Let the big dog eat

Before its expected reopening by Christmas at Perkins Road and Acadian Thruway, Galatoire’s Bistro will showcase a sneak preview of Chef Kelley McCann’s talents at an upcoming charity event for the Companion Animal Alliance. The “Let the Dogs Out” benefit takes place Oct. 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the Viking Cooking Schools Outdoors on the rooftop plaza of the Shaw Center for the Arts. Tickets are $200 for one of 50 seats at the chef’s table and $150 for dinner seating. Profits pay for better living conditions and quality outdoor play areas for dogs at the Companion Animal Alliance shelter, which was established in 2011 to radically improve the high euthanasia rate of shelter animals in the city-parish.

Since it began, the startup nonprofit has more than tripled the number of companion animals saved and adopted in Baton Rouge, and made considerable shelter improvements that give cats and dogs better conditions while awaiting permanent homes or recovery by their owners. Galatoire’s Bistro, which first opened in Baton Rouge in December 2005, was the first outpost of the legendary New Orleans French Quarter restaurant. It was situated at Perkins and Highland roads, which proprietors ultimately felt was too far from a viable lunch crowd and from growing target market neighborhoods. It closed in May 2011. Construction began earlier this year on a 6,000-sq. ft., 200-seat restaurant next to the new Iberia Bank building in Acadian Village. —Maggie Heyn Richardson