NoNo's Cafe

NoNo's Cafe at 3005 W County Line Road has been serving Cajun and Creole food on the south metro for over 25 years, technically just over the line into Littleton but functionally the Highlands Ranch default for any meal that involves remoulade. The kitchen is the rare Front Range Creole operation that actually delivers on the cuisine: roux-based gumbos, etouffee that tastes like it knew Lake Pontchartrain, blackened seasonings made in-house, and a po' boy on real French bread with the right ratio of dressed lettuce to tomato to mayo.

The shrimp po' boy is the consensus order; the roast beef po' boy with debris gravy is the sleeper. Crawfish Monica gets shoutouts when the menu rotation has it. Blackened pork chops show up consistently in family-favorite reviews. For breakfast and brunch, the biscuits and gravy are the table-defining item, and the beignets, four to an order and dusted in powdered sugar, are the closest Cafe Du Monde substitute on the Front Range. Eggs Sardou, Eggs New Orleans, and a proper Cajun Breakfast (red beans, poached eggs, hollandaise, grits) round out the brunch menu.

The room is a strip-mall storefront with the inside dressed in Mardi Gras-era prints and Mardi Gras beads on the bathroom mirror. Service is the long-term-staff kind that knows regulars' standing orders. The Highlands Ranch location is one of seven NoNo's across the metro (the original is the Bowles Avenue Littleton spot from over 40 years ago), and the kitchens have all stayed consistent under family ownership.