Du Jour: Doug Hosford, Fat Cow

Chef Doug Hosford and his food photographer wife, Karry, were running their High Cotton catering company in Natchez, Miss., when they decided that opening a restaurant might actually free up some personal time. “It sounds like a weird strategy, but we’d been in business for six or seven years, and I found that clients wanted me at every party,” says Hosford. “We wanted our jobs to be easier.” A restaurant with a simple, but inspired, format sounded like the right idea, so the Hosfords got to work on a handcrafted burger concept they hoped to deploy in a college town. Hosford’s father had graduated from LSU, and Baton Rouge was familiar terrain. “We felt like there was room in the market here,” says Hosford. “It’s a great town. The food is really good, but there was room for new ideas.” The Fat Cow opened on Highland Road near Stanford Avenue in August 2011. Click here to read more. Map it! —Maggie Heyn Richardson