A Festive Fusion
Riverside Inn’s Kaliannah blends two classic cocktails befitting traditionalists who like to keep things simple for a crowd during les fêtes de famille
Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn
240 Tubing Road
Broussard
337-837-4011
poorboysriversideinn.com
There is something undeniably nostalgic about holiday traditions. Family yuletide feasting at a favorite restaurant, helping mom twine the turducken, chilling the flutes and making classic cocktails with friends can prevail as lasting touchstones.
“We have a very festive holiday vibe,” says Lori Hurst, co-owner of the iconic Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn in Broussard, founded in 1932. “Our Kaliannah cocktail is always popular during the season. It’s basically a cosmopolitan blended with a margarita, named after the two girls who created it as a frozen drink. We later perfected it on the rocks for a banquet. It’s an easy-to-make crowd-pleaser.”
Helmed by Lori and her chef-proprietor husband, Richard Hurst, Riverside Inn has been enshrined as a holiday tradition among Cajun families for generations. The secluded setting, festooned with flickering lights, sets the stage for festive dinners ending with such distinct desserts as sweet potato beignets with cinnamon, glazed with orange-hazelnut sauce and postprandials including Rémy Martin, Grand Marnier and Irish coffee.
“It’s my own little Cajun paradise,” says Lori. “Driving in the dark, you turn into the driveway that becomes a twinkling fairyland. It’s a little off the beaten path, just off I-49.”
Elegantly presented classics such as oysters Bienville and crab cakes precede broiled Maine lobsters selected live from a tank, multi-course oyster dinners, grilled platters and a stuffed redfish “extravaganza” redolent of herbs and spices, topped with crawfish and buttery lump crabmeat.
“We were the first restaurant in the area to have a lobster tank, the first to sell alligator and the first to serve blackened redfish, created by Richard’s father, Larry, in the early 1970s,” Lori says. “Paul Prudhomme was just a kid from Opelousas who would always come over to find out what Larry was cooking, including his blackened redfish.”
While the Hursts’ Kaliannah cocktail is festive for holiday soirées, it can be creatively garnished to fit any occasion. “You really don’t taste the alcohol,” Lori adds. “It’s smooth and absolutely delicious.”
Home Bar
The Kaliannah
¾ ounce Tito’s Handmade Vodka
¾ ounce 1800 Tequila
¼ ounce Cointreau
1 ounce cranberry concentrate
1 ounce simple syrup
½ ounce Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice
½ ounce Real Lemon unsweetened lemon juice
fresh lime wedge and cranberries
Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Rub lime on the rim of a 9-ounce rocks glass, turn upside down and dip into red cane sugar for the holidays or in black lava salt. Garnish with a lime wedge. Embellish with three cranberries on a sword pick.
