Boo Ray's of New Orleans, Crowley

Scott Marks remembers the aromas of his childhood in Bucktown, Louisiana: gumbo, crawfish pie, and jambalaya. Along with business partner Richard Sloan, he opened Boo Ray’s to spread the fragrant food he loved so much, trying to mimic his family’s cooking down to the spicy corn-flour-blend coating a plate of shrimp and the andouille sausage flecking the gravy pooled atop a chicken-fried steak. In addition to classic jambalaya and red beans and rice, the cooks also tackle staples of fine dining such as filet mignon, which they stuff with shrimp and crab and top with homemade crawfish hollandaise. Seafood takes a starring role in dishes ranging from cedar-plank salmon to shrimp en brochette, which are stuffed with jalapeños and cheese before being wrapped in bacon. Guests can kick back in a dining room large and relaxed enough for groups of all sizes and age ranges or share baskets of marinated, deep-fried alligator while shouting love poems at the athletes on one of the bar’s 10 flat-screen TVs.