When I started at the original This Land Press in the early 2010s, then-editor-in-chief Michael Mason asked if I was from Tulsa. I sheepishly answered, “Yes, I mean … I’m from Coweta, but I’ve been here for a few years.” He laughed and said, “Chill out, dude. It counts.”
The sad truth is I used to be embarrassed to be from a small town. Like most punk rock teenagers, I couldn’t wait to leave my hometown in search of more cultured pastures. But the farther I get from those school years, the more I admire the friends who stayed and built beautiful lives there, and the more I appreciate the town itself, which somehow now feels like Oklahoma’s unofficial capital of Louisiana.
That’s admittedly my small town pride talking. Oklahoma has other crawfish festivals, but T Johnny’s Seafood and Cajun Market and its Bayou Bash have turned Coweta into a genuine Okie oddity. Our state has its share of peculiar small town gatherings, like El Reno Fried Onion Burger Day and the now defunct Hanobia Bigfoot Festival, but walking through downtown Coweta a few weekends ago, navigating the mountainous mounds of mud bugs while New Orleans jazz players blared through the streets, still felt surreal.
Before Louisiana culinary icon T Johnny’s chose Coweta for its Oklahoma site, the only crawfish in town were the tiny crawdads my buddies and I caught outside the sports complex during my sister’s softball games. Our food scene was what you’d expect from a three-stoplight town, with the most exotic fare being Bill and Ruth’s baklava. When a KFC opened in the mid aughts, the town’s excitement ran them out of chicken on their first night.
And don’t get me wrong: Señor Salsa has always been excellent, and Roy’s Chicken is sacred, but T Johnny’s is a destination restaurant worth the 30-minute drive from Tulsa. Chris West, co-owner of Lassalle’s, says if he’s not presiding over a crawfish boil, he’s getting T Johnny's “just because he’s legit on what he’s doing.” Brian Horton of Horton Records hits up T Johnny’s at least a couple times a month, by his recollection. Apart from the obvious crawfish, TJ’s brings that legit Louisiana culture to town through their house-made sausages, boudin balls, meatpies, and myriad Cajun staples in their market.
“We do lunch specials every day, and they’re always changing,” Coweta location owner Mitch Decker told me. Red beans and rice, gumbo, po-boys, and etouffée are all likely to pop up from one day to another. And the food is damn good, with a depth of flavor and complexity that puts T Johnny’s up top for me, whether we’re talking crawfish boils or bisque.