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PHOTO ESSAY
// WORDS AND PHOTOS BY TANNER GRUBBS
Carl Latham was not born in Louisiana, nor has he ever lived in the southern state. Yet one might easily reach the conclusion that this amicable, bearded man lives ubiquitously. He's a Lawrencian body fixed inside the tiny restaurant known as Terrebonne, 805 Vermont St., with a soul that inexorably flows through the veins of Louisiana's Cajun country. West of the Archafalaya Basin in southern Louisiana is where the real Cajun food can be found, Latham says, which sure enough is where he learned to cook. "I'd end up at the cook-offs, soaking up everything that they'd tell me and everything I'd see," he says.
Not knowing how a Cajun restaurant would fare in a city like Lawrence, starting the business more than two years ago was a bit of a gamble for Latham and his wife, Carol, who helps manage
Terrebonne. "We thought it would be fun to have our own 'ma and pa' type of place, but we just didn't know how much work it was going to be," Carol says.
The couple hit a rough patch just two weeks after they opened the restaurant when Carol came down with a brain aneurysm, nearly taking her life as she spent nine days in intensive care in a Kansas City hospital. Carol was absent for two months, but Carl kept the business going after receiving help from friends and family.
Through the ups and downs, the small restaurant has endured the seasons, and will always carry a touch of the interesting for the couple. "It's brought us close in a lot of ways, and then some days we go home not talking," Carol says.
A customer clicks down on an andouille po-boy sandwich for lunch. Terrebonne's andouille sausage carries a bit more spice and Caun flavoring than its more mild. French counterpart
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