440 offers downtown a taste of Cajun

Thursday, July 01, 2004

If youre craving a taste of Louisiana but cant afford the plane ticket, 440 Main is the next best thing.

In fact, the owners of the popular downtown Bowling Green restaurant are natives of Monroe, La., and plan to open another restaurant there later this year.

On a recent visit to the restaurant, I sat on the outdoor patio, which despite the few flies buzzing about prior to the lighting of the evening candles proved to be a very good choice. The fresh air and energy of downtown pedestrians and bikers provided a nice setting for the meal.

On the other hand, inside you can get a fun and funky atmosphere with a guitar player sitting in the corner, quietly playing acoustic tunes. The lights are not too bright, conversation is not too loud and creative artwork adorns the walls much of the art is for sale, Whether indoors or out, allow about two hours for your meal in most cases. 440 Main doesnt rush things, but the food is well worth the wait. Besides, what the restaurant staff lacks in speed it makes up for in affability.

My meal began with the Cajun Spring Rolls appetizer ($6.95). The rolls are fried to a golden, perfect crispness and stuffed with chicken, chorizo sausage and Monterey jack cheese. This appetizer, though not half bad, could be considered somewhat bland were it not for the sweet, tangy apricot barbecue dipping sauce.

Jambalaya ($10.95) was the main course, and the serving was so hearty that more than half of the meal ended up being packed into a take-home container.

That dish consisted of shrimp, Andouille sausage, and chicken breast meat sauted with peppers, onions, celery, tomatoes and rice. It can be summed up in one word spicy.

Though the jambalaya is certainly not for the faint of heart, its as good as any jambalaya you would get in the French Quarter.

Make sure a pitcher of water is close at hand or, as in my case, a glass of slightly sweet Salmon Run white wine, selected from the restaurants award-winning wine list.

For dessert, I had the Mississippi Mud Pie, which is similar to a large, round slice of inverted ice cream cake. The dessert had a chocolate ice cream base and chocolate cookie crunch topping, served with a garnish of chocolate syrup and powdered sugar.

If you are not in the mood for food from the bayou, 440 does offer decidedly non-Cajun options such as the champagne chicken ($10.95), which is pan-fried and topped with sauted mushrooms and champagne cream sauce. Or theres the rainbow trout ($17.95), which is sauted with chipolte aioli and served with vegetables.

The restaurant also serves a variety of steaks, ranging from the lightly seasoned 8-ounce Main Street filet mignon to the 14-ounce New York strip.

Nightly specials vary, as does the fresh catch of the day, all designed by restaurant chef Fabian Lester.

Choose what you will, I suspect its hard to go wrong with any menu choice. It is, however, a wise idea to take advantage of first-hand knowledge of Cajun cuisine in a town that is 595.33 miles from New Orleans, give or take a few.

And if its live music you crave, 440 hosts various rock and blues bands in the bar area every Friday night from 9 p.m. until the partys over.

We regret to announce that the anonymous food reviewer is on hiatus, but we are pleased to announce that another anonymous food reviewer has taken his/her place! The aforementioned reviewer gives new restaurants an eight-week grace period before reviewing them, and can be reached for comment through managing editor Mike Alexieff at 783-3235.

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