The oxtails at My Marie (3147 Cherokee Street, 314-499-7059) are not merely a delicious dish; they are the sort of soul-stirring meal that comes from generational knowledge from grandmas and grandpas, mothers, fathers and aunties passed down in home kitchens, where the family gossip was at hot as the stew on the stove. You can taste this in owner Marie Louis-Jeune's slow-cooked oxtails, which are so tender they come off the bone with just the slightest fork prod and bob in a stew-like cooking liquid that is so rich, it's as if you distilled the entire idea of how beef should taste into it. Served alongside buttery mashed potatoes — homestyle — it's such pure comfort, you feel as if an entire family history is wrapping you in a loving embrace.
For Louis-Jeune, however, the oxtails — and all of her cooking — were born from a much different place. After losing her mother at the age of five while living in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, Louis-Jeune felt compelled to support her family through her obvious culinary gift, at first by cooking for them from home, and eventually by selling her wares as a street vendor after school. She's not sure where her talents came from — chalking them up to a blessing helped along by her dad and an older neighbor — but she leaned into them and became passionate about food, seeing it as a way not only to support her family but to express her love for those she cared about.
It made sense, then, that Louis-Jeune would pursue cooking as a career. After graduating high school, she went to culinary school and opened a restaurant as soon as she finished the program. It was a successful operation for two years until 2010, when the earthquake that devastated Haiti forced her to close up shop and flee to the United States. Originally, she and her family landed in Michigan, but then some friends whom they knew from Haiti invited them to move into their home in Cape Girardeau. Louis-Jeune and her family accepted the offer and stayed in southeast Missouri for almost a year. At that point, they felt it was safe to return to Haiti and reopen the restaurant.
Louis-Jeune and her family reestablished their lives and their business back in Haiti, but in 2015, the country's political situation became so fraught that they felt they had no choice but to leave for good. Already familiar with Cape Girardeau, they moved back to the Bootheel, where Louis-Jeune got experience cooking in area restaurants before eventually deciding to again open a place of her own in her adopted town.
That restaurant, My Marie, opened in Cape Girardeau in 2019. Though the city lacked a Haitian population, Louis-Jeune knew that her cooking was good enough to draw in business. She was right; the restaurant developed a loyal following and became a vibrant addition to the city's dining landscape. However, Louis-Jeune and her family longed for a Haitian community to be a part of and felt like a larger city would be a better fit for their restaurant. Nearby St. Louis seemed like the right move, so they closed the doors to My Marie, packed up and moved two hours up Interstate 55.
Louis-Jeune reopened My Marie on Cherokee Street this past September in the former Tower Tacos storefront located on the business district's western edge. Outfitted with orange and yellow walls, red tables and chairs, and a television that plays mostly Rihanna, the space makes you feel as if you've walked into a small restaurant off a side street in Louis-Jeune's home country.
That transportive experience is amplified tenfold once you taste this talented chef's cooking. Even before the oxtails hit the table, you understand Louis-Jeune's gift in the form of her patties; the savory pastries are as buttery and flaky as the finest French croissants but so delicate the layers melt on the tongue. How they are able to hold their contents — savory, seasoned ground beef, succulent chicken and peppers — is one of life's mysteries. The veggie version is particularly delicious, packing a piquant heat that cuts through the pastry's buttery texture.
Louis-Jeune's dumplings are equally amazing. Though the name might connote otherwise, these fritters are unfilled; think savory, warm, spice-seasoned funnel cake served alongside a gravy-like sauce. The chef balances this richness by serving the dumplings alongside a Haitian-style slaw, which consists of julienne cabbage, carrots and other vegetables tossed in a mildly spiced, bright dressing. The combination is breathtaking.
The fried pork, or griot fritay, is another brilliant success. Here, hunks of pork shoulder are boiled until tender then fried, unbreaded, so that the exterior crisps up, yielding to a succulent interior. The meat itself is only mildly seasoned so that the pure pork taste takes center stage. Fried green plantains and vibrant Haitian slaw round out this outstanding plate.
A whole snapper, fried so that its skin crisps up while the flesh cooks to the perfect delicate texture, puts My Marie in the conversation as one of the essential places for whole fish in the city. Alone, it is delicious, but the slight gilding of deeply savory, complex tomato-y sauce adds a punch of flavor that is otherworldly.
Like the oxtail, Louis-Jeune's ultra-traditional legume feels like something you should be experiencing on a family table in Port-au-Prince rather than a storefront on Cherokee Street. Though its name will likely bring to mind beans, peas or lentils, this is a false cognate. The dish is actually a slow-cooked vegetable stew made from eggplant, carrots, onions and greens, which cooks down so that the components meld together to become an almost spreadable concoction, but not so far that they lose their individuality. There's a surprising brightness to the vegetables when enjoyed on their own; however, Louis-Jeune encourages diners to enjoy them mixed with a shockingly rich red-bean sauce that transforms the dish into a stick-to-your-ribs comfort-food masterpiece.
That Louis-Jeune is able to bring about such a connection between her guests and her native country through her cooking shows she's not just an excellent cook; she's a steward of Haitian cuisine and culture — something not necessarily taught but that has lived inside her all along. That it now lives with us is a privilege.n
Open Tues.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 8 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun. 8 a.m.-6 p.m. (Closed Mon.)
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