SELLERSBURG — A new cafe in Sellersburg functions an eclectic wide range of dishes influenced by street food stuff from close to the environment.
FaiDodos opened very last Tuesday at 7815 Highway 311. The eatery functions a rotating selection of dishes ranging from loaded fries to pizza rolls.
Proprietor Hunter O’Dell moved back to his hometown of Sellersburg from Arizona all through the pandemic soon after getting rid of jobs through the shutdown. His father owns the FaiDodos building, which has been home to a number of companies all through the a long time, and he inspired O’Dell to open up his own restaurant.
He decided to open up FaiDodos with business enterprise lover Jesse Jewell, who is his friend from superior faculty. O’Dell has experience in the cafe market as a bartender.
The cafe is encouraged by the ambiance of New Orleans, and its title arrives from the Cajun phrase fais-dodo, which refers to a type of dancing occasion, O’Dell explained.
“New Orleans is one of my beloved metropolitan areas, I enjoy the songs, I really like the vibrancy of it,” he claimed. “I like that in the French Quarter you can stroll 10 feet and you might have a cowboy bar and a rock ‘n roll bar and then like a Cajun restaurant. There are so quite a few items packed in, and I just like that strategy of having this aspect about below is a very little various from that facet about there.”
Whilst FaiDodos is encouraged by New Orleans, it is not a Cajun cafe, and the menu basically features a variety of foodstuff from various cuisines. Highlights consist of loaded fries with toppings these types of as Canadian-design poutine, gyro, gumbo, Philly cheesesteak and pulled pork.
“We went with fries, because getting a manufacturer-new restaurant, fries are very price tag-successful, and hoping to get off the ground soon after COVID and remaining a locally-owned location, we desired to go with some thing that we could do excellent but also get us off the floor,” O’Dell explained.
The gyro, Philly cheesecake and pulled pork options can also be requested as sandwiches as a substitute of loaded fries, and 1 can just have a bowl of gumbo if they like it with out the fries.
Other treats involve edamame, samosas, dipping trays and seasoned fries with chipotle aioli sauce. The cafe also offers “pep rolls,” or crispy egg rolls stuffed with pizza ingredients this sort of as pepperoni, pizza sauce and mozzarella.
“We needed to make confident you bought a possibility to try some food items that are very little extra cultural and from about the planet,” he stated. “The most significant inspiration was road food items from all around the entire world. A great deal of situations you have to go to specific food items-design and style dining establishments to get the items we have.”
O’Dell expects people today will tire of the loaded fries after a even though, so he appears to be ahead to the prospect to transform up the menu. He review FaiDodos to a meals truck “where we can be any variety of food items truck we want to be.”
“They are things that you would uncover on food items vehicles, like if you’ve been going for walks to bars and you are strolling down the street and there are some late-evening sellers and whatnot,” he stated.
The restaurant also features quite a few dessert options. For the beignets, FaiDodos makes use of the traditional Cafe Du Monde mix to make fried pastries. The sweet treats also include things like “sweet potato insanity,” or sweet potato fries topped with brown sugar, apples, cinnamon sugar, marshmallow sauce, caramel and ice cream.
The “dodo bites” contain a rotating selection of deep-fried desserts, and this month, the cafe is featuring a peanut butter, banana and marshmallow “fluffer nutter.”
O’Dell mentioned FaiDodos has not yet obtained its liquor license, but there are designs to inevitably give beer and wine. Enterprise started out sluggish final week as the cafe opened, and the wintry temperature closed it down for a few days.
But organization has been expanding in excess of the earlier week, and the phrase unfold swiftly, he stated.
“We did not build it up at all, so we form of let individuals just organically see the open indicator, see our social media, see hey, we’re eventually open and clearly, we’re on the busiest highway in Sellersburg with folks driving by and seeing that,” O’Dell explained.
