Table at Third & Fairfax: The Gumbo Pot and Bar 326

Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column featuring Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo’s culinary explorations of the Original Farmers Market in 2023. Every Thursday, her column provides a week-by-week recap of her journey through this iconic Los Angeles attraction. In her last column, Kelly visited Magee’s Kitchen and Local Ice.

As my friend and I observe a small group of people dancing to loud music on the West Patio, she asks me in all seriousness, “Who are these people?” It’s the Sunday before Mardi Gras, and we have arrived in time to catch the end of the weekend’s festivities, which included a beignet tent, live music, and plenty of free plastic beads, as the departing customers from the Farmers Market indicate. My friend’s question is entirely valid: Are people truly making a special trip to this traffic-clogged intersection to dance the night away at the market on a Sunday evening?

Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly column devoted to dining experiences at the Original Farmers Market in Los Angeles. Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo provides a week-by-week account of her journey through this classic L.A. tourist attraction.

In the previous week, Kelly visited Magee’s Kitchen and Local Ice. On a Sunday night before Mardi Gras, my friend and I joined a small group of people dancing to ear-splitting music on the West Patio. We then got in line in front of the Gumbo Pot, the market’s only Cajun restaurant established in 1986, and ordered a fried frog legs meal with collard greens, seafood gumbo, jambalaya, an oyster po’boy, a lemonade, and chocolate beignets. However, they were out of beignets, so we switched to sweet potato pie.

Ten minutes later, we picked up our meal from the Gumbo Pot and sat at a quieter table. I must note that my benchmark for Creole and Cajun cuisine is Darrow’s New Orleans Grill in Carson, which I visited many times in Marina del Rey as a child. The gumbo from the Gumbo Pot was disappointing, with a bland taste and a lack of spice and multi-dimensional flavor compared to the gumbo from Willie Mae’s, which I recently tried at their award-winning Venice outpost. The “spicy” jambalaya was similarly watered down despite the presence of chicken and andouille sausage.

The cornmeal-battered frog legs were delicious, but the collard greens lacked the delicate smoky taste and the cornbread muffin was stale. When a group of people asked us about our food, we warned them not to go to the Gumbo Pot. The oyster po’boy was the highlight of our meal, as it was the only dish we finished. The fluffy bread included a few cornmeal-fried oysters, aioli, lettuce, tomato, and thinly sliced lemon. The filling-to-bread ratio was somewhat off, but it was difficult to mess up a sandwich.

Afterward, we had forkfuls of the forgettable sweet potato pie. We then walked around the rest of the market and decided to have a drink at Bar 326 before leaving, where the wine selection was limited. Few other places within the market serve alcohol, though wine, beer, and cocktails are available at El Granjero Cantina and Marmalade Cafe on the outskirts. My friend and I ordered wine, and the California pinot grigio took the edge off the unsatisfactory meal.