If you prefer a home-cooked meal for Thanksgiving, but want to forgo some of the "cooking" part, Baton Rouge has you fully covered for all eventualities.
Gourmet Girls Catering will shake up your normal menu of holiday standards with a sweet array of delicious, if nontraditional, food. Roasted pumpkin soup, garlic and rosemary stuffed pork tenderloin, goat cheese tortas, and crab and spinach Madeleine are just some of the delectable dishes on offer. Visit their Facebook page for more information.
Juban's lets you leave the cooking to Chef Jaime Hernandez, selling their famous gumbo by the gallon, as well as whole roasted turkeys and rotisserie pork loin. You can check out their full menu by clicking here.
Perhaps your planned Thanksgiving meal ended up a Charlie Brown-style disaster, or maybe you just don't feel up to the stress and trouble of making a Thanksgiving dinner on your own. Whatever your reason, Baton Rouge has plenty of places to snag a delicious Thanksgiving meal without having to lift a finger.
For the first time ever, Juban's Restaurant will be open for Thanksgiving, offering a prix fixe menu of delicious traditional favorites as well as Juban's signature dishes, from their oyster carousel to pork cassoulet. 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. jubans.comThe Crowne Plaza Hotel serves up a tasty Thanksgiving Day buffet with hot seafood gumbo, roasted and deep-fried turkey, crab-stuffed flounder and more. The buffet is $25 for adults, $20 for senior citizens and $10 for kids. Children 5 and younger eat free! 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Click here for more information.
LSU alums Barrett Meeks and James Whitley have unleashed a food truck tiger onto Baton Rouge's streets. The Bengalier, taking its name from the old LSU Football program, and painted purple and gold, is slinging piping-hot signature sandwiches all over town.
The friends are no strangers to the Baton Rouge restaurant scene—they worked in the industry for years as everything from server to line cook to executive chef, hoping to someday open their own full-service restaurant. However, as Meeks puts it, “It's a lot of money up front to open a restaurant. A truck is way more feasible for us for now.” The Bengalier's menu reads like that of a restaurant's, with appetizers, entrees and desserts. Meeks has manned kitchens from The Chimes to Galatoire's Bistro, and the Bengalier's diverse menu reflects much of their behind-the-scenes experiences.
“A lot of the recipes are adapted from sandwiches our friends would make in the kitchen at the restaurants,” Meeks says. “Nothing you could order off the menu—we'd just take the ingredients lying around and make something new.” Sandwiches like the Ocean Springer—a corned beef and deep fried turkey breast sandwich with coleslaw and Swiss—were clearly born from this experimental mishmash mentality. It also seems to be paying off, as the Ocean Springer is one of the most popular items on the menu. Other standout inventions include the Rock Balls—deep fried Rockefeller spinach and goat cheese—and the P Cubed—a pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw, homemade spicy pickles and “mojo sauce.”
It's a delicious mix of beans, onions and spices carefully shaped into a hearty patty, then fried. It's sold as a meal at roadside stands and made in kitchens across West Africa. Nigerians call it akara—but Caroline Collins, native Nigerian and proprietor of the new BB&PF restaurant on Highland Road (Map it!), calls it a bean burger.
“It's very similar to a hamburger,” she says. “Except it's healthier and has far fewer calories.”
It's a claim often made by meatless burger purveyors of patties that later turn out to be dry, pebbly or otherwise unsatisfactory. However, patrons who dine at BB&PF—named for its signature dish, the bean burger with a side of hot and tasty plantain fries—may not even miss the meat. The bean burger patty is juicy, slightly spicy and very savory—and dressed with lettuce, onions and mustard on a whole-wheat bun. It makes an incredibly tasty burger alternative.
Baton Rouge's Pastime Lounge and Lafayette pizza restaurant Dean-O's kicked a social media hornets' nest this week when a dispute over the name “Boudin Pizza” went viral. Dean-O's owner Tim Metcalf wasn't looking for an argument when he came up with August's pizza of the month—a pie topped with caramelized onion, green onions and of course, boudin, named after the signature ingredient. However, Metcalf soon found himself served with a cease and desist order from Pastime owner Randy Wesley, who has served Boudin Pizza at his restaurant for more than 10 years, and retains the trademark to the name. Things didn't come to a head until Metcalf made a post to Dean-O's Facebook page, soliciting new ideas for the pizza's name, along with the reason for the change. Although Metcalf didn't name Pastime in his post, Lafayette bloggers soon discovered the source of the trademark, and Wesley found himself the target of a concerted social media attack, as well as a barrage of angry calls from Dean-O's customers.
