Most restaurants, in addition to serving food, serve an experience. Whether it’s the atmosphere, the decor, the menu, there is a purpose at work to enhance the dining experience and draw the customer back for more. Intentionally or not, Pat’s Fisherman’s Wharf Restaurant and Bar — better known simply as Pat’s — in Henderson, Louisiana, has done that. Since the first lunch stand opened 70 years ago, it has grown to shape the culture of the area rather than just portraying it.
“One thing about this place, about us – we’re real people,” said Harvey Huval, the son of founder Pat Huval and the current general manager of the Pat’s empire. “We don’t deal with fakers.” It’s hard to fake anything when you’re surrounded by your family and extended family every day. His youngest brother, Jude, is the current head chef. Although he enrolled in the Louisiana Culinary Institute in Baton Rouge, completing his studies in 2008, he had a lifetime of knowledge before he ever set foot on the campus.
“My mom showed me how to cook – showed me everything she had to show me,” Jude said. “And I wanted to put a twist on what my mom had taught me. I said, ‘I want to take it a little further.’”
Perhaps the biggest change that came out of Jude’s time in Baton Rouge was the addition of sauces, both savory and sweet. The cream sauce is also part of Catfish Patrick, a dish that resembles two cinnamon buns, except that instead of pastry, strips of succulent catfish wind around a core of sweet crabmeat, with a crust of herbs and spices alongside the cream sauce.
Huval also applied his saucier skills to improve the rum sauce served with the restaurant’s bread pudding. Additionally, he introduced a couple of new dessert items: crème brulée and blackberry cobbler. “So that’s what culinary school has done – allowed us to tweak our menu,” said Huval. “And keep our business rolling.”
Harvey’s and Jude’s sister, Cynthia Huval Domingue, oversees the operation on the days Harvey is off. Like her siblings, she remembers the restaurant’s various incarnations, from the drive-up lunch shack which grew into a larger restaurant and dance hall, to a later cinder-block structure — then the current location, a sprawling complex across Bayou Amy from the
original Pat’s site.
She’s also very familiar with the other local residents, the alligators that gather along the outdoor patio over the bayou, waiting for a table scrap or two during dining hours.
“There are many alligators in Bayou Amy,” she said. “But, we did have an alligator pit at one time where we had three gators. We used to feed the gators and everything. And then, eventually, the bottom of the pit rotted out, and they swam to freedom.
“But they still come back to get fed,” Domingue continued. “And they will only eat bread. You can throw French fries, you can throw the best entrée we have over here, they are not gonna eat it. If it’s not the bread, they’re not havin’ it. Marshmallows? No. They just want the bread.”
She said that the ‘gator community has learned that Pat’s diners can be a soft touch.
“They’ll come back right there and wait to be fed,” Domingue said. “There’s even some new ones. There was a baby out there today.”
It’s not just immediate family that defines the culture at Pat’s. Charles and Millard Hebert, who grew up across the levee from Pat’s current location, have worked at the restaurant since the 1960s. Charles Hebert serves as institutional memory, having worked alongside Pat Huval from the early days, before there was an interstate highway. Back then, anyone wanting to sample the restaurant’s wares had to drive along the Henderson levee road to get to the place.
“You would have had to be there to see this to believe it,” Charles Hebert said. “We used to sell $30,000 from Monday to Friday afternoon. We’d close out everything at 4 o’clock. Then, from Friday afternoon until Sunday night when we’d close, we’d sell another $45,000.”
It wasn’t always peaches and cream, or even rice and gravy. Charles recalled one time that he and Pat had a disagreement. “I don’t know why, but something rubbed me the wrong way,” Charles said. “They had a club across the street. So, I left and walked over there.” He started working there but wasn’t content to let things lie. “You know that song, ‘Take This Job and Shove It,’” he said. “I played that f***in’ record all day long over there — loud, so he could hear it.” The mood, mercurial as it may have been, cooled over the ensuing days.
“I worked over there for about a couple of months,” he said. “And then I came back. He came to talk to me, and we smoothed things out.” Pat Huval had a way with people, that’s for sure. Richard Calais, who runs the Atchafalaya Club, a Cajun dancehall adjacent to the restaurant, is a relative newcomer. Calais had recently quit his job running a club called Wrangler’s in Carencro when Pat approached him about managing the Atchafalaya Room in 2004.
“Pat drove up to my house one day, knocked on my door and said, ‘Hey, man – you wanna come run my club?’” Calais said. “He was an old coonass, you know. I said, ‘Yeah, Pat.’ So we agreed on a price. And he said, ‘Hey, you can bring your boy with you.’” His boy, Richard Jr., is still there, working security for the Atchafalaya Room. “He was raised in here, like everybody else,” Calais laughed. With gym-honed muscles and an imposing profile, complete with a white Van Dyke beard, Calais looks the part of the serious operator who brooks no nonsense.
“Really, I run the club,” Calais said. “But anytime they have trouble — hotel, restaurant, anything — they call me. We have people come and say, ‘Well, you’re just a bouncer. What are you? Just a bouncer.’ No, cat. I’m the guy that could run you outta here.”
Altogether, there are five separate businesses combined in the Pat’s compound. Along with the restaurant and the dance hall, there’s a 28-room hotel (the Edgewater Inn), a seafood
processing facility, and a pre-packaged roux sideline.
The word that got tossed around a lot to describe Pat Huval was “visionary.” He had only a second- or third-grade education, but whatever he could imagine, he could draw and present to someone to have it built. He drew plans for various parts of the restaurant itself, as well as equipment he designed to make commercial-size batches of roux.
“This might have been the second one,” Jude said, showing off the machine where the roux was created. “In our machine, it takes 100 pounds of flour and 11 gallons of oil. It takes four hours for the first batch – and about three hours after the pot’s hot.” Inside the hopper, four blades turn, slowly scraping the heated sides of the tank where the ingredients are mixed.
Pat Huval also knew how to envision the people he wanted working in his restaurant. In addition to the Heberts and Calais, the Broussard family also holds down a presence at Pat’s.
Deborah Broussard works as a cook, while Melvin Broussard, a Cecilia native, tends bar. He is highly recommended for his Bloody Marys, a drink that has taken on a new life in the hands of Acadiana bartenders. “I do have a good Bloody Mary,” Broussard agreed. At age 34, he has already worked 20 years at Pat’s, starting out at the age of 14. “I think it’s the love I put in it,” he said. “Each one has a little bit of love.”
Calais, who had been listening from a few feet away, grunted and moved away as the schmalz increased. A customer chatted with Melvin for a few moments before settling on the Bloody
Mary for her drink order. “Ok, I’ll get you a Bloody Mary, my love,” Melvin said with a lilt and a smile as he set to work. Calais, from stage right, called out. “Don’t mess it up, Melvin,” he teased. “I’ll have to break one of your legs.”
Together, the blend of personalities and abilities make for an unforgettable experience, one that Harvey Huval is now responsible for carrying on. “I’m the general manager. I oversee the whole thing, so it’s all my fault,” joked Huval. “If we do well, it’s me. If we do bad, it’s me. But I’m a good driver. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs. Work out three days a week. I’m a critical thinker and a multi-tasker.”
“And I got good staff,” he added. “We love what we do. I take care of them, and they take care of me.”