Louisiana roots are feeding Philly’s new surge of New Orleans-style cooking

At Bourbon & Branch, a homey taproom in Northern Liberties, chef Brooke Alan serves gumbo two ways: in a bowl and in an egg roll.

The first draws on Alan’s Louisiana childhood. The second owes something to Philadelphia — in particular, the inventive egg rolls at Black Dragon Takeout in West Philadelphia.

“They have all these amazing egg rolls, and I thought, ‘Wow, you really can do anything with them,’” she said.

Bourbon & Branch, which hired Alan last month, is part of a small surge in Louisiana cooking around Philadelphia. At Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese in Rittenhouse, seafood-boil noodles and chicken with dirty rice reflect chef Carolyn Nguyen’s Louisiana upbringing. Rougarou Baking in Queen Village brings together Creole and Jewish traditions. Lafayette’s Creole Kitchen & Bar opened last month at Philadelphia International Airport with gumbo, étouffée, and po’boys.

And on Friday, brothers Greg and Chris Lynch will open Philly Po’Boy Co. in Kensington, where Greg has spent about 18 months developing the bread for their po’boys.

» READ MORE: Preview: House-baked po'boy rolls and beignets at Philly Po'Boy Co.

These newcomers join an established local appetite for Louisiana Creole cuisine. Bill Beck’s Beck’s Cajun Cafe, which opened in 2009 in Reading Terminal Market and expanded in 2023, dishes Cajun and Creole fare, including shrimp and crawfish étouffée, jambalaya, red beans and rice, and several gumbos, including chicken-and-andouille and alligator, as well as po’boys served on rolls baked daily by a local Vietnamese bakery.

Khyber Pass Pub in Old City, which adopted Cajun and Creole stylings in 2010 when Stephen Simons and David Frank took it over, serves gumbos, jambalaya, and po’boys made on rolls shipped from New Orleans’ Leidenheimer Baking Co. In the suburbs, High Street Caffe in West Chester has specialized in the cuisine since 1996, while Cajun Kate’s, marking its 20th anniversary, operates at Booth’s Corner Farmers Market and near Wilmington. In Medford, Louisiana native Debbie Rogers opened CrawDaddy’s Cajun in 2024 after starting with a food truck.

Alan, previously a sous chef at Middle Child Clubhouse, has revamped Bourbon & Branch’s dinner menu, while most of brunch remains traditional. The bar’s earlier claim to fame was a pizza program under the direction of co-owner Daniel Gutter. The pizzas are gone now.

Alan’s family comes from the Covington-Slidell area, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. They left Louisiana when she was 4 and moved frequently because of her father’s military service.

“These flavors were so prevalent in my childhood that they’ve really been a mainstay in my life,” Alan said. “As you have different life experiences, you see ways to play with them.”

Alan lived in New York from 2006 to 2016 before following a sister who had enrolled at Temple University. Though Philadelphia had Southern restaurants, she said, it was difficult to find the particular dishes she remembered from childhood. Cooking at bars with flexible menus gave her opportunities to introduce them.

“I’ve been able to sneak some of it in there,” she said.

At Bourbon & Branch, gumbo is a signature.

“It’s forever been one of the most nostalgic and cathartic things for me to make,” Alan said.

Her menu also includes a vegan sweet potato casserole, developed partly with her largely vegan family in mind. She wanted something beyond the usual vegan entrées.

“So I thought, ‘What about a casserole?’” she said. “Casseroles are homey. They’re wonderful. You can build layers of flavor, and you can do exactly what you want with them.”

For a beef shank dish, Alan pairs a sweet plum-based glaze with grits made from fresh corn. The kernels are lightly processed to retain some texture, then cooked until thickened. The result tastes of fresh, sweet Jersey corn.

At Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese, 2015 Walnut St., Nguyen draws on her upbringing in Amelia, in Louisiana’s St. Mary Parish, and her Vietnamese family’s cooking.

Bánh canh, the thick Vietnamese noodle soup, becomes a seafood boil with shrimp, mussels, and fried potatoes.

Slow-cooked grits come topped with pork belly, a soft egg, and pickled vegetables. Hoi An chicken is served with ginger dirty rice, braised collards, and herb remoulade.

For Paige and Zach Wernick, the combination at Rougarou Baking reflects two family backgrounds: Paige’s connections to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and Zach’s Jewish heritage.

The couple opened the bakery in April at 526 S. Fourth St., following a series of pop-ups. Jambalaya-stuffed hand pies and chocolate babka were among the pastries that built their following.

“We were both homesick,” Paige said before the opening. “This is our way of striking a balance of staying in touch with the cultures we grew up in.”

Lafayette’s, near the airport’s B/C Connector, takes its name from the Louisiana city where chef-partner Toyin Alli’s maternal family has roots.

Alli began selling gumbo and bread pudding at a Washington farmers market in 2010 while working for Amtrak. She and her husband, Reginald Johnson, expanded that business, Puddin’, before opening the airport restaurant in October. Its menu includes gumbo, shrimp étouffée, red beans and rice, po’boys, and brown butter bourbon bread pudding.

At Philly Po’Boy Co., 102 W. Berks St., next to Berks Station on the Market-Frankford Line, the Lynches are concentrating on sandwiches, gumbo, and beignets.

Chris, executive chef at New Orleans’ Atchafalaya, spent much of the last 30 years cooking in that city. Greg, whose career includes a decade with Stephen Starr, is running the Philadelphia kitchen.

The brothers had long imagined opening a full-service restaurant with a liquor license. Over time, a smaller po’boy shop became more appealing.

Greg made roughly 150 test batches to develop the rolls’ thin crust and light interior. The opening sandwiches include fried shrimp, oysters, catfish, and roast beef debris; the sidewalk kiosk will serve café au lait and beignets in the morning.

“We really wanted to separate ourselves through the bread,” Greg said. “When you eat one of our sandwiches, it should make you feel like you’re in New Orleans.”