The first stop after landing in Baton Rouge for a group of journalists on a recent farm-to-table media trip was Tony's Market & Deli is a family-owned local institution. On a late Thursday morning, the retail portion of Tony's sprawling complex was fairly quiet, but I was told that on weekends and especially during Lent and holidays, the lines run out the door for loyal customers with a crawfish craving, a catfish fix, a crabcake longing, a po-boy quest, a mufeletta hankering or a lust for fresh boudin and boudin balls.
I left my notebook somewhere en route, so I'm relying on other sources for this post. One of the sources is Tony's own website, from which, in the absence of my own notes, I've taken this history:
"Tony's Seafood traces its roots back to 1959 when Donaldsonville, Louisianam native Tony Pizzolato opened a small retail and wholesale produce business in the city of Baton Rouge. Realizing Baton Rougean's love for fresh seafood, Tony added crawfish, shrimp and crabs to his selection of produce. Soon he found the seafood outselling his produce.
"In 1972, Tony leased an abandoned service station on Plank Road next to Delmont Village Shopping Center. Through much of Tony's hard work and his insistance that the business only sell products of the finest quality, he, his wife Mary Lee, five sons; Bill, Joey, Mike, Cliff, Tad, and daughter Ceily turned what once was a small fruit stand into a thriving seafood business.
"By the early 1980's, long lines of eager seafood buyers were becoming a common sight. Lines grew even longer during the crawfish season, when Tony's Seafood had been known to sell as much as 50,000 pounds of live and boiled crawfish in one day.
"The business has expanded to include Louisiana Fish Fry Products, Ltd. These diverse products were created by Cajun recipes straight from the kitchen of Tony himself. Together, both businesses employ over 200 people.
"Today, Tony's Seafood still sells the absolute best live and boiled seafood in Baton Rouge and is the largest seafood market in the Gulf South. Their deli and delicious plate lunches have become local favorites."
Another source was Facebook, where I found these (unedited) comments on Tony's page posted by people who should know:
Fresh fish and shellfish are iced and ready to be purchased for home cooking.
A shelf laden with Tony's coatings, seasonings and mixes stands near the supermarket-style checkout counters.
Popular takeout items are posted on a board, though regulars seem to know what they want without ever reading the menu.
Behind the scenes in a huge (and expanding) processing and warehouse complex, Bill Pizzolato checks out an order of live crabs.
These enormous kettles turn out prodigious quantities of boiled crawfish.
After a factory tour, whose extend I've just hinted at in the images above, we had lunch from Tony's takeout menu. Gumbo, a classic Louisiana cross between a soup and a stew, is loaded with sausage, vegetables and either sausage or chicken.
Fried seafood of all sorts (crabfingers, catfish strips, oysters, shrimp, drumettes and crawfish tails) with a pinquant sauce are stables of the bayou diet.
Boudin balls are addictive -- really addictive.
That's Bill in the green shirt in the middle. He has been in the business since he was a kid, coming in from the parochial school across the street to work. Without my notebook, I can't begin to ID the rest of the gang. If anyone can name the Pizzolatos, please do.
Tony's is located at 5215 Plank Road, Baton Rouge; 225-357-2127.
