Crawfish Cravings at Swampy's Cajun Shack

At lunchtime one day, we stopped by Swampy's for some more crawfish. We also sampled a couple of the lunch specials. One taste of Swampy's terrible chicken and sausage jambalaya convinced me that there was something wrong with the Blanchard family's recipes. Jambalaya is a slow-cooked rice dish I like to think of as Cajun risotto. Swampy's jambalaya tasted more like par-boiled rice mixed with some sausage, chicken chunks and tomato sauce. Their shrimp creole also tasted thrown together.

That day we met Swampy's owner, a sixtysomething aging hippie with long gray hair and three earrings. No, he wasn't from Louisiana — he was from Philadelphia, he told us. And his name wasn't Blanchard; it was Bob Ginsburg. So what about the Cyrus Blanchard story by the front door?

"I made it up," said Ginsburg. There is no Cyrus Blanchard. But there really is a Blanchard family — they run swamp tours in Cajun Country. Ginsburg said he asked them for permission to borrow their name, and they thought it was pretty funny.

Ginsburg is a Houston bar scene veteran. He used to own several Richard Head's (a.k.a. Dick Head's) locations. After he sold "Dick Head's, he opened Swampy's Cajun Shack in Katy in November of 2006. Ginsburg wanted to open a bar, but the owner of the shopping center wanted a Cajun restaurant, so they ­compromised.

At lunchtime that Tuesday, there were a dozen people in the bar at Swampy's and only four in the dining room. Judging by the cloud of smoke, I'd guess that part of the appeal of the place is Katy's lack of a smoking ordinance.

Crawfish lovers who plan their schedules around mudbug parties this time of the year will want to put Swampy's on the calendar. There's crawfish and live music on the patio at Magnolia Grill on Tuesdays. There's the crawfish eating contest at Mardi Gras on Durham on Wednesday, April 16. And then there's Swampy's in Katy, which has $3.50-a-pound crawfish and live music on the patio every Friday and Saturday night.

It seems odd to recommend a lackluster restaurant like Swampy's, but I love the place. You just have to realize that the best joint for boiled crawfish is not always the best place to order dinner.

If you want great Louisiana-style cooking, go to Brennan's. But if you're looking for a place to eat cheap crawfish, drink beer, smoke cigarettes and sing along to Freddy Fender tunes at the top of your lungs, you can hardly do better than Swampy's.