LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) — A once-thriving cornerstone of Cajun culture is set to make its long-awaited return. Harris’ Restaurant in Hayes, best known for its vibrant dance hall and live Cajun music, is being brought back to life after sitting vacant for years.
For decades, Harris’ was the place to be on a Saturday night. Locals packed the dance floor, two-stepping to the sounds of Cajun music legends while enjoying comforting food.
“It was really the heartbeat of Cajun culture here,” said April-Scarlett Keill, whose father, Hall of Fame Cajun musician August Broussard, was a regular performer. “I grew up there, it’s part of my childhood. My daddy played there, and I remember loading up the equipment for the band and dancing on the dance floor.”
The restaurant served as the heartbeat of Cajun culture until about the late 1990s, early 2000s.
The building housed other businesses since then, but it’s been vacant for about five years.
Earlier this month, Nate Lopez purchased the property to revive the soul of Harris’ and bring the community back together under one roof.
“This has always kind of been a dream of mine, to have a restaurant,” Lopez said. “I think bringing back the original Harris’s Cajun Dance Hall will be good for the community. It was a place where people came to connect, laugh, and dance. We need that again.”
The new vision includes not only a restaurant but a full revival of the dance hall, giving musicians a stage to perform and longtime Cajun music fans a place to relive cherished memories.
“This is going to give me an opportunity to open the doors for people like me who want to learn how to play music or see local bands perform,” Lopez said. “There’s been so much buzz already from people within a 200-mile radius. It shows how much this place meant to folks.”
Keill says seeing Harris’ comeback is like watching a dream unfold.
“We all kind of joked in our little circle that it would be so great if Harris’ came back,” she said. “We never dreamed that it would, but we are so ecstatic that it is.”
One of her most treasured memories is hearing her father’s booming voice fill the room.
“His big voice, it was comforting to know I could hear my daddy no matter where he was,” Keill said.
Lopez says that feeling, the comfort, the joy, the nostalgia, is exactly what he hopes to recapture.
“It’s gonna bring back old times,” he said. “It makes me think of all the older folks that used to come and would love to come back. I think I can put smiles on people’s faces.”
Demolition of the building is expected to begin within the next couple of weeks, with an estimated completion date set for February of next year.
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