I was in another diner in Boulder one morning about a month ago when I overheard a conversation between two long-timers about iconic restaurants in town. When the name Lucile’s was uttered, sentimental and adoring gasps were released.
And then again recently I heard clamor about Lucile’s, about a place that caters to a very specific hankering.
Lucile’s Creole Café — with locations throughout the Front Range — comes up time and time again in conversations about great Boulder restaurants. It strikes a chord in the community. When we talk about the Boulder location, we talk about the Victorian home just off Pearl Street in which diners cram in to every corner every morning. We talk about the worn fabric rags the silverware comes in, the chicory coffee and the Creole art on the walls. Most of all though, we talk about the food.
Maybe that’s because it’s one of the only places to get New Orleans breakfast and lunch specialties in Boulder County — beignets, pain perdu, red beans and rice, shrimp and grits, and praline waffles. Or maybe it’s because the food is just good, and you don’t need to eat again until dinner after a brunch at Lucile’s.
So when the name Lucile’s came up again one lazy morning recently, there was no hesitation in returning to the landmark once again.
First came a plate of billowy beignets. They’re puffed pillows of fried dough, topped with powder sugar. You tear the beignet apart, you dip it in the rich and strong coffee at Lucile’s and you’re off to a really great start. In the summer, when the old home gets a little stuffy and the murmur of singsong conversations echo off the walls, and you’re dipping beignets, it almost feels like you’re in Café du Monde on some humid, lively day. More so, you’re taking part in the ritual of a slow meal with friends, but even more, you’re just eating some damn good doughnuts.
Then it was time for the wash day meal of red beans and rice. Wash day, or Monday, is the day in which New Orleans women traditionally put on a big pot of beans and, well, did the wash. Added into the beans were bits of ham and whatever bone was left over from the meal the night before, and after simmering it all day, what comes out of the pot is savory magic.
Lucile’s wash day meal certainly lives up to the tradition — and it needn’t be Monday to get it. The red beans come thick and goopy, and rest on top of the white rice with a sprig of parsley. Sitting proud and gray on top of the heap is a split andouille sausage, pressed and charred into a grill.
It’s a satisfying and filling meal, alright. It’s a belly warmer, and it’s comforting. On the side is a big block of cornbread, on which either the apple butter or the strawberry rhubarb jam is fantastic.
Around the table, there’s a Cajun breakfast of poached eggs over red beans with hollandaise sauce, and several buttery biscuits that go down without a fight. Other Lucille’s favorites not ordered that day but are definitely worth an order include the pain perdu (French toast) and the eggs New Orleans (fried eggplant slices topped with Creole sauce, poached eggs and hollandaise.)
It’s also worth noting that the Boulder location doesn’t serve alcohol due to building restrictions, but you can take home a bottle of their robust bloody mary mix and add it to, oh, whatever brand of vodka you have lying around the office. That’s what we did and boy did les bon temps rouler. Followed by naps.
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