Sister Cities Cajun

Sister Cities Cajun is a Cajun and Creole kitchen in Marine Villa, and its name is a piece of history: St. Louis and New Orleans were both founded by the French, and the restaurant is named for the parallel between them.

The cooking sits where those threads meet – classical French technique, traditional Cajun and Creole dishes, and a modern American willingness to put them on a taco. Cajun smoked wings, seafood gumbo and chicken-and-sausage jambalaya are the backbone. The tacos are the part that surprises people: spicy shrimp, smoked chicken, blackened zucchini or fish, dressed with Cajun slaw, remoulade and a corn and poblano salsa.

The restaurant has earned its position the hard way. It opened in Dutchtown in 2013 and was forced to close when a car came through the front window in January 2016. It reopened – and in March a second car hit the front. At that point the co-owners, Pamela Melton and Travis Parfait, moved the business to South Broadway, where it has been since.

It sits south-east of Cherokee Antique Row, a short drive from the antique shops, and it is one of the reasons people who know south St. Louis keep telling visitors to eat outside the central neighbourhoods.