Creole cuisine's distinct spices stem from its attitude-laden ingredients, such as brazen peppers, incredulous shrimp, and sassy-fras. Give your taste buds some lip with today's Groupon from Augusta Restaurant in Oxford.

Choose from two options:

• For $15, you get $30 worth of dinner fare (valid 3p.m.–Close).
• For $6, you get $12 worth of lunch fare (valid 11a.m.–3p.m.).

New Orleans veterans Jeri and Ben Halperin blend Creole culinary know-how with local ingredients to create Augusta Restaurant's signature dishes. Fire the sustenance-starting pistol with crawfish beignets ($8), which jog toward your tongue’s finish line alongside spicy remoulade. Protein options, such as the marinated hanger steak ($16 for petite cut, $24 for full), are seared in wood fire grills before befriending herbed butter, wild mushroom, or red wine bordelaise sauces. Lip-smackers can forgo flatware and dive head first into the Best Pork Tenderloin in Iowa ($10), a beastly belly-buster topped with homemade pickles on a freshly baked bun. The lunchtime option is also valid towards Sunday brunch.

Reviews

Augusta Restaurant was named one of 2009's Best Restaurants in Iowa by The Iowa Source, and it has been featured in The Cornellian:

• With a cajun-influenced menu, generous portions of made-from-scratch food, and shockingly modest prices, Augusta Restaurant is cherished by local residents as much as farflung fans. – Sarah Kingsbury, Nina Benjamin, and Claudia Petrick, The Iowa Source
• The aroma wafting from the [gumbo] soup is intoxicating and I wish I could bottle it forever. – Jessica Jones, The Cornellian