Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
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LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 12.14 69 t can take a long time, even years, for a chef to fnd the exact blend of ingredients and elements to create the perfect roux. Te founda- tion for many classic Creole dishes, from gumbo to jambalaya, roux seems simple: a mixture of four and fat (usually butter or lard). But it can go wrong so quickly, in so many ways. Overcooked roux can become a depressing and sticky bottom-of-the- pan glop; undercooked roux fails to provide favor and texture. Te perfect roux, like a team or a restaurant, takes time and patience and confdence to build. Dustin Staggers is smoking a cigarette on the front porch of his Bardstown Road restaurant, Roux, his chair propped against the wall. (Most recently, Le Gallo Rosso occupied the space.) With him are his ex-wife Dara, brother Kyle and co-chef Grifn Pau- lin. Dustin, with thick black hair and a thick aura of audacious confdence, is regaling his audience with a blow- by-blow account of a car wreck he had earlier in the week. "I almost died," he says, over and over. "I was literally UNDER that semi." Te three men on the front porch are wearing knotted red bandanas, signifers of the "Roux-Tang Clan." Loud, brassy music foats through the open restaurant door. Inside, Roux feels like a microcosm of that other river city, New Orleans. Te downstairs rooms are vibrantly painted pink and red and chocolate brown, edged in gold, decorated with green and purple Mardi Gras beads. Gaudy, feathered masks loop around silver spray-painted Mason jars on all the tables. Te walls are hung with more than 200 of Kyle's New Orleans photographs, from the aboveground cemeteries of decaying stately tombs to the Byzantine excess of Bourbon Street. Local artist Chris Chapell painted several walls and doors: a woman's placid face here, a menacing raven there, a specter in a top hat pointing the way to the upstairs Voo- doo Lounge, where silver skulls keep watch over low-lit liquor bottles. Roux is a romantic place, from the posh front patio to the ivy-twined beignet serving window in the back. Dominating one of the stairwells is a stylized feur-de-lis, a symbol associat- ed equally with Louisville and NOLA. Dustin has one tattooed on his chest, in honor of his two favorite cities. Te 33-year-old moved to Louis- ville from Tampa, Florida, four years ago with his then-wife Dara and his younger brother Kyle in tow. Te trio came to town to pursue Dustin's tax-lien business. Te brothers fell in love with the city, Kyle says, because, "When we frst came here, I thought people were being sarcastic because they were so nice." Not long after moving here, Dustin put Kyle in charge of the tax business. "I'm not a spreadsheets person," Dustin says. "I was always just the person cooking for everybody." Dustin has cooked fussy, French-in- spired food at 60 West Bistro and Martini Bar and burgoo and fried chicken at the Monkey Wrench. Roux's menu features po' boys, crawfsh étoufée, jambalaya, gumbo, red beans and rice, and other NOLA staples. "We joke that he just decided he wanted to become a chef and then became one," Kyle says. Dustin adds that the frst day he worked as head chef at 60 West was "the frst time I ever worked in a commercial kitchen in my life." After two years at 60 West, Dustin revitalized a lackluster menu at the Monkey Wrench. "Te Monkey Wrench to here, that was very planned out," he says. "In my head, I knew what I was doing. I was building mo- mentum in this town. Tis is some- thing I've been trying to do forever." Tough Dustin and Dara's divorce is fnal ("Tank God!" Dara quips), Dustin brought her on as general manager. "I still like him — like, 45 percent — as a person," she says. "Just because we're not meant to be togeth- er, or married, doesn't mean we're not supposed to be in each other's lives. Plus, he knows I make delicious des- serts, and he needs that in his life." Dustin says he wants a restaurant empire in Louisville. "We have a million concepts," he says. By the time you read this, he and co-chef Paulin will have opened a ramen-and-dump- lings shop down the road from Roux on Highland Avenue. After all, a great roux, no matter how perfect, is only the beginning. I ROUX-Tang Clan By Elizabeth Myers Photos by Chris Witzke Roux 1325 Bardstown Road, 530-0531 Cash-only beignet window open daily, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lunch Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; dinner Monday through Sunday (special menu), 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.; weekend brunch 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. THE SPREAD Brothers Kyle (left) and Dustin Staggers.