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MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
MAY | JUNE 2015
the
Culinary Influences
issue
by
Pableaux Johnson
W
hen I first moved to New Orleans, I’d regularly have
a discussion with enthusiastic visitors looking for a
renowned lunch joint in the Central City neighborhood.
“I heard it was fantastic! It’s kind of run down, but the seafood is
supposed to be the best in town. All the chefs go there and rave.
Amazing oysters, firecracker shrimp, speckled trout with new
potatoes ...”
I could almost hear their mouths watering.
“What’s the place called?”
“It’s a guy’s name. Yougum something? Young Mitch?”
I’d let them run through a couple of options, just for fun, then I’d
offer the answer.
“Uglesich? Could it be Uglesich’s?”
“THAT’S IT!”
The joint in question was the simple but legendary restaurant run
by Anthony Uglesich (prounounced YOU-gul-sich) and his wife
Gail. They’d taken his family’s ramshackle neighborhood bar and
created a destination restaurant through a mixture of innovation
and dedication to quality seafood. Before it closed in spring of 2005,
it was also many folks’ tongue-twisting introduction to the Gulf
Coast’s Croatian community.
Of course, food lovers who’ve bellied up to any oyster bar within
shouting distance of the gulf are acquainted with the good
work of the region’s Croatian immigrants. It’s just that
the names associated with the coastal culture — Jurasich,
Cvitanovich, Barisich — share common roots that can be
unfamiliar to outsiders beyond the Gulf Coast.
The “names ending in -ich” trick is the easiest way to
see the influence of the Croatian communities that
developed along the Louisiana,Mississippi andAlabama
coasts since the 1800s. (“Ich” is the Americanization of
a common Slavic suffix meaning “son of.”) With origins
in the Mediterranean coastal region of the former
Yugoslavia, many of the Croatian immigrants were
fishermen who worked the sea along the Adriatic coast
of Dalmatia (a historic region of modern-day Croatia).
After relocating to the Gulf Coast, they settled in
places like Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana and Biloxi,
Mississippi.
And it was in these coastal areas that the Croatians
plied a critical trade in the development of local seafood
culture, as they worked and built the reefs where gulf
oysters grow and thrive.
Along the brackish zone where fresh water meets the
salty sea, the Croatians developed a thriving commercial
oyster industry starting in the latter half of the 19th
century. Originally working with shovels (for seeding
the beds) and tongs (for harvesting), the Croatians and
often their descendents tended the reefs and shrimp
boats that shaped the region’s seafood culture.
And while the rural Croatians fished the waters of the
gulf, their city cousins expressed the foodways of the
motherland in home and restaurant kitchens. Anthony Uglesich
(famously picky for the quality of his oysters) was quick to
acknowledge the Croatian influence in his work.
“My daddy was Yugoslavian, and his tastes influenced a lot of how
we cook — lots of garlic, lots of olive oil, lot of oysters. We wanted
to make our own barbecued shrimp recipe based on olive oil instead
of butter, then we tried oysters instead of shrimp.”
Uglesich, a self-taught chef, also developed other dishes that
featured his always-perfect oysters, including sautéed oyster
shooters with cane-syrup/tomato vinaigrette and a straight-ahead
po-boy with fresh-caught oysters shucked seconds before they hit
the fryer. (Though Mr. Anthony closed up shop years ago, he and
Gail still occasionally cook for private parties and charity events.)
Another family of Croatian-American restaurateurs — Drago
and Klara Cvitanovich and their son Tommy — has also built an
expanding regional empire. From their first location in Metairie in
1969, the family has made their name with their classic char-grilled
oysters — gulf beauties shucked then grilled on the half-shell with
garlic, butter and a sprinkling of parsley and pecorino Romano cheese.
This trademark dish — simple, delicious and decadent — allowed
the family of Drago (now in his 90s) to grow in New Orleans and
now a location in Jackson, Mississippi. And in what turns out to be
a canny business move, Drago’s customers can spend time ordering
oysters rather than learning how to pronounce “Cvitanovich.”
Siches, Viches
& Oyster Dishes