Bucktown is smaller than its reputation suggests. The whole district amounts to the last two blocks of Lake Avenue plus two flanking blocks of Old Hammond Highway, and three seafood markets are what remain of a fishing village that once ran on the trade.
Russell Boudreaux has lived there his entire life and has been crabbing and shrimping since he was ten, half a century now. His catch and his neighbors’ can end up on a plate a few hundred feet from where it came out of the water. That short distance is the whole argument for driving out here instead of buying seafood somewhere else.
1. Deanie’s Seafood, 1713 Lake Avenue
Deanie’s was the first seafood market to open in Bucktown, and it has run since 1961. The building splits down the middle, with a market on one side and a restaurant on the other, which means customers can carry a bag out to the lake or sit down and let somebody else do the work.
The Chifici family runs it, and Barbara Chifici has been proprietor for about thirty years. The Sicilian family background shows up in the scratch cooking and the house Creole seasoning. Portions are the other signature. The Giant Seafood Platter covers fried oysters, catfish, shrimp, crawfish balls, soft-shell crabs, and boiled crawfish in one order, and most tables end up sharing. Complimentary red potatoes arrive spiced.
The restaurant runs 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Reservations are taken only for parties of 25 or more. Overflow parking sits across Plaquemine Street, which tells you how busy it gets. Call (504) 831-4141.
2. Schaefer & Rusich Seafood, 1726 Lake Avenue
This one started in a garage. Fishermen Merlin Schaefer and Johnny Rusich began selling fresh seafood out of the family’s own garage in 1969, first as a side business to unload shrimp. Four generations later the family still runs it, and most of the blue crabs come from Lake Pontchartrain a few hundred yards away.
People who have worked through every crawfish counter in Bucktown tend to land here. One reviewer described sampling all of them and settling on Schaefer’s, and Where Y’at calls the boiled crawfish among the best in town. Members of the family have been known to walk a curious customer through the whole operation.
Hours run Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday. The store expands its hours during crawfish season, which locals simply call in season. Call (504) 833-3973.
3. Captain Sid’s Seafood, 1700 Lake Avenue
Open since 1979 at the corner of Lake Avenue and Live Oak, Captain Sid’s takes the purest form of this. There is no dining room and no table service. Customers order at the counter, take the bag, and go sit by the water.
The seasoning gets mentioned more than anything else. Regulars describe the crawfish as clean and seasoned well without being punishing, which matters to anyone who has been handed a batch that fights back. The counter sells live and boiled crawfish, crabs, and shrimp, with sides including potatoes, garlic, and mushrooms. The deli case holds crawfish pies, stuffed crabs, turtle soup, and alligator sausage. The house boil seasoning is for sale, and so is frozen bait shrimp for anyone fishing the lake afterward.
Hours run Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday. Call ahead at (504) 831-2840, because the counter runs out of things without warning.
One geographic note. Lake Avenue sits in Bucktown on the Jefferson Parish side, and West End is the New Orleans neighborhood next door across the 17th Street Canal. Both share the same stretch of lakefront, and the levee near either one works fine for eating a sack of crawfish outdoors.
