New Sweet Grass Market in East Dallas serves up authentic Cajun fare
After packing their car in New Orleans, Eugene and LaToyah Vessel saw two streets ahead of them. One led to Atlanta and the other to Dallas.
Both cities had families, but the latter was LaToyah’s hometown. Her mother lived in Dallas. She knows, she told her husband. Hurricane Sally swelled the Gulf waters in late 2020. The Category 2 storm had grown rapidly and marked a familiar path to the New Orleans locals. So, with a newborn baby, 20-year-old daughter, and a spark of ideas to expand their business, the Vessels made their way to Dallas.
Once in Dallas, they went to see LaToyah’s old turf – she had lived on Bryan Street and attended school in and around South Dallas. They discovered a small market that was closed, Buy Low Chupacabras, on busy Ross Avenue in Fitzhugh. It was a hull of a place, but the ships aren’t the type to break loose.
They became owners of the buy low spot almost overnight. The idea was to evolve their previous business – a mobile CBD store called Sweet Grass NOLA – by adding coffee, smoothies, fresh take-away foods, and sundries. LaToyah emphasizes with a smile that it was Eugene’s idea to build a new kitchen. It was his idea to serve the old school stuff – gumbo, yakamein, po’boys.
There was no outside financing or angel investor. They spent their savings renovating the store.
“We definitely thought, ‘What the hell did we fall for?'” She says.
Shrimp Po’Boy at the Sweet Grass Market (Lola Gomez / photographer)
Gumbo on the sweet grass market (Lola Gomez / photographer)
The sweet grass market opened in early August 2021. For the time being, the staff is a close family.
Eugene starts to cook when the order goes down. A simple flour and oil grinder is in the pan. He stirs and stirs on a low flame so that it doesn’t burn. It is the beginning of everything. Gumbo is rich and dark like a campfire beer. The prawns taste like sea air, tender with the cracking of sweet brine. One bite sends a load through you, all dark sauce and plump rice conveying home cooking. It boosts memory from the belly up, a long tail of history through flavors you can literally taste. They are stories from neighbors and music.
Eugene’s menu includes Cajun classics in a convenience store setting – creamy Etouffée, crispy Po’boys and turkey neck platters with boiled potatoes and sausages. There will be lobsters when the earth says it’s ready. Bread appears as big as the moon, soft and buttered.
And here’s a gem: Sweet Grass may have the only blue bowl of yakamein within the city limits. Eugene’s version is a no-nonsense New Orleans classic. It’s a big, magical, steaming dark broth made with noodles, tenderly minced beef, hot sauce, and soft-boiled eggs. It’ll hit Heumacher a whiskey flu right out the saloon doors of your brain.
“We really wanted to bring New Orleans to Dallas,” says Eugene. “There are a lot of people who say they have Cajun food, but I wanted to go straight to what I had experienced – soul food at its best in my 39 years.”
The vessels crackle with energy. A pandemic and a newborn and a drained savings account haven’t blunted their movement. They also own a New Orleans townhouse that they run on Airbnb, and they interview staff and kitchen helpers. Soon Eugene will continue to have breakfast all day. Think chicken and waffles and shrimp and eggs.
As for the husband-wife team, they have another baby on the way. The little guy who was in the car with them in the beginning when they had to evacuate during Hurricane New Orleans is about to become one. Her daughter is in the kitchen, too, throwing boiling hot gumbo into black bags. Family restaurants go on in the hard times and in the calm before the storm.
Sweet Grass Market is located at 4825 Ross Ave., # 10, Dallas. mysweetgrassmarket.com.
Eugene Vessel, owner of Sweet Grass Market, mixes gumbo in front of the store.(Lola Gomez / photographer)
The Sweet Grass Market in Dallas has a market and seating for dining.(Lola Gomez / photographer)
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