Six days a week, twice on weekdays, Lester Gautier is there. “I usually get the plate lunch, like a meatball stew, or maybe go off-menu for a large shrimp salad,” he says. “But really, whatever they put in the plate is usually good for me.”
But why six days a week at Dwyer’s Café’ in downtown Lafayette? Why not all seven? Gautier laughs. “Well, I usually skip Saturdays. I don’t want to have too much of a good thing.” Still, Gautier is a proud and loyal member of the Dwyer’s Café ‘faithful’ who recognize that, in his words, “…good food is good food…”
Which then leads to a statement that summarizes something so many have known about Dwyer’s for decades. “This is a ‘go-to’ place.”
Fun fact: Dwyer’s Café was not always known as Dwyer’s Café’. “It was Pop Stinson’s Café’ on Jefferson Street back in 1927, right when he moved his family from Patterson so his children could go to college and attend SLI (now the University of Louisiana),” explains Mike Dwyer. His father, Stanley, began working for the Stinson’s in the mid-forties. The restaurant moved a few times, with its longest residence at the Gordon Hotel, then a fairly popular Hub City lodging establishment.
“My father then bought the restaurant from Mrs. Stinson in 1965,” says Mike Dwyer, “and the menu he put in back then is pretty much what is now. Plate lunch. Sandwich. Breakfast.” There have been a few small changes. “We used to serve a supper meal and my Dad would be open ‘til 8 p.m. And also, even though it was the best day of the week, he started closing on Sundays because he didn’t want to miss Mass,” he chuckles.
Ten years later, it was time for Stanley Dwyer to pass the torch to Mike. “I’d attended the seminary, then changed my mind and went to USL, where in between and after classes I washed dishes and mopped floors here at the restaurant. But when I think about it, Dwyer’s was always in my blood; I always knew I’d be back here. Dad sold it to me in 1975.”
The restaurant hadn’t yet found its current home on 323 Jefferson Street. But 1978 offered a golden opportunity for the next chapter. “This corner was Pete’s Shoe Shine and Barber Shop,” recalls Mike. “From there, I made them an offer on the building.”
Dwyer’s Café has always been a stop for Louisiana’s movers-and-shakers; if you are running for office, the restaurant is a place to be seen and shake hands. Within reason, that is. “When Mike was owner,” remembers Gautier, “a certain gubernatorial candidate called, ‘Look we want to have something at Dwyer’s Café, is that alright?’ Mike said, ‘Sure, come on down’. And then the candidate said, ‘And we want it for free.’ Mike said, ‘No, no. Yes, my restaurant’s open, anyone can come, but no, I’m not paying for any candidate to come’.” Gautier smiles about the way it turned out. “I’m glad he did that, because the candidate was a guy I was opposed to, and if I had to pay to get something to eat, I didn’t want him getting something for free.”
Mike Dwyer guided the restaurant through some golden times and, yes, some tough ones, too. Mention the oil bust of the early 1980s and his voice becomes solemn and serious. “In 83, things got awful slow in Lafayette, and it wasn’t the whole country that was suffering, it was just this area. But I still had to finance the restaurant for 10 years, and I had to finish paying it off. So, we just kept at it and weathered the storm.”
For the longest time, the restaurant was the same, with consistent menu passed along from generation to generation, and that lunch counter. “They would have those little stools, that counter with those little, tiny stools,” adds Gautier.
From 1975 to 2012, Mike Dwyer was the Dwyer driving the bus. But natural progression in the restaurant business brought about change. “My dad had owned it for 10 years and he sold it to me,” says Mike. “So, in 2012, I thought I’d do the same thing for my kids. I turned it over to them.”
‘Them’ was—and IS—Mike’s sons Craig and Brett. “I think we both tried to do other stuff, but would always gravitate here, always been attracted back here,” offers 50-year-old Craig. “Brett is more like the sheriff, like Mom; I’m more like Dad who goes with the flow. It works well.”
It’s been 60 years since the name Dwyer’s Café officially became a thing. The recipes, explains 45-year-old Brett, are pretty much all the same. “But we’ve never had a written recipe. My grandpa made hamburger steaks a certain way, my dad watched how my grandpa did, we watched Dad, and that’s how me and Craig learned.”
Dwyer’s, with its comfort food and open atmosphere, is the regular home to gatherings of a number of special interest groups. “The French table, started by Rick Michot, has been meeting here on Wednesday mornings for 42 years. Then there’s the Franklin Expatriots, people who moved out of Franklin,” says Gautier. “In fact, this morning, I had a Monday mentality but then I saw those guys and I said, ‘No wait! There’s the Franklin group; so, it must be Tuesday!!’”
Why is Dwyer’s Café still in existence? Better put, why is Dwyer’s Café still thriving? Brett says it comes down to the consistent presence of family. “I think if you didn’t have the family aspect, I don’t think it would still be around. I think people come in here and like knowing we’re still here, especially our older regulars. And we’re the ones still doing all the cooking.”
There are no immediate plans for Craig or Brett to hang up their chef hats and aprons. That, in and of itself, comes as a relief to a loyal Dwyer’s customer like Lester Gautier.
“I had scrambled eggs and an English muffin here this morning,” he laughs. “And it was good. It was real good.”