Revealed – Louisiana’s ‘Best Small Town’ Restaurant

(KMDL-FM) Life in the small towns of Louisiana. It's a different pace that's for sure. The only time you encounter a traffic jam is when two old friends stop in the middle of Main Street in their pickup trucks for a brief conversation, and nobody seems to mind. We just wait, one day we might see a friend and need to say hello.

And quite often in Louisiana small towns, those pleasantries, when not exchanged in traffic, are exchanged over plates of delicious food from sometimes nondescript diners and "holes in the wall". As a dear friend and connoisseur of Louisiana cuisine once said to me," You can't eat ambiance," but still, it's nice to dine at a place with some personality, right?

READ MORE: Legendary Louisiana Diner Makes Southern Living's "Best Of" List

The folks at Tasting Table, that's a culinary website that focuses on food and drink content. The site offers original recipes, restaurant reviews, cooking tips, and, for our purposes today, a complete list of the Best Small Town Restaurants in the USA.

The curators of the Tasting Table list used reviews from loyal customers, online customers, and foodies in every state. They also combed the menus for specialty items and unique presentations. Of course, there was an added emphasis on ambiance, which you can't eat, and personalized service, which always seems to be better in a small town.

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Where Is Darrow, Louisiana?

For the selection that Tasting Table offered on its list, you'll need to know where the small community of Darrow, Louisiana, is located. Let me give you a hint, it's right on the Mississippi River, and if you're standing in Donaldsonville, all you have to do is look across the river, that's Darrow.

According to the most recent Census data, Darrow, located in Ascension Parish, is an unincorporated community of about 200 people. One of the leading reasons that people come to visit Darrow is the Tasting Table selection, Latil's Landing Restaurant at Houmas House and Gardens.

I am not going to make you believe this is a small-town restaurant. This is a New Orleans restaurant that happens to be in a small community. Chef Jeremy Langlois is a food celebrity. He's been on TV shows such as Chopped, and his reputation in the culinary world is, in fact, worldwide.

His signature dish is a bisque of curried pumpkin, crawfish, and corn, and though I've personally never had it, just from that description, I want to. The ambiance, which you still can't eat, is beyond intriguing as well. Latil's Landing is situated in an 18th-century manor with high beamed ceilings. It's part of Houmas House Plantation and Gardens.

It looks like a fabulous place for an incredible meal. Of course, if you don't want to go someplace that fancy, that's the beauty of Louisiana and our small towns, good food doesn't care anything about fancy, just look for a local "hole in the wall" near you and Bon Appétit.