Acting on a hunch, Johnson traded one car for two counter tops, five stools, one coal-oil stove and a coffee pot. Trained as an auto mechanic, Johnson tired of the long, hot hours of automobile repair work and decided to do something different. Lea Johnson never intended to create a landmark restaurant. It all started in 1928 in Johnson’s native Cheneyville, just a few miles down the road from the restaurant’s current location. Chances are the chocolate pie you enjoyed at Lea’s as a child in the early 1970's was the exact recipes of the pies your grandfather enjoyed in the 1930's. No matter what happened, one could always count on a delicious, hearty meal from Lea’s. But underneath it all, what they really appreciate is the consistency. Ask any patron of Lea’s to describe their favorite thing about the restaurant and most will likely tell tales of coconut cream, chocolate or pecan pies. In his eyes, if the food is good enough, people will return.Īnd return they did…time and time again. Lea would say there wasn’t any sense in a menu-that would just waste time. At first glance, it really wasn’t much to look at…just a small town diner located on a busy state highway with what can only be described as a limited menu at best: Ham sandwiches, a special-of-the-day plate lunch, strong Louisiana coffee and homemade pies.

No matter how bad life could get you down, with a little ingenuity, some determination and a heaping helping of hard work, a man could do anything.īefore the Great Depression, before the Second World War, before air conditioning, television, all-you-can-eat salad bars or the Internet, there was Lea’s Lunchroom. Because of the success of our involvement in the Great War, American industry expanded at an unheard of rate. The decade belonged to speakeasies and bathtub gin, Ford’s Model “T” automobile, the first transatlantic flight and rise of the motion picture. Our country was nearing the end of a notorious decade known as the Roaring Twenties.

Cafe y Chocolate by Johnny Miles