Gather ’round with Pableaux Johnson (New Orleans food writer, photographer and one of Epicurious’ recent Top 100 Greatest Home Cooks of All Time) at his next stop in Houston, Texas. His Red Beans Road Show will be staging a Monday-night takeover on January 27, 2020, when Brennan’s chef Joe Cervantez and host Alex Brennan-Martin and their crew will open Brennan’s of Houston for a night of food, friends and fun.

This family style throw-down will feature a chef-created appetizer, Pableaux’s famous red beans & rice with cornbread, and something sweet – plus maybe a surprise or two. Pableaux always keeps it interesting!

Order tickets online while they last, and come break cornbread and make memories with friends and strangers alike.

Photo courtesy of Brennan’s of Houston

Hungry for more details? Here’s everything else you need to know about the Red Beans Road Show:

Good, Simple Food & New Friends

Louisiana food writer, photographer and “general n’er-do-well” Pableaux Johnson meets up with local restaurant chefs in each town or city he visits, to host an informal, family-style feast featuring “good, simple food, camaraderie and appropriate misbehavior.” 

Pableaux Is a Hoot!

Buy your tickets and show up to eat, drink and shoot the breeze with culinary and culture enthusiasts. As ringleader and organizer of the shenanigans, Pableaux gives a short presentation on Louisiana foodways that will leave you hankering for all things Louisiana, and then it’s a fun night of breaking bread (Pableaux’s grandpa’s skillet cornbread, that is), eating down-home, delicious food and drinking a cold beer with a roomful of friendly strangers. 

Local Chefs Are in on It

Pableaux cooks his signature Red Beans & Rice made with Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans, and his local chef partners serve up a simple starter (like deviled eggs or hand pies) and a dessert (like bread pudding or homemade pie). 

Take the Tradition Home with You

Everyone who attends gets a bag of Camellia Red Kidney Beans and a recipe card to make Red Beans & Rice, so you can start your own tradition at home!

Everyone who attends gets a bag of Camellia Red Kidney Beans and a recipe card for Red Beans & Rice, so they can start their own tradition at home!

Red Beans Roadshow Atlanta Popup Supper

Gather ’round! Food writer and natural-born cook Pableaux Johnson’s Red Beans Road Show is now heading to the Garden & Gun Club at The Battery Atlanta, for a one-night-only Pop-up Supper on October 20, 2019. Host chef Ann Kim, the executive chef of the Garden & Gun Club, will be collaborating with Pableaux to create this family-style feast. Tickets are going fast! Order them online and come to break cornbread and make memories with friends and strangers alike.

Plus, it’s for a good cause! Following the event, Camellia Brand will be donating Camellia Red Kidney Beans and a portion of event proceeds to Georgia Organics, an organization championing organic agriculture and helping schools engage children in delicious and educational farm-to-table experiences.

“When you sit around Johnson’s table… you’re not supposed to fiddle with your phone. You talk. You meet people. You drink. You eat. You remember what it’s like to connect with strangers over a meal.” –  The Washington Post

Oct. 20  – Garden & Gun Club in The Battery, Atlanta, GA     

On October 20, 2019, Pableaux will prepare Louisiana’s traditional Monday-night meal of Red Beans and Rice using Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans…but on a Sunday. Host chef Ann Kim of the Garden & Gun Club will be collaborating with Pablo to create this one-night-only, New Orleans-style gastronomic gathering. The family-style feast begins at 6:30 p.m., with a sit-down, three-course supper beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Tickets for the Red Beans Roadshow at the Garden & Gun Club are available for $55+ per person, and include a home-style, three-course meal, featuring Chef Kim’s choice of appetizer, Red Beans and Rice, Cornbread, a dessert created by Chef Kim, and maybe a surprise or two. Wine and beer options are available at an additional cost. Vegan and vegetarian options are also available, upon request. Seating is limited. Purchase tickets in advance online.

Hungry for more details? Here’s everything else you need to know about the Red Beans Road Show:

Good, Simple Food & New Friends

Louisiana food writer, photographer and “general n’er-do-well” Pableaux Johnson meets up with local restaurant chefs in each town or city he visits, to host an informal, family-style feast featuring “good, simple food, camaraderie and appropriate misbehavior.” 

Pableaux Is a Hoot!

