La Divina Italian Café to open this fall

Many of the shops at Acadian Shopping Center are scheduled to open this fall, and the spaces are filling up quickly. Among the many tenants planned is La Divina Italian Café, a new restaurant that specializes in local ingredients and Italian-inspired dishes, gelato, sorbet, salads and soups. La Divina Gelateria started in 2007 in New Orleans on Magazine Street with a focus on lunch items, gelato and coffees. Since opening, La Divina has expanded with two more locations in New Orleans. The Baton Rouge café will be the fourth overall for the Louisiana business. Co-owner/co-founder Katrina Turillo says the café could be open between October and November. Though Turillo and her team haven’t decided the hours and dishes for the new spot, she will bring a mission of sustainability with her. “For us, it goes back to the Italian tradition,” she says. “Italian recipes in general are rather simple and rely a lot on the flavor of the individual ingredient. Usually, what will taste best is what was picked out of the field yesterday. Our biggest driver is the taste.”