This week, the Wild American Shrimp’s 2019 Chef of the Year David Guas has announced the re-opening of his popular Arlington, Virginia-based restaurant, the Bayou Bakery Coffee Bar & Eatery!

When we last heard from, Chef Guas had unfortunately shut down the Bayou Bakery temporarily out of an abundance of caution due to  COVID-19. While the bakery’s doors may have been closed, its meals were still open to the community. Not letting quarantine stop him, Chef Guas took the opportunity to divert his time and energy into the Chefs Feeding Families program, which he founded in collaboration with Real Food for Kids to help provide meals to children and families in need of food due to the negative impact of the coronavirus.

Now, as of Monday, August 24, 2020: Bayou Bakery is back in business with Grab N’ Geaux, Patio Dining, and Delivery! To help celebrate the grand reopening, Bayou Bakery has rolled out a brand-new website, a repainted dining room, and an updated menu featuring fan favorites and new selections!

With Bayou Bakery’s re-opening, Chef Guas said, “During our temporary closure, it was incredible to witness the outpouring of support from our community. In re-opening, I’m looking forward to welcoming back our friends and neighbors. In times like this just a smile or a thank you means the world!”

For starters, Bayou Bakery is now serving frozen daiquiris! With Chef Guas paying tribute to one of his hometown’s specialties, New Orleans Original Daiquiris, the bakery is now offering rotating flavors in Grab N’ Geaux containers! Flavors include The Hurricane, a riff on the Crescent City classic, and the White Russian-based The Dude, a nod to Guas’s favorite film, The Big Lebowski. They’re also offering daily prepared and packaged meals from Pimento Cheese to Roasted Chicken Salad for easy meals to take home on-the-go!

Alongside the re-opening of the restaurant, Chef Guas has been sure to enforce a variety of guidelines to help ensure the safety of both customers and staff. This led to not only improved safety protocols, but also a complete revamp of the restaurant as a whole!

“It’s not only the consumer-facing ‘front of the house’ that is key to the success of a restaurant,” Guas said, “but for Bayou Bakery, the ‘back of the house’ environment needed to be more efficient, productive, and super clean for those spending 8 hours a day at work.”

Accordingly, a new air filtration system and an industrial fan have been installed in the back-production kitchen to help weed out germs and keep air flowing continuously. The dust has been cleared from the walls being ripped out and replaced with more effective ventilation. The tile floors have been replaced entirely. And, perhaps most noteworthy of all, the bathrooms have been remodeled to accommodate a completely hands-free environment: including touch-free faucets, soap dispensers, hand dryers, and an arm extension handle that allows guests to enter and exit without using their hands. The vintage charm of the old Bayou Bakery remains, but a fresher coat of paint throughout the eatery has added eye-catching new hues of pastel blues, yellows, and greens that liven up the walls and make for more colorful furnishings inside and out on the patio. New curtains and wall coverings on the exposed brick sections showcase antique Louisiana maps and a four-foot water meter stamp, an iconic symbol for New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, hand-painted by Ken Matthews. It’s like a whole new Bayou Bakery!

As for Chefs Feeding Families, Guas stated that, since launching, the program has served over 85,000 free plant-based meals and counting to Arlington County Public School students and their families since March 17. “We’ve increased the number of distribution sites due to the immense generosity and support of the community and chefs in the Virginia area,” Chef Guas said. “We are proud to continue and grow this initiative!”

We commend Chef Guas for his commitments to both feeding the community while doing everything he can to keep them safe. We could not be prouder of our Chef of the Year!

“If we’ve learned anything from this crisis, it’s the importance of being good to each other and taking care of our community,” Chef Guas said. “For us, that starts with good food!”

To celebrate the re-opening of Bayou Bakery, Chef Guas has provided us an all-new recipe: Grain Salad with Grilled Shrimp and Sweet Peppers! Give it a try yourself!