Buy your tickets and show up to eat, drink and shoot the breeze with culinary and culture enthusiasts. As ringleader and organizer of the shenanigans, Pableaux gives a short presentation on Louisiana foodways that will leave you hankering for all things Louisiana, and then it’s a fun night of breaking bread (Pableaux’s grandpa’s skillet cornbread, that is), eating down-home, delicious food and drinking a cold beer with a roomful of friendly strangers. 

Local Chefs Are in on It

Pableaux cooks his signature Red Beans & Rice made with Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans, and his local chef partners serve up a simple starter (like deviled eggs or hand pies) and a dessert (like bread pudding or homemade pie). 

Take the Tradition Home with You

Everyone who attends gets a bag of Camellia Red Kidney Beans and a recipe card to make Red Beans & Rice, so you can start your own tradition at home!

Everyone who attends gets a bag of Camellia Red Kidney Beans and a recipe card for Red Beans & Rice, so they can start their own tradition at home!

Pableaux works the room at the Roosevelt in Richmond, Va. (Photo by Nicole Lang)

Guest blogger Pableaux Johnson is a New Orleans-based food writer and photographer. He spent the summer traveling the country with the Red Beans Roadshow, a pop-up dinner series that brings a bit of New Orleans to restaurants across the U.S.

Looking around my kitchen on a recent Monday night, I got a strange but familiar feeling.

It was time to cook a batch of red beans (my early week go-to), and everything in the kitchen was exactly where I thought it would be. All the pots, cutting boards, knives, and measuring spoons appeared right where I needed them, and the sights, sounds, and smells of the kitchen had something special about them.

Then it hit me: After a couple of solid months traveling with the Red Beans Roadshow, I was feeling the sensation of cooking in my own kitchen for a change.

Long Roads and Big Pots

During most of the summer, I’ve been covering a whole lot of the country cooking red beans, but in LARGE batches in restaurant kitchens. Instead of feeding my usual 10 folks on a Monday, we’d serve anywhere from 40 to a whopping 100-and-change on a North Carolina patio.

I got to work with some amazing chefs and their hard-working crews and see how many different kitchens tick. I worked behind gas burners that could power a medium-size blast furnace. I learned the rhythms of service in San Francisco, Seattle, Chapel Hill, Atlanta, Richmond, Asheville, and New York — and had a great time in the process.

Pableaux working the line with Chef Joe Sparatta at the Roosevelt in Richmond, Va. (Photo by Nicole C.  Lang)

Over the course of two months, we served about 800 folks one of New Orleans’ culinary cornerstones — a simple meal of red beans and rice with hot skillet cornbread — and did the best we could to showcase the everyday wonders of a well-cooked Monday supper. We encouraged folks to pocket their phones, pour a glass of wine, and have a conversation around the table with someone they might not know. We served family-style and encouraged them to get seconds — though they’d have to get up and serve themselves, just like at home.

Serving the vegetarian folks at Town Hall, San Francisco (Photo by Molly Decoudreaux)

From city to city, I enjoyed watching a progression that happened every night. Folks would filter into the bar — quietly at first, then feeling a little more comfortable as they nibbled on deviled eggs or country ham, not really knowing what to expect. They’d mostly sit with strangers, and by the end of the night, the room would be filled with the happy roar.

Happened every time. And as a host — even as a traveling one —  it’s one of the best things you can ask for.

Familiar Feelings, Itchy Heels

So as I go through the motions in my own kitchen — chop onions and peppers, dice my garlic, salt and sweat it all down — I’m remembering how this simple dish can bring people to the table. Not as a fancy dinner party or a special occasion — but as an elemental, edible Louisiana tradition that brings folks together and works a kind of magic in the process.

With the vegetables nice and lazy and the smell of browned sausage coming from the stove, I add the red beans to the pot and tweak my seasonings. And it being MY kitchen, everything is in reach and just where I want it.

Doling out the cornbread at Town Hall, San Francisco (Photo by Molly Decoudreaux)

Tomorrow, I’ll be planning events in other places — there’s Texas in October and a week-long run in New York come November — because once you start feeding people on the road, it turns out that more people want to be fed. (Funny, that …)

But tonight, my beans will come to a boil and I’ll crank down the flame to a slight simmer. I’ll straighten my house (just barely) and hit my rice cooker’s clunky ON button. Mix up a batch of cornbread and crack a beer.

And remember this feeling — this feeling of MY home — when I’m hitting the road and cooking it for others …

(The good folks at Camellia were a crucial partner in the whole process — supporting the project with a much-appreciated sponsorship and logistical help along the way. Many thanks, y’all …)

Pableaux Johnson