Rachael Upton
Online news editor
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Turkey to-go
If you prefer a home-cooked meal for Thanksgiving, but want to forgo some of the "cooking" part, Baton Rouge has you fully covered for all eventualities. Gourmet Girls Catering will shake up your normal menu of holiday standards with a sweet array of delicious, if nontraditional, food. Roasted pumpkin soup, garlic and rosemary stuffed pork tenderloin, goat cheese tortas, and crab and spinach Madeleine are just some of the delectable dishes on offer. Visit their Facebook page for more information. Juban's lets you leave the cooking to Chef Jaime Hernandez, selling their famous gumbo by the gallon, as well as whole roasted turkeys and rotisserie pork loin. You can check out their full menu by clicking here.
Dine out on Thanksgiving
Perhaps your planned Thanksgiving meal ended up a Charlie Brown-style disaster, or maybe you just don't feel up to the stress and trouble of making a Thanksgiving dinner on your own. Whatever your reason, Baton Rouge has plenty of places to snag a delicious Thanksgiving meal without having to lift a finger. For the first time ever, Juban's Restaurant will be open for Thanksgiving, offering a prix fixe menu of delicious traditional favorites as well as Juban's signature dishes, from their oyster carousel to pork cassoulet. 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. jubans.com The Crowne Plaza Hotel serves up a tasty Thanksgiving Day buffet with hot seafood gumbo, roasted and deep-fried turkey, crab-stuffed flounder and more. The buffet is $25 for adults, $20 for senior citizens and $10 for kids. Children 5 and younger eat free! 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Click here for more information.
The Bengalier prowling B.R. streets
LSU alums Barrett Meeks and James Whitley have unleashed a food truck tiger onto Baton Rouge's streets. The Bengalier, taking its name from the old LSU Football program, and painted purple and gold, is slinging piping-hot signature sandwiches all over town. The friends are no strangers to the Baton Rouge restaurant scene—they worked in the industry for years as everything from server to line cook to executive chef, hoping to someday open their own full-service restaurant. However, as Meeks puts it, “It's a lot of money up front to open a restaurant. A truck is way more feasible for us for now.” The Bengalier's menu reads like that of a restaurant's, with appetizers, entrees and desserts. Meeks has manned kitchens from The Chimes to Galatoire's Bistro, and the Bengalier's diverse menu reflects much of their behind-the-scenes experiences. “A lot of the recipes are adapted from sandwiches our friends would make in the kitchen at the restaurants,” Meeks says. “Nothing you could order off the menu—we'd just take the ingredients lying around and make something new.” Sandwiches like the Ocean Springer—a corned beef and deep fried turkey breast sandwich with coleslaw and Swiss—were clearly born from this experimental mishmash mentality. It also seems to be paying off, as the Ocean Springer is one of the most popular items on the menu. Other standout inventions include the Rock Balls—deep fried Rockefeller spinach and goat cheese—and the P Cubed—a pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw, homemade spicy pickles and “mojo sauce.”
West African cuisine comes to LSU area
It's a delicious mix of beans, onions and spices carefully shaped into a hearty patty, then fried. It's sold as a meal at roadside stands and made in kitchens across West Africa. Nigerians call it akara—but Caroline Collins, native Nigerian and proprietor of the new BB&PF restaurant on Highland Road (Map it!), calls it a bean burger. “It's very similar to a hamburger,” she says. “Except it's healthier and has far fewer calories.” It's a claim often made by meatless burger purveyors of patties that later turn out to be dry, pebbly or otherwise unsatisfactory. However, patrons who dine at BB&PF—named for its signature dish, the bean burger with a side of hot and tasty plantain fries—may not even miss the meat. The bean burger patty is juicy, slightly spicy and very savory—and dressed with lettuce, onions and mustard on a whole-wheat bun. It makes an incredibly tasty burger alternative.
Brouhaha over Boudin Pizza
Baton Rouge's Pastime Lounge and Lafayette pizza restaurant Dean-O's kicked a social media hornets' nest this week when a dispute over the name “Boudin Pizza” went viral. Dean-O's owner Tim Metcalf wasn't looking for an argument when he came up with August's pizza of the month—a pie topped with caramelized onion, green onions and of course, boudin, named after the signature ingredient. However, Metcalf soon found himself served with a cease and desist order from Pastime owner Randy Wesley, who has served Boudin Pizza at his restaurant for more than 10 years, and retains the trademark to the name. Things didn't come to a head until Metcalf made a post to Dean-O's Facebook page, soliciting new ideas for the pizza's name, along with the reason for the change. Although Metcalf didn't name Pastime in his post, Lafayette bloggers soon discovered the source of the trademark, and Wesley found himself the target of a concerted social media attack, as well as a barrage of angry calls from Dean-O's customers.
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