Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market in 2023. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly tried Magee’s Kitchen and Local Ice.
“Who are these people?” As we look over at the small group of people dancing to ear-splitting music on the West Patio, my friend asks me the question in complete seriousness. It’s the Sunday night before Mardi Gras, and we’ve caught the tail end of the weekend’s festivities, which included a beignet tent, a couple of live bands and plenty of free plastic beads, as the trickle of patrons leaving the Farmers Market can attest to. My friend’s question is completely valid: Are people really coming out of their way to this traffic-clogged intersection to dance the night away at the market on a Sunday evening?
Apparently, they are. After navigating our way through the ruckus, the two of us get into the short line in front of the Gumbo Pot (est. 1986), the queue marked off with sections of red tape, as the visibly exhausted employees of the market’s only Cajun restaurant ladle scoops of gumbo and jambalaya into styrofoam bowls of various sizes. Every so often, one will call out order numbers at an equally thunderous level to rise above the din. We decide on the fried frog legs meal with collard greens ($15.75), a cup of seafood gumbo ($6.25), a cup of jambalaya ($6.25), an oyster po’boy ($15.50), a lemonade ($3.25) and the chocolate beignets. Once we get to the front of the line, I find out they’re—somewhat predictably—out of beignets, so we switch to the sweet potato pie ($5.50).
Ten minutes later, having found a much quieter table away from the West Patio, it’s our turn to listen for our order number and pick up our meal. Before I go any further, I should mention that the North Star of Creole and Cajun cuisine for me is Darrow’s New Orleans Grill in Carson, which I visited many, many times in Marina del Rey while growing up, well before owner Norwood Clark, Jr. was forced to relocate in 2015 after an impossibly high rent hike. More recently, I tried the all-around excellent gumbo at the award-winning Willie Mae’s, an item exclusive to the sit-down Venice outpost that isn’t sold at its locations in New Orleans.
What I receive from the Gumbo Pot is a pale imitation compared to either gumbo, bland and lacking in spice and multi-dimensional flavor. The “spicy” jambalaya feels similarly watered down despite the pieces of chicken and andouille sausage. Disappointed, we move onto the plate of frog legs, collard greens and cornbread. The cornmeal-battered pieces of meat are delicious, though small, and pair well with the aioli. The greens and cornbread muffin, unfortunately, miss the mark entirely. The greens lack the delicate tinge of smoke, which often comes from pork hock, and the bread tastes stale—cornbread in the most cursory sense of the term.
A group of people walking past us stop and ask where we got our food from, telling us the plate looks good. We warn them against going to the Gumbo Pot. The oyster po’boy ends up being the highlight of the meal for both my friend and me—the only thing we finish in its entirety. The fluffy bread includes a few cornmeal-fried oysters, slathered with aioli and dressed with lettuce, tomato and thinly sliced lemon. The combination works surprisingly well, though the filling-to-bread ratio is somewhat off, and it’s honestly pretty hard to mess up a sandwich. Afterwards, we both take forkfuls of the sweet potato pie, which tastes as rote and forgettable as the gumbo and jambalaya.
Still feeling peckish, we wander through the rest of the market. It’s almost 8pm and most of the vendors are closed or in the process of closing, though the last few people from a small crowd are gathered around the flatscreen TV at Bar 326, one of the market’s two wine and beer vendors. Rather than hunt around for better dessert, my friend and I opt to grab a drink before leaving the market. The bartender is doing last call for the evening (yes, really, since Bar 326 closes when the market closes), and we’re the only women left at the bar, and the only people that are obviously under 40.
Based on the chalkboard behind the bar, the craft beer selection is fairly decent, but both of us order wine from the few varieties offered at the bottom of the board. Aside from the wine and beer offered at Monsieur Marcel, there’s few other places that serve alcohol within the market, though El Granjero Cantina and Marmalade Cafe on the outskirts do serve wine and beer, as well as cocktails. The California pinot grigio I order takes the edge off the disappointing meal, and my friend and I toast to the start of another long week.
Meals from Table at Third & Fairfax fall into three categories: Skip It, Worth Trying and Must Have.
Vendor: The Gumbo Pot
Order: Frog legs with collard greens, a cup of seafood gumbo, a cup of jambalaya, an oyster po’boy, sweet potato pie and lemonade.
Verdict: Skip It. Cursory and bland, the Cajun fare here would disappoint anyone familiar with the New Orleans food scene, or even other longtime Creole restaurants in L.A. (I will still be trying the beignets on another visit, however.)
Vendor: Bar 326
Order: A glass of pinot noir and a glass of pinot grigio
Verdict: Worth Trying. There are few standalone booze options at the Farmers Market, and the casual atmosphere makes it easy to have a drink and get out.