The Cajun Cocktail Queens

"Too much work," George said with a grimace as he finished his beer.

My first visit to the new Floyd's was on a Friday night at a quarter to eight. The bar was a madhouse, and the wait for a table was more than an hour. I got so hungry, I ordered three pounds of boiled crawfish and a couple of beers at the bar and carried them out to share with my dining companions, who were seated on the benches out front on the patio.

The other people outside looked somewhat horrified when we started ripping apart the crustaceans and sucking their heads. I had to go back to get a bucket to throw the shells into and a roll of paper towels to use as napkins. The crawfish were cooked in a spicy boil and then coated with more seasonings. They were so hot, they burned our lips. The two beers I bought were consumed before we'd eaten a quarter of the crawfish. I ended up holding the rest of the mudbugs in the tray on my lap until we could sit down and eat them properly.

We got our table at around nine. Thank goodness we'd already had the crawfish, because it was nine-thirty before we finally got something to eat.

The standout starters included the awesome fried jalapeños stuffed with crabmeat and the fried pickles. I was disappointed in the thin gumbo and not at all impressed by the chicken-and-sausage jambalaya. Meanwhile, all the fried stuff tasted great, including my seafood platter, the fried catfish dinner and a fried stuffed shrimp dinner. We left Floyd's at a quarter to ten. Of the two hours we spent there, 15 minutes were devoted to eating dinner.

Clearly, the best way to enjoy Floyd's is to stick with the spicy mudbugs and the wonderful fried Cajun food and to avoid the jambalaya and étouffées. And if you like cocktails, whatever the hour, skip the long wait for a table and join the festivities at the ever-jolly boat-shaped bar.

Wearing a tiara is never a bad idea, either.