Cajun Restaurant Signs for Seaport Village

Louisiana Charlie’s, a restaurant specializing in New Orleans staples such as crawfish etouffee, gumbo, po’ boys , and red beans and rice, is coming to Seaport Village where it’s replacing dessert shop Frost Me in the Carousel District. The 700-square-foot eatery, which includes a 500-square-foot patio, should be open by April 2021.

Owners Shanda and Eric Laurent, whose families are both from Louisiana, opened the first Louisiana Charlie’s in Long Beach in 2013 with the aim of bringing Cajun food to California. The Long Beach location is part of Shoreline Village, a waterfront dining and shopping complex similar to Seaport Village.

Its menu also features mesquite barbecue, from smoked tri-tip to hot links and baby back ribs. The San Diego outpost will add new vegan options.

Lucy Contreras from The Port of San Diego, which has been working to update and transform the 40-year-old complex since it took over ownership in 2018, says while Seaport Village has historically catered to tourists, the new food and beverage lineup is being built to appeal to locals. The majority of the incoming eateries are homegrown, including Spill the Beans and Mr Moto, which should open by the end of the year; starting construction soon is a Mike Hess Brewing/City Tacos collab similar to their partnership in Imperial Beach. And projected for completion by Spring 2021 is the bar and restaurant project from Sam the Cooking Guy replacing Buster’s Beach House.

Contreras, who said that sales are down slightly at Seaport Village due to the pandemic but that its eateries are thriving overall, tells Eater that there are still opportunities for specialty food shops as well as two available restaurant spaces that she’d like to fill with fast-casual or breakfast concepts.