First Look: Joelle’s Soul and Savour opens tomorrow, serving Louisiana dishes and Caribbean staples

In a week that has been chock-full of LSU football news, former Tiger quarterback Rohan Davey is making his own headlines with the opening of Joelle’s Soul and Savour, a new eatery off Sherwood Forest Boulevard.

Davey is both a silent partner and chef in the Creole and Caribbean restaurant, situated in the Westfork Drive building that once held the iconic Hawk’s Next. The new spot opens Sept. 11, serving a broad menu of classic Louisiana favorites and dishes from Davey’s native Jamaica and the Caribbean.

“There’s really not a place like this in Baton Rouge, as far as ambiance, but also where you’re merging two cultures together,” Davey says.

Davey played for the Tigers from 1998 to 2001 before a professional career that included the New England Patriots and stints with NFL Europe and the Arena Football League. He has spent the last several years coaching and catering in Greater Baton Rouge, but food has long been another passion, he says, stemming from a childhood spent growing up on a farm in Jamaica.

“From the time I was old enough to walk or crawl, I was picking something out of the ground, or shelling peas,” he says. “My grandfather and his father were butchers.”

Davey will work alongside executive chef Ja’Ron Johnson Sr., a restaurant veteran who has worked in the kitchens of Rouj Creole, The Colonel’s Club, Jubans, Portobello’s Grill and P-Beau’s.

Look for Caribbean staples like braised oxtails with garlic mashed potatoes, jerk lamb chops, jerk chicken, plantains and pigeon peas and rice. Creole and American favorites, including seafood gumbo, seafood pasta, burgers and various flavors of glazed, bone-in chicken wings, are also in play. For his boudin dip starter, Johnson uses pork boudin from Jerry Lee’s Cajun Foods, Louisiana crawfish tails and three different cheeses.

Partner and general manager Charles George, a former chef from Cypress Bayou Casino and several other concepts across the South, has been working on Joelle’s for the last two years with partner Martin Knightshead. George says the goal was to transform the freestanding building into a stylish destination with upmarket soul food and festive cocktails.

The 160-seat space features a large dining room and expansive bar outfitted in monochrome grays, blues and whites with glass, mirror and gold accents. A more casual dining area on one side features murals of LSU and Southern University by local artist Amos Brown Jr. It spills out onto a partially covered outdoor patio.

“We want people to know they can have this kind of dining experience without having to go to a major city,” George says. “Our goal is to elevate the soul food experience in a really nice atmosphere.”

George says the restaurant’s name was inspired by Knightshead’s daughter, who once told her father she wanted to own a restaurant. Her middle name is Joelle.

The gilded bathrooms were designed using a trendy communal floor plan, with sinks and mirrors shared by all users and toilets situated in gender-assigned private pods with floor-to-ceiling doors.

George says the goal was to create an Instagrammable space that, in its own way, fosters community.

“That’s kind of the theme of the restaurant, people meeting each other and congregating together,” he says. “So the bathroom space just allows people to pass by and greet each other.”

A private room upstairs for special events seats 28.

Mixologist Kenny Milo has created Joelle’s bar program, which features a range of spirits and original cocktails, including the fresh berry-filled Love Potion made with white and passionfruit rums and lime juice and finished with Champagne, and the BarVana, a pineapple and white rum drink set off by Blue Curaçao. Milo’s Andes Mint martini blends vanilla vodka with crème de menthe, crème de cacao and half-and-half. Served in a chilled glass, it’s finished with grated chocolate mint.

Joelle’s Soul and Savour opens tomorrow, Sept. 11, for dinner at 5 p.m. Its normal hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., when it will serve all-day brunch. The restaurant is located at 3015 Westfork Dr.