Gary’s Gumbo

Of all the new flavors and foods permeating Wallingford, one stands out among the rest as damn-near perfect stick-to-your ribs-style comfort food: Cajun-style gumbo, delivered right to your door by Gary’s Gumbo.*

Gumbo? Yes! Random? Yes, but I guarantee that once you’ve tried Gary’s Gumbo, even if you’ve never tried gumbo before, you’ll love the way it warms you up during a cold, dark day. And if you already are a gumbo aficionado, you’d be hard-pressed to find a tastier and more authentic-style gumbo this far away from the Mississippi.

The man behind Gary’s Gumbo is Gary Reynolds, a native Texan who grew up on the swamplands close to the border of Texas and Louisiana where people make Cajun-style gumbo, which is a bit different from the New Orleans, Creole-style of gumbo. Gary explained that while Creole gumbo (from New Orleans) has more okra and vegetable chunks, Cajun gumbo is dark and soupy. Cajun-style gumbo hails from the Mississippi River where folks lived on the bayou in isolated swampland. It wasn’t until the 1930s that they built a bridge across the Mississippi so the area had “a whole different kind of vibe there,” according to Gary.

When Gary and his wife Paula moved to Wallingford nine years ago, he couldn’t find decent gumbo anywhere in the city. “One place had gumbo that actually tasted like BBQ sauce,” he said. So, he’d ask his parents to ship some out on dry ice, and then he began making his own based on a recipe he’d been using for 25 years. Whenever he traveled back to Texas, he’d fine-tune his shrimp gumbo recipe trying to figure out the key to making it perfect. He would go back into the kitchen at Cajun restaurants and say, “I’m looking for this flavor, you gotta tell me how you do it…” and no one would give up the secret. “I finally figured it out. It’s a secret, though,” he said. “People who cook it at home can’t find the key to cooking it like restaurants.”

Right now, Gary cooks his gumbo out of his buddy, Andrew’s kitchen over at Seamonster under a trade agreement: the restaurant serves his gumbo and he uses their kitchen.

“When I would cook it at home, it would end up taking like 5 or 6 hours. It’s an event. Back home, people cook it over the weekend for friends. I’d cook it for my friends up here and everybody likes it but you can’t make a small batch, so I would essentially just give it away to all my friends.”

So, he decided to branch out and sell his gumbo around town as a side hobby to his day job, as the owner and manager of Electrokitty Recording Studio here in Wallingford. So far, his gumbo has been selling out every week.

Gary makes a chicken and sausage gumbo, a shrimp gumbo, and a vegetarian gumbo that has tofu, okra, and kidney beans. “It’s almost blasphemous but I figure I might as well try it,” he adds. I tried the shrimp gumbo, which had a little bit of a kick to it at first, right at the back of the throat, but it was more flavorful than too spicy. And the shrimp – I’m not kidding – was the most tender shrimp I’d ever had. Both my kids (picky, picky eaters, I might add) tried the gumbo and wanted more.

To order, visit Gary’s website: garysgumbo.com Or email him at: [email protected]. And check out his Facebook page, too (click on the link or search for “Gary’s Gumbo”, for up-to-date information). Choices are Chicken and Sausage for $12/quart (or a seasonal Turkey and Sausage for the same price), a Vegetarian gumbo for $12/quart, and his signature Shrimp Gumbo for $16/Quart. Each quart comes with rice and in the future, Gary hopes to add on additional items like red beans and rice.

Wallyhood readers will receive $2 off of their first order!

*Gary offers free same day delivery within Seattle city limits.