Suire’s Restaurant & the Rip Van Winkle Home and Gardens, Cajun Country, Louisiana

Suire's Restaurant

We heard a lot about Suire’s Restaurant – basically a small grocery store with great Cajun food, so we went with some fellow Betty RV’ers ~ JC & Bev (whom we also saw in Austin) and Karen & Michael, a very new (two months) fulltiming couple from Seattle.

Well, it was unanimous ~ not great food at Suire’s.  We were disappointed – the pistolettes and boudins were greasy and the food just okay.   Bummer, as we’ve really been touting the food here in southern Louisiana. We guess one miss is to be expected……

Rip Van Winkle Home & Gardens

 

We six then went to the Rip Van Winkle home and gardens ~ another area where fellow RV’er shave been sharing that is wonderful.  In a nutshell, Joseph Jefferson made his fortune playing Rip Van Winkle and built this home (among others) in 1870.  Eventually the home and land were sold and the gardens were developed in the 1950’s, and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and place to tour, enjoy a lunch, or even have a wedding.

At a cost of $10 per person, one can self-tour the garden, see the (not very good) movie, and take a tour of the first floor of the home (which start every hour on the hour).

  

Let’s start with the good:

• The tour was very nice and out tour guide very knowledgeable, friendly, and affable, especially considering we were a bit of a rowdy crowd.
• The lake was lovely with a nice cool breeze.
• Although we did not eat in the dining room, we’ve heard the food is great (albeit a bit pricy).

And now the areas where some improvement could be made:

• The sales associate of the gift shop, with whom we also paid our entrance fee, was not friendly, not nice, not welcoming ~ a serious course in customer service is  needed, which Suzanne is more than willing to teach if the proprietors are so inclined.
• The movie (again, this seems to be a theme with the movies we keep seeing in this area) was not well done – we walked away wondering what it was all about……. 

Overall, the gardens were nice, but we aren’t here at the right time of year to really see things in bloom.  We did see a few peacocks and a few blooming flowers, but we hear spring is the best time.

 

Would we come here again…….probably not. We enjoyed more, and learned more, at the Shadows-on-the-Teche antebellum home in New Iberia, and their gardens were, in our opinion, nicer. We did get a few nice pictures, so enjoy!

 

 

 

Brad waiting for someone to bring him a Mint Julep.

 

 

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