OK, that’s probably not the best title we could have chosen. We were hoping to draw your attention to a commonly overlooked danger, one you might come into contact with fairly often: fast & cheap eats.

We have quite the phenomenon at Papa Roux. We don’t have fast food. We don’t have cheap food. And yet, somehow, we manage to compete with the fast & cheap chain down the street, with all the tacos you can cram down your gullet for a buck-seventy-nine. Fast & cheap is also around the corner, with deep-fried joy for less than a penny per gram of fat.

Mind you, if tacos and deep fried joy is your thing, you’re not gonna be at home at The Roux. Our joy comes served in freshly baked French Bread. However, it’s not your cuisine of choice that we’ll be lamenting here. Rather, it’s the fast & cheap part of the equation that begs to have some light shed on it.

We’ve been planning this for a while, friends. It started in early August when, out of desperation, we stopped to eat while traveling through a 100-mile stretch of nothingness with hungry Rouxlets in the back seat.

We didn’t want to. We really didn’t want to. But we had been driving for hours with no food in sight, trying to make it down to our Alabama shrimping friends by nightfall. We saw a sign for food up ahead, the only food we had seen in a while. Waffle Hut or something like that. It sounded ominous, but like I said, we were pretty desperate. Anyway, how bad could it possibly be? Suffice it to say that that one experience, far too gruesome to be detailed here, led to the research we’re doing right now. We want to find out how the competition does it for next-to-nothing, while it’s all we can do to offer a fair price for a fair meal. I know, I know, we don’t compete with them on cuisine… but they have bigger billboards (and plenty of them), so we do compete for attention. So, like I said, we’re doing some research. The early findings are pretty scary, but we’ll certainly let you know more details as we find them.

Many of our wonderful customers may not realize that an entire movement exists dedicated to the concept of food that is slowly and lovingly crafted. It’s called “Slow Food”, and as the name implies, it’s the polar opposite of “fast food”. While “Slow Food” is a global movement, there are also chapters devoted to Slow Food USA and, on a local level, Slow Food Indy. Personal preference among slow-fooders varies a touch, but in general, if there’s a drive-up window or a speaker blaring “can I take your order? did you want fries with that?”… then it’s not Slow Food. If there’s a dollar value menu involved, then it’s not Slow Food. If everything’s deep fried and happy meals come with Disney toys… then it’s not Slow Food.

So it is that we find ourselves embracing the Slow Food movement. We’ve found a “Moderately Slow” mode , where we seem to be able to turn around hand-crafted, personally made product, using local (or authentic) products, at a fair price and at a fair speed. While the ideals of the Slow Food movement are awesome and impressive, the truth is we don’t do anyone any favors if we price ourselves or pace ourselves completely out of the “30 minute lunch” market. And so we try, with Herculean effort, to satisfy those who willingly would choose Slow Food every day, while also satisfying those who would be just as happy with “fast food.”

Want a good Slow Food dinner? Stop by Papa Roux on a Friday night (as I write this, that’s tonight!). We’ll show you a dinner you can’t get anywhere else in town, a lovingly crafted dinner made with fresh and authentic ingredients, and flavors unlike any you’ve had before. If you have adventurous children, bring them along too… but there’s no mac-n-cheese for the kids, no chicken nuggets, and not much of our menu plays well with ketchup (though we do offer hot dog poboys!). It’s just good-old-fashioned Cajun Goodness, just like Mom used to make… assuming Mom is from N’awlins.

And, in the meantime, be watchful for our entry with more details on the dark side of the menu, where we detail some findings on fast & cheap eats. I can warn you now, it’s not pretty. Pay attention when you’re out, and chances are you’ll see them too! Here’s a hint: seat yourself in proximity to a hand-washing station. Chances are you won’t see it used during the course of your stay. In any event, remember to be careful. We’re trained professionals. The Board of Health requires it.