Pappy’s Stowaway Cafe

Samantha Spalitta:
We are here today in Ponchatoula at Pappy’s Stowaway Cafe. Thank you for joining us here. We’re here with owner, Callie.

Callie:
Thank you so much for coming. I’m so happy to finally have you here.

Samantha Spalitta:
Absolutely. I’m excited. I’ve been wanting to do this interview.

Callie:
Oh, I bet.

Samantha Spalitta:
I love you guys so much. So excited to have you guys a part of our community.

Callie:
Oh, yeah.

Samantha Spalitta:
Now, can you tell me a little bit for those who don’t know, which is not many, about Pappy’s history? I know we’re actually standing behind some great history pictures right here.

Callie:
Absolutely. So Pappy was my grandfather. He was a commercial fisherman. We’re from Buras and he always just had this love for his community and for feeding people’s souls. And that didn’t just mean with his words, but he also fed them with their food. So, it was always just amazing to see how my family welcomed people in and how food was that center point for us. And now we’re really happy to be providing that to our Ponchatoula community.

Samantha Spalitta:
I love that. I love that so much. And coming from a fishermen community, hard work and values are also a big part.

Callie:
Absolutely. And I think that’s why we love Ponchatoula so much is because it is home to us. There isn’t a difference in the hardworking communities from Buras to here. We have so many people here that are dedicated to this amazing town and I’m just happy to be a part of it all.

Samantha Spalitta:
Absolutely. We’re glad to have you part of it.

Callie:
Thank you.

Samantha Spalitta:
Now you actually moved here right before Katrina.

Callie:
We did. We were very fortunate. My mom had a Especially For You Florist. And when we moved up here, she brought the business with her and the community came around and lifted us up and supported us like we were one of their own, even though we were come here’s, not from here’s. And it’s been amazing to see how much this town has grown post-Katrina and even now post-COVID, the amount of people that have kind of found a safe haven in Ponchatoula like we did.

Samantha Spalitta:
Absolutely. It’s unreal to see just the amount of businesses we have opening up. It’s great.

Callie:
It shocks me every day that there’s barely any vacant spots on our downtown strip in Ponchatoula. Being on the downtown revitalization board, it’s inspiring really. And as a young entrepreneur to see other young entrepreneurs, opening businesses like Matt with the escape room and with Rucker’s down the street and all of these amazing businesses, it’s inspiring, not just for me as a young entrepreneur, but for others. I think that if we can do it, so can they.

Samantha Spalitta:
Absolutely. To see so many young people in the community leading, it’s just an awesome thing.

Callie:
Yeah. And what better way to do it with than with food and some coffee?

Samantha Spalitta:
Absolutely. Speaking of, yes, so you’re actually going to be combining StowAway Coffeehouse and Pappy’s.

Callie:
Yeah, it’s exciting news. We’ve been waiting for a while to announce it. And we finally have done all the paperwork and cross all our T’s, dotted all our I’s. We’ll be bringing StowAway Coffeehouse here to Pappy’s. It’s a convenient location. We have a multitude of areas for you to park and we’ll even have capabilities to do better curbside service here.

Samantha Spalitta:
I got to say, we’re in such a historical building here in Ponchatoula. I know when Bootsie’s closed down I know a lot of people were very upset, myself included.

Callie:
My heart was broken too. Trust me, I love the meatball night. Spaghetti and meatballs.

Samantha Spalitta:
Absolutely. And growing up on Bootsie’s, it’s just such wonderful classic food, but I’m sure that was part of your inspiration coming here and creating whole new memories.

Callie:
It was. And I think the important thing about Bootsie’s was the family. And as much as we try and live up to that memory of what Bootsy’s was and that delicious food that Bootsie’s had, we’re not Bootsie’s. And I don’t dare try to be Bootsie’s because they were something unique in themselves. But I think what we offer is that family atmosphere. We sometimes have four generations of my family. My grandma’s sitting over there right now. My mom’s working in the convenience store. Normally I have nieces that are running around here and it’s a beautiful thing because growing up in a flower shop, that’s how it was for us. I was always there right next to my mom and being able to see the work ethic that she had and it made me into the woman that I am today.

Samantha Spalitta:
So one thing I love that you guys have been doing post-COVID is really trying to get people out in the community and have some events and just have some fun with things. Can you tell us about that?

Callie:
So we had our first trivia night a couple of weeks ago and it was Disney-themed. And let me tell you people in Ponchatoula absolutely love Disney.

Samantha Spalitta:
What a fun family night idea. I love that.

Callie:
It was incredible. We had so many different families come out and surprisingly, there weren’t many people that answered these questions wrong. I was these are hardcore Disney trivia, right. And so we’re looking forward to doing more events like that. And eventually doing parties in the parking lot and different events like that. And when we bring the coffee house over here, we’ll be able to do our coffee house couch concerts here in this space to be able to provide a larger space for that.

Samantha Spalitta:
You’ve got plenty of room here, yeah.

Callie:
Yeah, we do.

Samantha Spalitta:
That would be perfect.

Callie:
And my heart has been so in love with the idea of listening to songwriters telling the stories behind their music. And I think that’s what this town is. It’s one big story with a bunch of different people that just turns into this beautiful story that we can tell others.

