Restaurateur Finds Cajun Accent Shows Up Even in Sign Language
April 27, 2011
Like many of his fellow Cajuns, Darell Morrill found that nobody in his new Downtown understood his accent. But in his case, the problem was in his fingers. ``Other deaf people were always asking me what I meant,'' says Mr. Morrill, who is deaf. He signs in a slow style, the equivalent of a Southern drawl. But communication problems haven't hurt Mr. Morrill's business. Over the past several years, the 37-year-old Mr. Morrill, who also has severely impaired vision, has managed to build a prosperous business out of his 32-seat Cajun restaurant in . At Delcambre's Puentes' Cajun, off the city's Pike Street market, everything is precisely organized around Mr. Morrill's flaming grill, from the placement of his bucket of andouille sausage to the paths the staff take behind him while he works. Mr. Morrill judges food by the time it takes to cook it as much as by how it looks. Most of the staff members are also deaf, and some have unique perspectives on the language. Freund Victoria, an refugee, is fluent in signing, but knows little written English beyond ``gumbo'' and ``cornbread.'' Out among the tables, the restaurant looks like a classic diner with white tile and stainless steel walls. Mr. Morrill's business success is so well-known in the deaf world that deaf tour groups regularly come to his restaurant after seeing him on the motivational-speaking circuit or on deaf television shows. But the crowd of regulars includes plenty of people who aren't deaf. Mr. Morrill's entrepreneurial drive stems from necessity. He attended a conventional cooking school in with the help of an interpreter, expecting to work in a hotel. But after graduation, ``everyone else got a job,'' he signs, while ``the only offer I got was to wash dishes. I realized I'd have to start my own restaurant.'' Back home inhe contacted Paulene Woodrum, the chef, who trained him in the skills he needed to launch a restaurant. But for all the language hassles he has had to deal with, Mr. Morrill signs, he's got a more vexing problem in . ``It's frustrating getting good crawfish,'' he says. ``I've got to fly up the good kind from .''
