When it comes to red bean royalty, Clarence “Buster” Holmes wore the crown with grace. He preferred not to be called chef, and fed for free anyone in need.
“I feed them when they come in here and tell me they’re hungry,” the Times-Picayune quoted Holmes in 1979. “God’s been good to me, and I’m just returning the favor.”
Holmes opened his shabby restaurant on New Year’s Day 1960 at the corner of Burgundy and Orleans streets, according to the Historic New Orleans Collection. On Mondays, diners from all walks of life – Black, white, celebrities, politicians, the elite, working class and tourists – came for red beans and rice. Shrimp creole, trout amandine, crab soup and oyster stew also were on the menu.
“My red beans are really nothing different,” he said in 1981. “But they are cooked right. I put in all the seasonings – onions, garlic, bell pepper – at once and let the whole thing cook down.”
Born in Plaquemines Parish, Holmes also could cook country dishes: raccoon baked with sweet potatoes, broiled squirrel, nutria sauce piquante and garfish balls.
Music wasn’t on the menu, but it was a draw.
“Holmes’ restaurant was an informal clubhouse for musicians and served as a magnet for second-line parades and jam sessions and as a place to hustle gigs and relax after performances,” states the Camilla Bean blog, Tastes Like Home. “Regulars included jazz legends, such as Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, George “Kid Sheik” Cola … and Harold Dejan, to mention just a few.”
The restaurant closed in the early 1980s. For a while, a Buster Holmes outlet, which Holmes did not own, operated in the Jax Brewery complex on Decatur Street, according to A Closer Walk NOLA.
Holmes died on a Monday, Feb. 28, 1994, a fitting day for the “King of Red Beans.”
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.