Weekend adventure: Have lunch with a view and then take a garden stroll with peacocks

If you're looking for a daytime excursion, Rip Van Winkle Gardens in New Iberia offers lunch underneath aged oak trees and an opportunity to take a stroll with peacocks.

The gardens, found in Jefferson Island, are where the stage and silent film actor Joseph Jefferson built his Victorian-style hunting lodge in 1870. Jefferson played the part of Rip Van Winkle more than 4,500 times on stage, which is why or how the gardens earned their name.

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Now, let's talk food. The property is also home to Cafe Jefferson, a lunchtime restaurant that has been a part of the garden's operations since the 1980s. The Cafe is open 11 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The menu consists of salads, sandwiches, entrees and desserts. The cafe has large windows in part of its dining area, providing a lovely view of the oak trees, Lake Peigneur, and any roaming peacocks.

I had the Chick-A-Lada, a sandwich consisting of marinated chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, chipotle mustard and mayo served on crispy Muffuletta bread. I had the quarter-sized portion ($8), but you can also get the sandwich in half and full sizes. The menu doesn't indicate this, at least from what I could tell, but the sandwich comes with a pile of classic ruffled potato chips and a dill pickle spear. For me, this was perfect. It was the right amount of food and the sandwich was filling without feeling heavy.

My boyfriend ordered the Italian Hero, another sandwich on muffuletta bread, stuffed with salami, pepperoni, bologna, swiss, provolone, mozzarella cheese and pepperoncini peppers with marina sauce. He had the half-sized portion ($14), and it too came with chips and a pickle spear. With a quick keyword search on the Rip Van Winkle Gardens Facebook page, this sandwich appears to be one of the cafe's newer menu items, having been mentioned in one of its posts dating back as early as November.

Now, once you're done with your meal, your server will ask you if you would like coffee or dessert. Say yes.

We didn't get coffee, but we did share a slice of white chocolate bread pudding ($7). It was everything I was hoping for and was served nice and hot. Now, if you're not a bread pudding kind of person, no worries. The cafe also offers enticing sweets such as creme brulee cheesecake, chocolate molten lava cake and bourbon pecan pie.

It didn't appear that it was necessary to buy garden or house tour tickets to dine in the cafe. However, if you like to walk after a meal like I do, then you may want to consider getting at least a ticket for the gardens.

There are at least 50 peacocks on the property - that's what the employee at the entrance told me anyway. I was also told that they're friendly. So don't worry if you stumble across one, two or three roaming around while you stroll the gardens. I will say, I saw at least one peacock before we parked the car, and another two on our way to the cafe. On our walk in the garden, we easily saw another 10. So, yeah. Lots of birds.

Rip Van Winkle Gardens is at 5505 Rip Van Winkle Road in New Iberia.

-- Emily Enfinger is a reporter for The Courier and the Daily Comet. Follow her on Twitter at @EmilyEnfinger. Email Emily at eenfinger@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Rip Van Winkle Gardens serves lunch and garden walks with peacocks