay at home mom until I was a senior in high school,” Amber said. “A lot of people discount that as a skill to run a business, but running a house is a lot like a business.”

So when the original Taste of Louisiana inside of a Denham Springs flea market became available in 2003, the mother-daughter pair made the leap, taking it over and beginning the foundations of what is now the popular restaurant in the Denham Springs downtown Antique District.

Think about seafood stuffed potato, homemade burgers, fried shrimp etouffee and shrimp and corn soup. Sound good? How about catfish, shrimp or roast beef po-boys? Be sure to save room for pecan cobbler, bread pudding with praline sauce or a brownie sundae dessert.

Some diners may prefer to go with lighter fare such as salads and grilled chicken with onions, mushrooms and bell pepper. (To explore the menu, see www.tasteoflouisianacafe.com)

When Louisiana’s Finest Antiques and Flea Market where the restaurant had been located went out of business after Katrina, the Hampton's found a new place downtown in the Antique Village at 105 North Range Avenue and they could not have been more welcome. Already their reputation had preceded them and the dozen tables inside the cafe are very often filled with patrons, particularly at lunchtime.

The restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and dinners will likely become the next big wave of growth. To attract more evening diners, the restaurant began serving wine and beer with meals on January 29th. Taste of Louisiana Cafe also does a brisk business in take-out orders.

“We put every minute of every day into this place,” Amber said. “It’s definitely a work of love. It’s like an extension of home.”

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