What happens when you take a Chicago-bred pianist and a New Orleans-raised architect and put them in an Acadiana coffee shop? Lagniappe.

For 25 years, Lagniappe Too has fed local and visiting patrons, but on Friday, Al Landry and his wife Elaine will close the doors of their Main Street restaurant for the last time.

“We tried to do this about six or eight months ago,” said Al Landry. “They screamed and hollered and gnashed teeth and we had to come back.”

“We tried to do this about six or eight months ago,” said Al Landry. “They screamed and hollered and gnashed teeth and we had to come back.”

This time, however, Landry said there’s no coming back.

Elaine Landry has been the woman behind the seafood, gumbo, steaks, bread pudding, mango pie and so much more, waving to patrons from the kitchen or stopping by a table to chat.

At 83, and one week away from closing down Lagniappe, all of her sentences were  punctuated by a small chuckle.

“My mother always said, ‘Smile and the world smiles with you, cry and you cry alone.’ Remember that,’ ” she said, sitting with Jim Sandoz, a patron of 25 years.

“She makes good gumbo,” Sandoz said. “Oh, yes! She’s the best.”

When she married Landry, Elaine Landry couldn’t cook gumbo or etouffee or anything else.

Elaine Landry learned to cook from Landry’s mother, sisters and aunt, a practice she honed and which brought her a faithful following from New Iberia and beyond. As far as France, Australia and Peru, people have come to taste the Landry recipes.

In the guest book, there’s a notation that says, “Etouffee best yet!” The entry is signed “Chef John Folse.”

Sandoz said he eats nearly every meal at Lagniappe Too and doesn’t know what’s going to happen once the couple leave the business.

“When they close, it’s going to hurt (downtown),” he said.

“I hope somebody takes over.”

It was Elaine and Al Landry who took over in 1986 when the owners of Lagniappe Cafe, a coffee and pastry shop, had to leave following the oil bust.

Landry said he and Elaine thought for three months before moving into the shop and buying what tables the owner had.

Their little shop became so popular, he said, they had to expand into the neighboring space in 1992.

“It’s been going full force ever since,” he said.

Needless to say, the regulars have formed a special bond.

“This place is going to be packed tonight and everybody knows one another; that’s the best part about it,” Sandoz said.

As the usual faces come through the main dining entrance, their eyes scan the room and their bodies gravitate to others for hugs, kisses, hand shakes and probably a few risqué jokes before scooping up a drink at the bar.

“We pass a good time, like the Cajuns say,” said Elaine Landry.