A beloved New Orleans-style Cajun restaurant will make waves this summer when it opens its latest location in New Smyrna Beach.
Fire on the Bayou plans to open shop in the bustling beach town by early August, said owner Jason Ackerman, at the former location of The Sand Bar Café. The new space, twice the size of his current Orange City eatery, will hold roughly 102 tables where diners will enjoy all the same boils, burgers and gumbo dinners.
Following the 2017 opening of his Orange City establishment — a closer proximity to his mother, who was battling health issues at the time — and the brief opening of his Oviedo location in 2019, which has since closed, Ackerman said New Smyrna Beach had always remained in the back of his mind.
“(My family), we used to build bonfires on the beach and fish all night long, you know? We’d just camp out there,” he said, describing the local spot as a precious part of his life that’s held years of inimitable memories.
After his mother died two years ago, Ackerman said the pull to New Smyrna persisted.
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“We started looking at property down in Edgewater, and that’s when I happened to drive by the New Smyrna restaurant,” he explained. “I said, 'Wait a minute, let’s do a quick U-turn,' and within the hour I had a deposit down on the building.”
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Fire on the Bayou places quality seafood and exceptional flavors at the forefront, Ackerman said, in hopes of bringing a memorable slice of New Orleans right here to Volusia County.
“I empower my guys to really focus on the quality and the standard. We put that before profit, any day,” he said.
“I want lifetime customers instead of just capitalizing on the dollar in that moment … . If somebody’s going to take their hard-earned money and spend it at my business, when they have many choices, then they have to be able to trust us.”
Fire on the Bayou’s menu offers everything from seafood platters, jambalaya, Cajun pasta and classic crawfish etouffee to catfish and grits, various po’ boys and the Bayou Blue Burger.
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When it comes to best sellers, it’s no secret that the seafood boils steal the show, the most popular being The Bucket of Love — 1 pound of crawfish, a half-pound of shrimp and two snow crab clusters, alongside andouille sausage, sweet corn, potatoes and the customer's sauce of choice.
Each boil’s heat level can also be adjusted to mild, medium or hot, depending on the kick customers are craving.
“(The menu’s) really evolved,” Ackerman said. “When we first started, we had catfish — that was it. Now, we have pollock, mahi, redfish and we’re getting ready to add a chef’s special, like a catch of the day.”
The new location will feature a substantially larger kitchen, he told me, allowing for further menu expansion over time.
“Over there, we’ll be able to shuck (our oysters) and serve them on the half shell and be able to do chargrilled oysters — which is a Louisiana staple. So, we’re excited about that,” Ackerman said. “Right now, we have about three chargrilled recipes for our menu.”
Moving forward, the restaurateur hopes to make fresh fish more of a focal point on the menu, starting with a “create-your-own” dish that combines a fish and sauce of customers’ choosing.
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After roughly 30 years in the restaurant industry, starting as a dish washer and working his way up to a corporate level, Ackerman said he felt as though he’d almost “hit the roof” on experience, and was ready to venture into new territory: opening his own restaurant.
The restaurateur said it was actually his experience as a musician that he attributes to much of the restaurant's opening success.
“Locally, prior to opening this, we ran a band for about 10 years straight, playing about 48 weekends a year," he said. "I did have a good following, and they really just came out.”
The restaurant’s New Orleans concept — something Ackerman said was desperately lacking in the area — naturally evolved from his love for the iconic city and culinary paradise, a place he and his wife found themselves visiting several times a year.
“On my grandmother's side, they’re out of Mobile, Alabama, and we're out of Charleston, South Carolina. So, although it’s not the Louisiana — the New Orleans culture, it still bleeds over,” he said.
“And this concept originally started with friends of mine — the band I was in. On the weekend we would just sit down and do an old country boil — crawfish, crab legs, shrimp — and all of us were just like man, there’s nothing around to provide this.’’
So, Ackerman took matters into his own hands.
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With the help of accomplished, Atlanta-based artist Michele Dobbs, who’s worked on the sets of "Jumanji: The Next Level" and "Killers of the Flower Moon" with Leonardo DiCaprio, Fire on the Bayou's vibrant vision was brought to life in Orange City.
Her mural-painting skills will make their return to the new location, Ackerman eagerly noted.
“Seafood was lacking (in the area) and New Orleans culture itself is just an amazing culture … So, (people) say 'Oh it’s New Orleans cuisine,' and yes, it is. But for me, growing up, it was just cooking, you know?" he said.
“Grandmother’s fried chicken, her grits. And my other side of the family, out of Pennsylvania, we did a lot of crabbing and what not through the Chesapeake. So, I grew up on blue crabs. It just all seemed to tie together — it all blended here.”
Fire on the Bayou is located at 921 Town Center Drive, Unit 1100, in Orange City and is open 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. Sunday – Thursday and 11 a.m. – 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The new location is located at 1500 S. Dixie Freeway in New Smyrna Beach, and plans for a soft opening during the first several weeks of August.
For information, call 386-218-0771 or visit facebook.com/FOTBOrangeCity.
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