Samantha Spalitta:
Absolutely. And music is a big part of your life too.

Callie:
It is. I’ve been playing music since I was very young, 10 years old. So about 16 years now that I’ve been playing guitar. And I feel every day that I am not as great as everybody else, but I also feel that God has blessed me so much and being able to have this talent that allows me to reach out to others in a very unique way.

Samantha Spalitta:
Sharing food and music is some of the most-

Callie:
What a bon temps, right?

Samantha Spalitta:
Yeah.

Callie:
Growing up, that’s how it was. We’d get off at church. We’d come home. My pappy would have shrimp boiled up in the backyard. My aunt would be back there playing The Indigo Girls hardcore on her guitar. That’s back in the nineties. And it’s memories like that I want my children one day to be able to make and a place like this is giving us all the opportunity to be able to make memories like that.

Samantha Spalitta:
So, Callie is here making us one of her signature, delicious Roast Beef Po-boys here. So what do we have going on?

Callie:
Well, right now I just got done toasting the bread. I’m dressing it like you like with lettuce, tomato, mayo, no pickles,

Samantha Spalitta:
No pickles. She’s judging me for the no pickle.

Callie:
It’s okay. To each their own. And then we come over here. We have everything ready to build this delicious Po-boy, hot and ready so we can get you out the door real quick.

Samantha Spalitta:
Okay. So can we just get a zoom in real quick though of this roast beef right here? Because if you can’t see, just look how amazing that looks.

Callie:
We let it cook for eight hours. And then we just serve it with all of its natural juices the way that it’s supposed to be done.

Samantha Spalitta:
The way God intended.

Callie:
The way God intended. We get some of the best cuts of beef you can find.

Samantha Spalitta:
I love it. Eight hours, that just adds so much flavor to it.

Callie:
Eight hours. In our kitchen, we like to use Omaha Beef. This is just such tasty meat right here, similar to what Parkway Bakery would use. Because being from the south shore, that was our staple to live up to in my mind, at least. And then we just top it right here with a little bit of lettuce, not too much because nobody gets a Roast Beef Po-boy for the lettuce. We dress it up and then it’s ready for the prom.

Samantha Spalitta:
Oh my god. Can I just take a bite real quick?

Callie:
Absolutely, please do here look.

Samantha Spalitta:
So, you know it’s a good Po-boy first off when you got all those drippings falling out.

Callie:
Oh, yeah. And then just one big bite.

Samantha Spalitta:
Yes.

Callie:
That’s the noise that we look for when you bite into our roast beef sandwich.

Samantha Spalitta:
Yes, oh my gosh. It is so good.

Callie:
Tell us, what do you taste?

Samantha Spalitta:
Okay, well, you’ve got the delicious crunchiness of the bread. It’s just perfect with… And that butter on there too just adds that flavor. And then the juiciness of that roast beef, you can tell that it’s just been-

Callie:
Sorry, you’re making me hungry, I’m going to take a bite.

Samantha Spalitta:
Yeah, get in there. So can you tell us some about of your weekly specials that you guys have?

Callie:
So every day of the week we do something a little different. Mondays we try and stick with that Pappy’s Burger just because it’s such a crowd favorite. I mean, people are starting to call us the burger joint when they pass through town, which I absolutely love. I’ve always wanted to be that burger joint. But on Fridays we do fish boxes and during the week we do hamburgers steaks and sometimes we come up with something in the middle of the week, depending on what our suppliers have on sale that week. I think that’s so beautiful because that’s how my family always did it. This is what’s on sale at the grocery, let’s make that for dinner. And I really wanted that when we opened this place. It’s like you felt like you were coming over to your family’s house and having dinner. But-

Samantha Spalitta:
Those classic plate lunches.

Callie:
Exactly. It’s the plate lunches. You can’t get away from it, especially in the deep south. But I think honestly, besides the roast beef sandwich, breakfast is my favorite thing to eat here.

Samantha Spalitta:
Yes. And I mean and now that you’re especially adding the coffee house here, I mean, that is so awesome. Tell us a bit about your breakfast.

Callie:
Well, we have a special that we call the Pappy’s Platter and we call it that because it has his favorite breakfast meal, which was rice and eggs with a fried bologna sandwich.

Samantha Spalitta:
That is my favorite, I swear.

Callie:
Really? After red beans and rice night, he was always in clutch with that rice and eggs. The next day, everybody looked forward to it and the Pac-Man Bologna is what he called it. He would cut it so it didn’t bubble up.

Samantha Spalitta:
It’s just such a simple dish, but so good.

Callie:
And it makes your heart feel good. Carbs always do that, right?

Samantha Spalitta:
Yeah. So for those wanting to check out your weekly specials, the events you guys have coming up, your hours of operations, where can they go?

Callie:
Well, they can follow us on Facebook first and foremost at Pappy’s Stowaway Cafe and on Instagram @stowaway coffeehouse. You’ll be seeing a little bit of rebranding in a couple of weeks with the coffee house coming over here to Pappy’s. So just be on the lookout. We’ve got so many great things that we’re going to be bringing to this community and we are just thrilled to have you in for dinner.