Melissa Scrymgeour and Clean Slate Pours Heart into Cajun Nights

Solvang is fast becoming the Santa Ynez Valley’s center for world cuisines. With Indo-French, Japanese ramen, Italian and Mexican restaurants in the mix (plus a new Thai spot), this Danish town also boasts authentic Cajun food on Monday nights, and traditional curry on Tuesday nights at Clean Slate Wine Bar.

Jason and Melissa Scrymgeour own and run this wine bar, restaurant and event space like their own home. Jason minds the wine, Melissa commands the food, and both treat you with Southern hospitality.

Chef Melissa grew up in Louisiana, where food is an expression of love. From her earliest days, she was at the side of her mother, grandmothers and great-grandmothers, absorbing the joy of cooking. Some of her very first memories are of being passed from hip to hip, helping to stir, taste and create dishes meant to comfort and delight.

Melissa feels lucky to be strongly influenced by the women in her family— both grandmothers and both great grandmothers. Her fondest memories are of helping to cut all the aromatics for “the Holy Trinity” (the Cajun base of onion, celery and peppers) with the ladies while singing and dancing to Patsy Cline and George Jones.

And that’s still how Melissa comes up with new recipes—a little research and some music in the kitchen with the ancestors. “I always start with a roux, which is a basic step but to me it’s comforting and relaxing,” she says. “Then you add the holy trinity. If I could bottle that smell! It’s the smell of family.” And when it comes to garlic—they call it “the Pope”—and spices, you don’t measure. “You keep tasting until your Cajun ancestors whisper that it’s enough.”

Along with seasonal starters and grilled shrimp salad, Cajun dinners are classic: ‘Nawlins Red Beans and Rice— slow-simmered Louisiana red beans, ham, andouille and rice; Jambalaya—a Cajun one-pot rice dish with savory pork and smoked beef sausage; and Gumbo Z’Herbes—vegan gumbo with smoky black-eyed peas, greens and jasmine rice.

The vegan gumbo is a delicious blend of cold-smoked peas and greens that are more “California” (kale and spinach instead of collards and mustard greens). It’s a marriage of Cajun heritage and California sensibilities and local produce. Melissa was inspired by legendary Creole chef Leah Chase, who created vegan dishes for New Orleans folks during Lent.

Melissa’s creativity is her keystone, wiping the slate clean each day to create a new menu. She also loves to pass on her cooking heritage and involves her sous-chefs and employees in creating new dishes as well. Tuesday’s Curry Night brings another array of interesting and complex dishes, and her Just 8 Dinner menus are out of this world (as is the wine brought in by Jason and Wine Enthusiast writer Matt Kettmann).

Melissa brings all these dishes alive in Clean Slate’s tiny kitchen, just like her Granny Gerto did in Ponchatoula. She loves being able to bring authentic flavors she grew up with and share those with everybody.

“Y’all,” she exclaims, “you can get legit Cajun-Southern food right here in Solvang!”