Boudreaux Boudreaux Golly

Papa Boudreaux's Cajun Cafe
3419 Fly Road
Santa Fe, TN
931-682-0040

the front door

Yesterday was my 1st full day back from a week long business trip, and I really wanted to catch up with stuff around the house and Nashville. Since I have been on the road so much this summer, I did not get to pick as many blueberries as I wanted. In a last gasp effort, I decided I wanted to go to my super secret blueberry patch and pick berries one last time, at the end of the season. After I was done with all my errands and "must-dos" in the morning and early afternoon, off we went to the super secret blueberry patch down in the middle of Williamson County.

Papa's dining room of 7 tables

The blueberry season is usually over by Labor Day, and when we got to the patch, we did see a lot of purple berries, but the berries were mostly the Joe Pye weed growing up now. But, there were a few bushes still producing berries this late, and were offering big delicious and flavorful berries by the handful. We picked what we wanted, and decided to dine out nearby, sort of. We decided to give Papa Boudreaux's a try. Since we were already about 30 miles south of home, it would be just another 30 miles on fast roads to Papa Boudreaux's. Papa Boudreaux's is about 60 miles down the Natchez Trace from Nashville, TN and is located between Fly and Santa Fe, TN. We had a Google Map in hand, and off we went. Luckily Matt has bicycled around this area a couple times, and he knew where Fly Rd is. We took a lot of back roads, one that is a dirt road, to Papa Boudreaux's, and missed a few turns along the way because I just zoomed by some of the little roads because I didn't think they were the right ones. We recovered quickly though due to Matt's eagle eyes seeing the street signs. This place is definitely off the beaten path, and a GPS or excellent map is recommended.

the table seasoning

We finally find Fly Rd, a small windy country road, and I nearly zoom by this little 1000 sf house converted to Papa Boudreaux's. We got in just in time because there were 2 other parties behind us, and only one of the 7 tables open. The table settings were simple, heavy plastic gingham table clothes topped with Mardi Gras beads, and creole seasonings instead of salt and pepper. The menu is just as simple with various combos of red beans and rice, etouffee, creole, fish and pasta as the mix and match base.

red beans and rice

We opted for red beans and rice, and crawfish etouffee. The red beans was loaded with andouille and ham and red beans. The red beans were stewed all day long with a definite click of red hot peppers. I opted for the crawfish etouffee. The gravy portion base ingredient is tomato with heavy cream. The dish was quite red from the tomato, had thyme and parsley in it, and and had a definitely butter fat layer of flavor to it. I originally thought it was a tomato based etouffee started with a butter roux, but the waitress (and most likely sous chef) said that the two top base ingredients are tomato and heavy cream. The dish did not look like it had heavy cream in it, but it definitely had the flavor of heavy cream.

crawfish etouffee

We were packed into this tiny little place like sardines. No one seemed to mind being in close quarters. The other 2 parties behind us had to wait in the gravel and dirt parking lot until a table opened up. Wait they did, despite no waiting room inside. We were served fast, and everyone seemed to play along with trying to be considerate of those who were waiting by not dilly-dallying after dining, and give those diners a chance to come on in. We did not dilly-dally, we dined happily, but paid quickly and left to open the scarce table real estate for the next diners. We quickly found Route 7, a major road that lead us to the Natchez Trace which we opted to take home. We entered the Trace, about 5 miles up on Route 7, and as we entered we saw a sign saying 50 miles to Nashville. We did not speed up the Trace because it was dusk and deer time. The fundamental deer rule is, for you city slickers, where there is 1 deer, there are more deer. You may see one deer on the side of the road running from you, but it is the 2nd or 3rd deer darting across the road to catch up with their buddy that will get in your way. The speed limit on the Trace is partially designed to keep car and driver at a safe speed to deal with the darting deer population.

As we watched the 3rd set of deer dart across the road, we finally remembered that we had a hungry pet at home. So, no more dilly dally, and off we went home to feed the kitty. She was wondering where we were, but quickly forgot about that question as she munched on her dinner.