Shreveport City Council celebrates city’s participants in 2025 Rose Parade

Big Jerry is a stuffed shrimp roller at Orlandeaux’s, which places him among an elite inner circle of employees who are entrusted to produce the restaurant’s most popular menu item. His brow is often furrowed with concern for a line cook who hasn’t shown up yet, a batch of tartar sauce that needs to be made, or the details of an upcoming party in the restaurant’s perpetually booked second-floor ballroom. Chapeaux assigned Little Jerry to the deep fryer, the busiest station in the kitchen of a restaurant known for fried seafood. So many local favorite restaurants that are participating, and I cannot wait to participate with them.” Shreveport-Bossier’s 318 Restaurant Week is approaching fast, with a long list of local restaurants participating from March 30 to April 5. “Brother” Chapman began his career working at his father’s side at Freeman & Harris Cafe’ in the early 1950’s, when he was a high school junior. The resturant was widely recognized for its delicious soul food, most famous for its fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, stuffed shrimp, and peach pie. His father, “Scrap,” along with Pete Harris and the late Wilmer “Tody” Wallette, served as his culinary mentors. They taught “Brother” Chapman the majority of his skills of the trade.

Chicken, Liver, & Gizzards

When the restaurant was at Lawrence and Travis (now Pete Harris Drive), it stood in St. Paul’s Bottoms, a bright spot in a red-light district with a deeply complex and layered history. For Damien there was never a question about whether or not the restaurant would be sustained—its storied history mandated its endurance. “We are the city’s main and longest source of good food, and we sit out on the city’s main source of water. “Managing a restaurant and running around as a teenager is one thing, but owning an almost-one-hundred-year-old business is a completely different thing.” His childhood memories are punctuated by working at the café with his father and grandfather.

Freeman & Harris Cafe’!…Pete Harris Cafe’!…Brother’s Seafood!!!…

Chapman said one of his managers has worked with four of the five generations of the family who have operated one of the incarnations of the café. In fact, 2021 was the 100th anniversary of the restaurant, according to Damien “Chapeaux” Chapman, one of the current managers of the family business. For 100 years and counting, the famed restaurant still serves southern and Creole classics. “My family is about making people happy through food. That’s what my family been known for for 97 years” says Damien. From the gumbo to the famous stuffed shrimp, there’s tradition and every bite here at Orlandeaux’s. Brenda Teele goes in depth at the oldest continuously operating African American owned restaurants in United States.

• Guests can climb aboard the Smokin’ Wheels Trolley and embark on a tasty tour of four local barbecue hotspots, where they’ll meet the pit masters and sample their creations.
• Casino & Hotel Louisiana in Bossier City, guests can indulge in a family-style Italian wine dinner that captures the heart of Italian tradition.
• As the oldest continuously operating Black-owned restaurant in the United States, this landmark has been serving guests since 1921.
• Fried seafood lovers will be on cloud nine with the options here.

Chef Chapeaux not only honors 103-year-old family traditions at his restaurant but also creates a sense of community that embodies what our area is all about. The restaurant is family-owned and has a long history, with food that remains just as good as it was at the original location. They are known for their Creole Cuisine including dishes like stuffed shrimp, gumbeaux, etoufée, po-boys and more. From its matchless atmosphere and delectable cuisine, these restaurants bring excellence.

Orlandeaux’s Honored

You can make a dinner reservation on the restaurant’s website. Make a reservation at the Shreveport restaurant here. The Pearl will host an event for local couples on Valentine’s Day called the Sovereign Sweetheart Valentine’s Day Dinner. This iconic Shreveport restaurant serves classic Creole cuisine. The Library on Fern also has an elegant bar area and an extensive collection of wine and local craft beer for you to choose from. This Shreveport restaurant serves various types of American dishes.

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“We feel that it’s really important as a corporation and a locally own company in Shreveport that we support the community as a whole. Since its origin, the restaurant has served as the gathering place not only for the who’s who of local residents, civic and community leaders, but celebrities and notables such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “I think it’s just the fact that we’re so rooted in the community outside of what we do inside these four walls. We bring the community together with our cooking. It’s the consistency of the food and the family-like atmosphere you receive when you come in here.” “Our stuffed shrimp is what we’re known for. It was created in the Freeman and Harris kitchen. People come from near and far to try that. Our gumbo and etouffee, our smothered pork chops, smothered goose liver and chicken liver. Those down-home southern cooking items that you got that grandmother was cooking in the day. That brings you all the way back to home.” Credited as one of the first establishments to offer the local-favorite stuffed shrimp, the dish remains popular on Orlandeaux’s menu.

Orlandeaux’s Tartar Sauce

Some of those changes were small but meaningful adjustments, such as manager Pete Harris’ decision to change the restaurant’s slogan from “House of Good Foods” to “House of Fine Foods” in 1957, telegraphing a more sophisticated sensibility. In 1936 the restaurant moved into a larger space in the historically Black neighborhood of Allendale, where it would function as a central hub of social life for sixty years. Business at Freeman & Harris was brisk, and the café orlandeauxs.com eventually outgrew its small, shared storefront on the Avenue. The city’s first Chinese restaurant, Canton Café, was located on the Avenue, as well as the first few locations of a long-running, Jewish-owned chain of liquor stores called Cuban Liquor. After an egg wash and a dunk in the deep fryer, they emerge looking more like corn dogs than fried shrimp.

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The food, atmosphere, and staff truly captured the essence of a Cajun restaurant. The greens were perfectly seasoned, but the stuffed shrimp stole the show. We had mustard greens, gumbo and the stuffed shrimp plate.

Located in Shreveport’s Allendale neighborhood, C&C Café serves up daily plate lunch specials that include smothered pork chops, red beans and rice, Shreveport-style stuffed shrimp, and more. Freeman and Harris Café was the first Black-owned restaurant in Shreveport and has always been a popular spot for the community. It’s recognized as the oldest continuously operating African American family–owned restaurant in the United States. Just a stone’s throw from the Shreveport Regional Airport along Interstate 20, chef Damien “Chapeaux” Chapman, a fifth-generation restaurateur, re-christened Orlandeaux’s Café (formerly Brother’s Seafood) in 2018. This week gives visitors and participants of 318 Restaurant Week a chance to get up close and personal with some of our most inspiring chefs and community ambassadors.” Diners can map out their week and see participating restaurants in the 318 Restaurant Week app.