A sports bar and restaurant with a Cajun flair is moving into the Fishers market, offering Louisiana specialties like po’boys and deep-fried alligator, along with more traditional sports-bar fare like burgers and onion rings.
Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux is based out of Baton Rouge, La., said co-owner Todd Johnson. The Fishers store, opening May 6, is the 89th in the franchise, which boasts a handful of sports stars among its owners. They include NFL Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks and Super Bowl champion Drew Brees, who played quarterback for Purdue University and the NFL’s New Orleans Saints.
The restaurant’s name comes from the co-founders Brandon Landry and Jack Warner, who were both walk-on basketball players for Louisiana State University, according to the company’s website.
Clearly, the sports theme has strong roots at Walk-Ons, and they make sure customers have plenty of access to a variety of sports broadcasts. Johnson said they will have 80 big-screen TVs in the new location, 11655 Fishers Corner Blvd.
“Anywhere you sit, you can see four TVs,” he said, adding that the scratch kitchen — which means they cook everything from scratch — sets the venue apart from other sports bars. “We have a lot of seafood. It has a New Orleans kind of flair to it. We have a thing called Devils on Horseback, which is a shrimp where we cut the back of it, put a small jalapeno and cream cheese and wrap it in bacon and bread it and fry it. We have gator on the menu. We fry that up into chunks — it looks just like boneless chicken bites — and deep fry. It is wonderful.”
He said gator tastes just like chicken.
“We also have a lot of shrimp, seafood, pastas. We have a hamburger where we put six hand-breaded onion rings on top of — it’s called the hickory burger,” he said. “If you order a chicken sandwich, all of our chicken sandwiches come with two breast patties, not just one, stacked on top of each other.”
If a customer is still hungry after all that, for dessert, the restaurant has beignets, traditional Cajun doughnuts covered with powdered sugar, and bread pudding — but not a typical bread pudding.
“Our bread pudding is made out of Krispy Kreme doughnuts,” Johnson said. “It’s amazing. I mean, you put 72 Krispy Kreme doughnuts in there and smash them all down, shred them all up almost like a stuffing you do for Christmas with bread. And then we let it congeal up overnight. And then we cut it out and then we take the actual sweet glaze that you put on a glazed doughnut and we drizzle it over the top (and serve it with) whipped cream.”
A ribbon cutting is set for May 6, and Johnson said for the week of May 6, all proceeds from the bar up to $5,000 will go to Mudsock Youth Athletics, a Fishers-based nonprofit that offers sports opportunities to young residents. A larger grand opening celebration is planned for some time in June.
For more about Walk-Ons Sports Bistreaux, visit walk-ons.com.
