Casper’s, A Taste of the South

GOT ’GATOR? Casper Townsend does, in his 10-seat Florida-bright red-and-orange takeout shack up Lake Forest Park way. And he’s going to make sure you know that it’s good and good for you. “Alligator is the lowest—cholesterol, highest—calcium, and highest—protein meat out there,” he said, proffering a golden breaded morsel on a toothpick. Turns out the nugget that looked like popcorn chicken tasted like it too—maybe a little gamier—but when someone mentioned it tasted like chicken, he leveled a swift correction. “Chicken,” he huffed in his Southern drawl, “tastes like alligator.” Welcome to Casper’s world: a land where frog legs and fried okra, Southern fried catfish and sweet-potato fries and Traeger-smoked ribs and frisky black-eyed pea salad and Bubba’s banana pudding add up to a teetering tower of takeout boxes, a big mess of flavors—and the perfect summertime picnic.