Share on LinkedIn

CLEMSON, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - As the 6-seed heading into the NCAA Tournament, Clemson baseball’s cooking, and so is its unique home-field advantage. A special section of fans is helping the team turn up the heat as Tiger Town hosts its second straight regional.

“It’s not a stadium experience, it’s a family experience,” Cajun Café Co-Founder and Clemson Graduate Mark Turner said. “It grew bigger than I ever thought. It came from kind of a joke to something pretty cool.”

It’s grown to serve 160 people, four sections of 40 Tigers fans each, in right field at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Mark said 90% of them have enjoyed the section for over a decade.

“We’ve essentially become a restaurant. We just didn’t realize it,” Turner said. “Plus, my staff is the best of the best. They’ve been with me for over eight years.”

A dozen volunteers make up Mark’s staff. They arrive two hours before the game and stay two hours after. The staff has a special supervisor to lead the foodie family.

“I’m the Cajun Café mom,” Clemson Graduate Sheridan Crouch said. “Most of them all grew up together in Seneca, went to school together. It’s family, and that’s the way we think about it. Just the fun of everyone up here, the love of Clemson.”

The café includes a timeless Tigers tradition.

“These little smoke bombs, we can light them,” Crouch said. “We used to do them on home runs for celebrations or when we needed the rally smoke. But the fire marshall doesn’t like that all the time. They’re firework smoke bombs to send up orange and purple smoke.”

Other Clemson graduates like Bubba Britton, a decade-long Cajun Café member, had to wait years for a seat at the table.

“The Cajun Café, to me, is the greatest experience, not just in Clemson athletics, but any athletics opportunity,” Britton said. “When you break bread with family, it’s a whole different experience.”

The baseball diamond dining room has spanned three Clemson coaches. It started during current Head Coach Erik Bakich’s first stint with the Tigers as an assistant in 2002.

“I think it’s awesome. I always joke, if I get ejected, that’s where I’m going,” Bakich said. “But it’s great, it’s a rowdy section. It gives us energy. We hear them, we feel it, we love it.”

Bakich is not only a fan of the café's present but also its future.

“I think there’s a whole ‘nother level of growth for the Cajun Café,” the second-year head coach said. “I would love to see the Cajun Café be a 12-month-a-year restaurant that serves the Clemson community right out there.”

They already have the menu for it, which is catered to their opponent. For example, the café serves dogs against Georgia, Irish food against Notre Dame, and of course chicken against the Gamecocks.

They’ll fire up the grill once again Friday for Clemson’s first NCAA Tournament Regional game hosting High Point at 7 p.m.