Owner has plans to expand Cajun Country Event Center

With shows featuring some of the area's most popular bands, the Cajun Country Event Center is beginning to attract larger and larger crowds, Ledet said, as the word spreads about the good times to be had listening and dancing to the music of groups like Souled Out, HipBootJoe, Blue Eyed Soul Revue and Waylon Thibodeaux.

Since April, the Cajun Country Event Center has had live music just about every Saturday and Sunday night, according to Ledet with most ticket prices in the $5 to $10 range. The center, 2639 La. 182, Raceland, is less than two miles off La. 1.

"The bands we feature are mostly regional favorites," Ledet said, "and the kind of music they play can be called country, swamp pop, southern rock or rock country."

With bands like these, Ledet said, the Cajun Country Event Center is attracting diverse crowds, which change with the type of band.

Next month, Ledet said, they plan to feature a show with HipBootJoe for all ages.

"Usually our crowd is 18 and over, but this will be a family event on a Sunday afternoon in July."

The event center is the latest project of Shannon Ledet's father, Johnny Ledet of Raceland. On the property with the event center are a restaurant, a convenience store with gas pumps and a video-poker casino.

"Dad and his wife, Linda, just came up with the ideas," she added.

Her father acquired the multi-acre property about four years ago, Ledet said, and he saw it as an opportunity for Raceland. At the time, the only open part of the buildings was the gas station, which was a fueling place for truckers, and what is now the casino, restaurant and event center was an empty warehouse-style building which needed a lot of cleaning and renovating.

"Dad doesn't like to quote numbers, but he put a lot of money into this project," Ledet said of the buildings with their LSU Tiger theme. Tigers Drive connects the event center and the casino and it mimics the field in Tiger Stadium.

Along the "street" are some of Ledet's grandfather's LSU memorabilia.

Ledet said she began by helping her father with office work, but her duties kept expanding and today her official title is events coordinator, but she still helps with the office and with the center's Web site design and maintenance.

"You could say I wear all the hats," she said.

In the event center, the large screen and TV projector work well when the center is used for business presentations as well as for viewing of sporting events or music, such as when they feature select boiled seafood for customers. The sound equipment also is state of the art, Ledet said.

In the fall, Ledet said they plan to add a comedy night; even though all the details haven't been worked out yet. In the fall, they also will resume the traditional Friday night seafood boils.

Ledet said her father isn't finished with the property yet, and is adding a music studio he calls "Mother's Farm" beyond the main building, which he hopes will attract not only local artists but some national names as well, with the help of a friend in the music business.

The restaurant is not a typical Cajun restaurant, Ledet said. It's really an authentic Mexican restaurant, she said, called "El Cajun's La Mex," you know, like "Tex Mex," she said, but with a Cajun flavor. Most of the dishes, she said, are traditional Mexican, but there are some strictly Cajun dishes and some good mixes, like the crawfish enchiladas or her dad's own special "Jay's La-Bar-B-Q shrimp."

"Dad managed to persuade a family that had been operating a restaurant in another city to move here to cook after he tasted their food on a hunting trip," Ledet said. The Mexican theme was all his idea and it's been successful, she said.

The restaurant is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and the schedule of events can be found on the Cajun Country Event Center's Web site, either www.cajuncountryevents.com or on www.myspace.com/cajuncountryevents.