Orlandeaux's Café
Restaurant, Creole restaurant, Seafood restaurant in Shreveport, LA
- Address
- 5301 S Lakeshore Dr, Shreveport, LA, 71109
- Phone
- (318) 688-7777
- Website
- orlandeauxs.website
About Orlandeaux's Café
Creole and soul food classics: fried catfish, stuffed shrimp, gumbo, and the café's signature fried chicken plate, alongside daily lunch specials rooted in five generations of family recipe.
The story starts in 1921 as Freeman and Harris Café, opened by Jack Harris and Van B. Freeman in a segregated South where Black diners needed a place of their own. It became Pete Harris, then Brothers Seafood, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself held meetings inside its walls between 1958 and 1962. Fifth-generation owner Damien Chapman renamed it Orlandeaux's in tribute to his father, keeping the same lakeside spot on Cross Lake running for over a century. It is often cited as one of the oldest continuously Black-owned restaurants in the country, and in 2025 Chapman represented Shreveport at the Tournament of Roses Parade.
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