EVANSVILLE − It’s nice to see a little mom-and-pop business do well, and Jan’s Place Cajun Restaurant has flourished in the nearly six months it’s been operating.

We introduced Jan's place in November, when it began as a a pop-up offering to-go gumbo and chili on the weekends. The food made a name for itself, and owners Kenneth and Roxanne Smith decided to lease dining space in the Expansion Joint Events Center to have sit-down service five days a week.

“I didn’t think we would be doing sit-down dining for like a year, but things progressed so quickly,” Kenneth said. “It’s been a learning curve. My wife and sister-in-law are helping, but I’ve been known to close the restaurant and prep until 5 am and then sleep for a few hours and come back to open.”

The restaurant is very homegrown. Smith cooks two kinds of gumbo, red beans and rice and chili, whips up beignet dough, grinds boudin sausage and makes boudin balls, serves, takes care of social media, marketing and more. Roxanne cooks up orders in the kitchen and her sister, Samantha Burkholder, helps serve. With some occasional help from the kids, that’s it. Still, the menu has grown robust and Smith runs specials as well.

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Meals from Jan's Place are also now available for delivery through DoorDash and GrubHub.

A note: As Jan's Place is such a tiny and new restaurant, it's far better for the Smiths to run out of a daily special than have a bunch left over, so if you're going later in the day, check the Facebook page for announcements that the special is gone, or call early to reserve and pay for what you need.

Smith plans to host a crawfish boil soon. Live crawfish were in short supply and expensive during Mardi Gras season this year, so many restaurants chose not to serve them. Prices have become more reasonable, however, so if you missed your yearly boil, watch for one at Jan’s Place.

Here are a just few menu items and descriptions for those not extremely familiar with Cajun cuisine.

On the menu at Jan’s Place

Po’ Boys

First and foremost when we discuss the menu at Jan’s Place, understand that Smith is making the effort to purchase real Leidenheimer bread, baked six blocks from St. Charles Avenue, in New Orleans, at the 128-year-old Leidenheimer Bakery. Anyone who has eaten in New Orleans knows that the local French bread has a texture and chew that is unlike anything else. A po’ boy on a hoagie roll might taste good, but it’s just not the same.

Choose oysters, gator, catfish, shrimp or chicken tenders for your po’ boy. It will come dressed with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, Creole mustard and mayonnaise.

Soups

Jan’s place offers two kinds of gumbo – chicken and sausage, and seafood.

The seafood gumbo is made with a darker roux for a deep flavor and contains lump crab meat, shrimp and crawfish tails alongside the Cajun trinity of vegetables – onion, bell pepper and celery. It’s mildly spicy.

The chicken and sausage gumbo is made with a lighter roux, chicken and Andouille sausage. It’s only very mildly spicy from the flavorings in the sausage. In addition to the Cajun trinity, it contains okra. Both gumbos are combined with rice.

Also on the menu are a spicy chili from Smith’s own family recipe and red beans and rice, slowly simmered together with sausage.

Boudin Balls

Boudin is a sausage that Smith hand-grinds from vegetables, rice, spices and meat. He makes two versions – one with crawfish and one with pork sausage. Down South, boudin usually has liver in it, but Smith leaves that out of his recipe to accommodate local tastes. The sausage is rolled into balls, coated with breadcrumbs, deep-fried until crunchy and served with the house B&B sauce, a savory orange mayonnaise-based concoction with creole mustard, spices and a touch of honey.

Fried Seafood

In true Southern style, the catfish, shrimp, and gator are dunked in buttermilk and hand-breaded to order with a flour and cornmeal coating with Cajun seasonings. Fried oysters are available as well. Have your choice in a basket with fries or on a sampler platter with your choice of two soups.

Corn ribs

Whole ears of fresh corn are cut into wedges, then deep fried and tossed with a spicy Cajun butter.

Quesadillas

There's nothing wrong with a little fusion cooking. The quesadillas at Jan’s place are filled with Cajun-seasoned chicken or shrimp with sautéed red onions, bell peppers, and pepper jack cheese.

Beignets

Beignets are New Orleans’ version of doughnuts. A soft dough is rolled out and cut into squares, then fried until puffy and served with powdered sugar. At Jan’s Place, you may also have a drizzle of honey or strawberry, raspberry, or chocolate sauce.

Daily Specials

• Tuesday – Cajun shrimp and grits

• Wednesday - Prawns with Thai Chili Sauce and coconut rice. Smith ran these as a special and had such a positive response he’s added them to the specials menu. An order is four enormous colossal shrimp with a sweet/hot Thai sauce over rice.

• Thursday – Blackened redfish over dirty rice. Dirty rice is a Cajun specialty of rice cooked with spices, vegetables, and sausage.

• Friday – Cajun chicken pasta. Penne pasta is tossed with chicken and a creamy sauce with Cajun spices and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

• Saturday – Cajun shrimp pasta – see above, but it’s shrimp.

Kid's Menu

There's even a kid's menu with chicken tenders, a quesadilla, fries and more for the little ones.

Jan's Place

• Location: Jan's Place is inside the Expansion Joint Events Center at 1400 W. Maryland St. As the Smiths are leasing the dining space, there is at this time no sign outside with the restaurant's name on it. Just enter through the door in the red portion of the building.

• Phone: 812-633-8989.

• Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday-Monday, closed.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Where can I get Cajun food in Evansville?