City Pork Brasserie hosts Miss USA contestants this Friday, July 3

Photo by Amy Shutt

Contestants from the Miss USA pageant will get a taste of Baton Rouge this week. One stop they will make is at City Pork Brasserie and Bar Friday, July 3.

The restaurant at 7327 Jefferson Highway will host a preview party for the pageant 7 p.m.-10 p.m. The party will include a buffet and open bar. The cost is $50 per person. The event is open to the public, but only 50 spots are available. To reserve your spot, call 615-8880.

Stephen Hightower, a co-owner of the restaurant and management group Exclamation Point Hospitality, says the party will include Chef Ryan André showing contestants how to cook dishes such as rabbit dumplings.

The buffet will feature pork spring rolls, sticky wings, house-smoked Memphis ribs and passed appetizers.

The stop at City Pork Brasserie is one of many planned for Miss USA contestants as they visit Baton Rouge for the pageant taking place Sunday, July 12, at the Baton Rouge River Center.

NBC has pulled out of airing the event due to remarks Donald Trump made during his presidential campaign announcement.

Hightower has been told that cameras will still be on site during the contestants’ visit Friday night. But he is unsure where or if the footage will air.

“We were hoping for national exposure,” he says. “We were fortunate to be chosen to be a part of the pageant and want to showcase Ryan André’s talent and what City Pork brings to Baton Rouge’s culinary side.”

However, Hightower is still optimistic that the party will bring City Pork attention.

“I think we will still be able to gain something from the event,” he says. “We would be doing the city a disservice if we didn’t live up to the promise of showing them a good time. It’s a special event for us.”

Read 225‘s review of City Pork Brasserie and Bar.