What’s Up – August

While J.H. “Jay” Campbell Jr. was at LSU, he was also putting in hours at Associated Grocers. He graduated in 1973 then went to law school. “I was still here working the whole time,” he says.

He was there when the company moved to its current site on Anselmo Drive in 1975, where it grew to 700,000 square feet of warehouse space and administrative buildings.

He remembers that facility’s early days, when employees would take four-wheelers to the back of the property to hunt along Dawson Creek, where they later constructed a freight access bridge to Perkins Road.

In 1995, Campbell took over as president, pushing Associated Grocers into a new era of not just being a retail operation, but also providing tons of other business services for independent grocers like Matherne’s, Calandro’s, Tony’s Seafood and others in the Baton Rouge area—plus plenty more throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

“The public might just think of us as providing food services for retail, but we have a tremendous amount of technology at our disposal,” Campbell says. “We target all of our energy on the support and success of these family-owned businesses.”

That support for local independent grocers earned Campbell the Grace “Mama” Marino Lifetime Achievement Award from the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society, which will honor him as part of a Fte Rouge dinner happening later this month.

Find out more about Fte Rouge at right, and go to agbr.com for more on Associated Grocers.

Though it’s not exactly free, Fte Rouge feels like being a kid let loose in a candy store. The ticketed event lets you eat to your heart’s content of an array of fancy small plates crafted by some of the best chefs in town. Then there are the more than 200 wines to sample while you munch.

The event moves to a new location this year, hosting the masses at L’Auberge Casino & Hotel. Tickets for the Aug. 22 Food & Wine Fte are $75. To find out more about the event, as well as info on the award dinner the night before honoring J.H. “Jay” Campbell Jr., go to feterougebr.com.

Two local bands celebrate the release of new albums during back-to-back release parties at the Spanish Moon this month. Prom Date drops the ’80s synth-flecked album Portraits at a show with Baby Bee and The Van Der Beeks Aug. 8. Singer-songwriter Jason Martin releases his new EP of soulful, bluesy rock music, Welcome Home, at a show with The Hitchhiker and The Widowers Aug. 9. Find out more at thespanishmoon.com. For more local music coverage, head to the Culture section.