The most common way to experience the Deep South is to find a street magician and hope he pulls a shiny Louisiana state quarter from your ear. Taste another option when there are no illusionists handy with today's Groupon to Gumbo YaYa's in Jacksonville Beach. Choose between two options:

• For $19, you get a Cajun dinner for two (up to a $45.90 total value). The dinner includes:
• Two entrees or specialties (up to a $15.95 value each)
• Two beverages, beers, or cocktails (up to a $7 value each)

• For $5, you get $10 worth of anything on the menu during lunch. Entrees range from $5.25 to $15.25.

Gumbo YaYa's owners, Lauren and Robert Alley, draw upon their grandmother's recipes and a palette of shrimp, catfish, and crab to forge time-tested Cajun dishes. Swap tastes from piquant seas of jambalaya or chicken and sausage gumbo, or bask alongside shrimp étouffée on a soft bed of rice like a lethargic zydeco band. Larger platters of fried oysters slow appetites, and seasoned farm-raised catfish nuzzles against 1 of 11 different side dishes.

Like the festive menu, Gumbo YaYa's beverage list beams with revelry, and patrons soothe warmed tongues on Pat O'Brien's hurricanes and frozen daiquiris. The dining room's glitzy interior is decked in New Orleans Saints gear and Mardi Gras memorabilia, allowing diners to authentically experience a new locale's cuisine without dicing issues of National Geographic.