Flavor Rules at Russell’s Marina Grill

When Tyisha Naylor became the chef at Russell’s Marina Grill four years ago, she was walking into a restaurant with dishes that customers had been ordering for decades. Particularly, its red beans and rice.

“The recipe, it’s probably 25 years old at least,” says Pavlos Petrou, who has owned the restaurant since 1989. The Lakefront restaurant was founded in 1985 by Russell Cuoco. “When she came in, we told her, ‘Hey, you can add your own flavors just to see, but this is the base we want to work off of.”

Naylor, a native of New Orleans, dived right in to add her spin on red beans and rice. “When I got here, they weren’t adding meat. I’m used to chopping the meat up and putting it in the beans.”

Tyisha learned to cook from her grandmother and started making red beans and rice at 14 years old, but “I didn’t get it quite right until I was maybe about 16,” she says. “It was a Monday tradition. I would always come home from school and she would tell me, ‘Go get a pack of Camellia Beans and $2 worth of D&D (Double D brand) smoked sausages.’”

At the restaurant, Tyisha changes up the meat — one week it can be ham shank or alligator sausage; another week, crawfish sausage or smoked sausage.

The Camellia Beans tradition holds strong.

One thing she didn’t change was the brand of beans — Camellia Brand: “I grew up cooking with them.” Pavlos also wanted her to continue using them: “Russell Cuoco always told me ‘Buy the best because with the best, you can make a lot of good things, but you can’t make good food out of garbage. You can’t make good stuff out of just okay stuff’ – and to this day, we buy the best, and that is what the Camellia Brand is — whether it’s the red beans, of course, or other beans.”

At Russell’s, Red Beans and Rice is a Monday Special

The red beans and rice are a traditional Monday special, and other Camellia brand beans — such as black-eyed peas and lima beans — will pop up on the menu throughout the week.

But it is the red beans and rice that fans look forward to on Monday, with Russell’s serving the dish with ham shank or alligator sausage, cornbread on the side, and a cup of soup (often gumbo) or a side salad, and a dessert.

It often sells out — the ham shank is the favorite side with customers.

Even though the Lakefront dining scene has changed through the years — Russell’s was once open until 3 a.m. to serve partygoers who then flocked to the West End eateries and bars, many destroyed by Hurricane Katrina — what has remained is Russell’s, serving up tradition, including red beans and rice on Mondays.

Russell’s Marina Grill, 8555 Pontchartrain Blvd., (504) 282-9980, russellsmarinagrill.net;  Hours: 7 days, 7 a.m. – 3 p.m.