MAY 11, 2011
Curiosity led me to an amazingly interesting adventure in eating at Parrot’s Cay, just east of South Washington Street on 36th Avenue South.
Actually, it’s an eating and drinking establishment that seems away from the crowds. But when I drove up to it around 6:30 P.M. on a Wednesday evening, I had a hard time finding a place to park within a block.
Once inside, I was looking around for a friend. Before I knew it, a man came over and asked if I wanted a seat. There were no empty places in the booths or tables. The man stood by his friend, Dawn Acker. They made sure we had a place to sit. And Dawn told us about the hot stuff on the menu.
At Parrot’s Cay, they talk in numbers of heat you get in food items. Although the wings run from 3 to 15 in heat level, I decided on a 7 for my wings. The menu says 13 will make you sweat. All I wanted to do was eat. I ordered some fried dill pickles and a bottle of light beer to go with the wings.
My friend, who loves Cajun-style food, ordered a pasta with crawdads that comes with green peppers, onions, mushrooms and black olives sautéed in Parrot Cay sauce. This is served over a bed of angel hair pasta and topped with Parmesan cheese. You can get this for $11.99 or a half-size version (which is plenty) for $6.49.
I found the people friendly and helpful. They told me about the hot-wing eating contests held there, and pointed to the pictures on the far wall of those who had survived the wing contest.
Rob Drahovzal, who has owned Parrot’s Cay for the past nine years, is around most of the time, mingling with the customers. A friendly man, he was wearing a colorful Cajun-style shirt. He said his chef, Geoffrey Stallard, comes up with more recipes than they can put on the menu. And the assistant chefs are full of ideas for wings, pasta and lavosh. He’s proud of winning a wing competition at a creative barbecue contest last year in Buffalo, N.Y. The big menu at Parrot’s Cay claims this is the “home of the best damn hot wings in town.”
On the menu, which says a cay is a small, low island composed largely of coral and sand, there are appetizers, house specialties including salads, poor-boy sandwiches, lavosh and burgers. The Phat Guy Burger is described as a half-pound beef patty with Canadian bacon, pepperoni, fried onions, American and Swiss cheese and topped with the special Phat Guy sauce. All for $8.99.
The menu also lists red beans and rice served with Andouille sausage, bell peppers, onions, celery and spices. The Cay also serves a bowl of corn covered in Cajun butter for $1.
Food is served with utensils wrapped in a napkin. But on the table where we sat, there were a couple of rolls of paper towels that came in most handy. You need something like that when you are eating wings.
Parrot’s Cay continues to operate in Grand Forks.