Monroe-based bar and grill expanding into B.R. market

The former Calendar’s restaurant on Coursey Boulevard, near the intersection of South Sherwood Forest Boulevard, has been gutted for redevelopment and will reopen this spring as a new bar and grill called Portico. Stephen Walker and Kenny O’Neil—who both graduated from LSU and thereafter lived in Baton Rouge in the 1990s—opened the first Portico in Monroe in 2006 and added a Ruston location in 2009. “We just felt like the next step for us was to try a larger market,” Walker says, “and since both of us have lived in Baton Rouge before and we have a lot of friends there and know a lot of people in the business community, we feel like it’s going to be a good fit.” Walker says he’d like to see Portico open by St. Patrick’s Day, but “it looks like it’s probably going to be the first part of April—at the latest.” Walker says the restaurant and bar will be about 5,500 square feet total, not including an open-air patio. “People will feel comfortable coming in here in shorts and flip-flops, or a coat and tie,” Walker says. Check out the menu and more at the Portico website here. —Steve Sanoski