SAN ANTONIO-- Destiny grabbed Charlie Coleman before he even had a driver's license.
At 14 years old, he started working in the restaurant industry. 50 years later, he owns a successful cajun and seafood restaurant in San Antonio's Stone Oak community.
Coleman and family opened River City Seafood and Grill five years ago at 115 Northeast Loop 1604. And you can't miss the place with its trademark blue awning.
The 64-year-old's experience stretches back to the Copeland's restaurant franchise and some eateries of his own.
When he and his wife moved to San Antonio, they had a hankering for Cajun with spellbinding spices. She, by the way, is from Slidell, Louisiana. That's 33 miles from New Orleans including a stretch across Lake Ponchartrain.
"I decided that we needed to put a new restaurant here," he said. "One that would offer great quality food, great service and give people the opportunity to taste what real Cajun food tastes like."
Coleman said as the menu was being he wanted flavorful food. In fact, he was not convinced River City Seafood and Grill should stake their claim to Cajun cuisine.
"When I first opened up I almost didn't want to call myself Cajun," he said. "I wanted to call myself flavorful seafood."
Glad he got over that. The restaurant boasts a large menu plating up salads, soups, crawfish, Étouffée, crab cake and a sinful bread pudding.
Neighborhood Eats hustled over to a table to sample several dishes starting with their top selling Strawberry chicken salad. The bowl comes with three kinds of lettuce, feta cheese, candied pecans, grilled chicken, sliced strawberries with a strawberry vinaigrette. Wonderful!
Coleman and crew do a fantastic job with their sizable catfish filets (4-5 ounces) on the catfish and jumbo shrimp plate. He uses a spice driven cornmeal blend to compliment the natural juices of the fish. The shrimp comes de-veined, butterflied and fried. The dipping sauces are homemade and so are the hush puppies (These comes with a punch of jalapeno.) Que Rico!
Next, we slipped into a bowl of shrimp and crab cake Alfredo. It comes with traditional Alfredo sauce, Cajun spices, angel hair pasta, shrimp and crab cake. Fabulous!
The same can be said for the crawfish. The mud bugs are brought in from Crowley, Louisiana. Then, the little critters go through a two pot process (cooking pot and a soaking pot) before they hit the table with potatoes and corn. Que Rico!
For dessert, Coleman brought out their homemade breading pudding with white chocolate and a Jack Daniels sauce. Did I mention the scoop of vanilla bean ice cream? Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!
That's this week's Neighborhood Eats. If you have a suggestion for Marvin send him an email (mhurst@kens5.com), tweet (@mhurstkens5) or post it on the KENS 5 Facebook page. #KENS5Eats