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On late Thursday nights (or early Friday mornings) in 2017, you could hear the voice of Conway Twitty coming from a speaker and the unmistakable aroma of the Cajun Holy Trinity – onions, green bell peppers and celery – wafting from a small house on Oakcrest Drive in ɫ��AV. If you wandered out the backdoor, odds are you’d find Tanner Dimmick manning a 6-quart cast iron pot with something delicious simmering inside.

These Gravy Thursdays began as a spin on Taco Tuesdays for a group of University of Louisiana at ɫ��AV undergrads, dubbed the “Gravy Boys,” looking to unwind after they worked closing shifts in local restaurants. Though those late nights made Friday morning classes a challenge, the meals were the perfect opportunity for Dimmick to hone his craft, scaling up his signature pork steak gravy in preparation for ɫ��AV’s Blackpot Festival & Cookoff. Over time, and after many bowls of rice and gravy, this weekly practice paid off with Dimmick recently placing third in the competition.

These gatherings weren’t planned with a legacy in mind, but when reflecting on those late nights, Dimmick said it made him see his hometown, and its culture, in a new light. These days, Gravy Thursdays are rare as life pulls the Acadiana-raised Gravy Boys – Dimmick, Trey Delcambre, Samuel Frazier, Jacab Gibson, Jordan Know, Josh Mata, Derrick Savoie and Sullivan Zant – in different directions, but cooking remains the thread that keeps them together and reminds them of their roots.

“It kind of made us prouder of where we were from, cooking a big gravy and having a big Cajun party,” said Dimmick, now general manager of Spoonbill Watering Hole & Restaurant in downtown ɫ��AV. “I feel like it helped us reconnect with our roots because growing up here, Cajun music and food are always around. You kind of take it for granted.”

Good gravy calls for great sides like smothered cabbage, collard greens, corn maque choux or mac and cheese. While Dimmick focused on the main course, side duty fell to Sullivan Zant, now executive chef at Vestal, a ɫ��AV restaurant. Zant met Dimmick while attending the University and working as a sous-chef at Vestal’s previous incarnation, Dark Roux, in 2016. Even though Zant was still perfecting his own culinary talent, he promised to lend his knowledge and experience to help Dimmick perfect his gravy recipe, building his confidence ahead of the Blackpot competition. For Zant, those late nights with the Gravy Boys became a tradition that felt both familiar and new.

Zant grew up watching his family gather for weekend crawfish boils and cookouts where food was only part of the experience. While it was always at the heart of these gatherings, spending time with one another was the real reason for getting together. Those nights filled with dancing, having a few drinks and passing a good time were always something he cherished. Looking back on those Thursday nights with the Gravy Boys, he said it became their way of carrying Cajun culture forward.

“We’re cooking food that we grew up with, maybe in slightly different ways sometimes, but we’re trying to keep alive what we were taught and what we grew up eating. We’re trying to do the same thing our parents and grandparents did when they got together,” said Zant. “That’s really something that separates Cajun culture from most places in the U.S. It’s our turn to take that baton and carry it.”

Passing that culinary torch is something that Trey Delcambre considers an important part of his time with the Gravy Boys. Delcambre, who earned his master’s degree in psychology in 2022 and now works as a research associate at the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center, lived in the Oakcrest house along with Josh Mata and Derrick Savoie. Delcambre said the three enjoyed hosting hungry groups of friends who gathered after hours for a bowl of rice and gravy.

Those nights shaped Delcambre’s appreciation for his culture, especially when it comes to cooking. Now a father of two small sons, he enjoys spending time in the kitchen with his 3-year-old and passing down that tradition. They’re starting small with eggs, biscuits and macaroni and cheese, but Delcambre said it’s a great learning opportunity for his son Jean-Luc, who’s always eager to help.

“I deeply value that the practice of cooking is something that my children see often,” said Delcambre. “Right now, my son is starting to stir the pot a little bit and do that kind of stuff. I didn’t think I would have valued that part of the transmission of cultural knowledge to my children as much as I do now.”

Josh Mata took care of promoting Gravy Thursdays on social media. In the early days, Gravy Thursdays usually included around 15 of the gang’s closest friends. Over time, and with Mata’s curated social media blasts, it grew in size and scale. Dimmick recalls cooking for over 100 people at one point, way too many to fit in the 1,300-square-foot Oakcrest house.

This increase in popularity also led to media coverage in publications such as Garden & Gun and Louisiana Cookin’ and a web-based spot on Fox News Digital. While they didn’t set out to flip culinary preconceptions, they did in some ways. Gravy isn’t something outsiders usually associate with typical Cajun fare like gumbo or étouffée. For many, gravy might be something you pour over dry Thanksgiving turkey, but the Gravy Boys brought well-deserved respect to a dish many Cajuns hold dear, making a proper place for it at the table and in the conversation.

As they gain notoriety, aided with flair by matching jean jackets with “Gravy Boys” prominently embroidered on the back, some friends in Dimmick’s circle have suggested that the group find ways to profit off the media attention – something Dimmick said will never happen.

“Man, I absolutely don’t want to do that. There’re so many people trying to capitalize on culture and make money off it, but we’re just enjoying what we’re doing,” said Dimmick. “No one’s trying to make this a job. Everyone just wants to make ɫ��AV a little bit better of a place to live. If we can do that by cooking, hosting people and having a good time, that’s cool man.”

On a late Sunday afternoon in June, the Gravy Boys meet at Delcambre’s house, slowly piling in after watching the College World Series. The menu? You guessed it. Heaping servings of pork steak gravy and savory corn maque choux, enough to feed the boys and their growing families. While it isn’t quite the same as days gone by, the guys still have fun stirring the pot, playing gravy pong (beer pong with ever-changing home rules), listening to music and ribbing each other over their cooking techniques. As the sun goes down and the gravy cools, the boys depart at a decent hour to get ready for the week ahead.

Even as life carries some of the Gravy Boys far from ɫ��AV, those culinary memories keep them rooted to the people, and the place, that shaped them. Mata graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages and spent time after college teaching English in Spain. Now, he works as a sommelier at Spring, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Marietta, Ga. But he still remembers those nights that spilled over into daybreak with song and dance, where no one was a stranger, making connections over bowls of rice and gravy.

“It was just about the moment, spending time with your friends and strangers who eventually became great friends, all while preserving this tradition of cooking Cajun food,” said Mata. “Even if just for a moment, we were still showing people what the culture is about with community, food, songs and dance, just the core elements of what Acadian culture has to offer.”

Photo caption: (top) Gravy Boys members from left: Trey Delcambre, Sullivan Zant, Samuel Frazier, Tanner Dimmick, Derrick Savioe, Jordan Know and Jacab Gibson. Not pictured: Josh Mata. Photo credit: (top) Paul Kieu / The University of Louisiana at ɫ��AV

Sullivan Zant's Pork Steak Gravy Recipe

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Sullivan Zant offers the following disclaimer: “We have never written a recipe for this. We cook from the heart, not from a piece of paper."

Ingredients

• 5 pounds bone-in pork steak (shoulder)
• 3 medium yellow onions, small dice
• 2 green bell peppers, small dice
• 3 stalks celery, small dice
• 4 ounces of vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoons of minced garlic
• 2 quarts of chicken stock
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire
• 8 ounces of beer (pilsner or ale)
• 2 bay leaves
• Cajun seasoning, to taste
• Hot sauce, to taste

Instructions

1. Pat the pork steaks dry with a cloth and season them with Cajun seasoning. Don’t be shy about it!
2. On a baking sheet, coat the pork steaks with flour until the entire surface is coated.
3. Add the oil to an 8-quart Dutch oven and turn heat to medium-high.
4. Working in batches, fry the pork steaks in oil on both sides, then reserve them on a baking sheet. Oil should be hot enough to get a good crisp but cool enough not to burn the small flour particles. Do not overcrowd the pot.
5. Add the onions, bell peppers, and celery to the pot and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon vigorously to unstick the grilles (the little bits stuck to the pan). Cook and stir occasionally for 10–15 minutes until a dark brown color is achieved.
6. Add the garlic and bay leaves along with 4 teaspoons of Cajun seasoning. Cook for 1 minute. Add the beer to deglaze, then cook for an additional minute, stirring constantly.
7. Return the pork steaks to the pot along with the stock and Worcestershire. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low-medium.
8. Let this cook for 1.5 to 2.5 hours, stirring every 10 minutes. As the stock reduces, the gravy will become thicker, almost like gumbo. The pork steaks should start to fall off the bone. Stirring with a wooden spoon can aid this process.
9. Sing, dance, and have a beer.
10. Once the meat falls apart and the gravy is thick, it’s ready! Add Cajun seasoning and hot sauce to taste. Serve over long-grain Louisiana rice.

Tip: If the gravy is too thick, thin it with extra stock. The texture should be similar to gumbo or stew and coat rice well.