Scuttlebutt: Alcohol sales percentage forces Lucy’s to close on Sundays … David Reyes leaves Nottoway

Lucy’s retires Sundays: Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar and Restaurant has started closing on Sundays, after the new downtown establishment saw its food sales fall short of the level needed to stay open seven days a week. Baton Rouge law requires that 60% or more of a restaurant’s revenue come from food sales in order for it to stay open on Sunday. Despite a Facebook campaign, Lucy’s was unable to hit the 60% target, says Laura Llovet, event and marketing manager. The restaurant shut down for the first time Sunday. “It is a shame,” says Llovet. “We’re trying to develop the downtown area, but the ordinance in East Baton Rouge Parish is not helping us.” Llovet says the problem is that the bar at Lucy’s gets “pretty jam-packed” late Friday and Saturday nights, which skews the numbers. Ironically, restaurant officials say Sundays were the most family-friendly days because of all the downtown activities going on. Lucy’s can apply for a new audit in six months. “We’re still family-friendly, and we still have our restaurant license,” Llovet says. —Timothy Boone Nottoway no more: Nottoway Plantation’s Ramsay’s Mansion Restaurant—just opened last summer—has undergone a major shakeup with the firing of Executive Chef David Reyes. Reyes, who was recruited last year to set and execute a vision and identity for the upscale dining establishment, was let go two weeks ago. Nottoway is implementing a major overhaul of the menu, wanting to focus more on “classic” Louisiana dishes, and General Manager Neil Castaldi says that Reyes was simply “no longer a good fit” with the restaurant’s new direction. “We feel David would be better served in a big-city restaurant,” Castaldi says. Reyes disagrees—he says he is “deeply disappointed” by their decision and would have preferred to stay. “I put a lot of myself into that menu.” He also says the reason that he was let go was not so much cuisine-related as it was business-related—the restaurant had been losing money in recent months, and Reyes admits that his insistence on buying high-quality ingredients from local sources did not help the restaurant stay in the black. Still, he says, “Good food costs money to make, and I’m sad that they didn’t want to stick with it through the rough patch. I feel like it definitely would have turned around.” Reyes has already moved on, however—he returned to Chicago last week, and is trying to decide his next career move. In the meantime, replacement executive chef and native of Lafayette, Chris Wadsworth, is tasked with determining the future menu—and vision—for Ramsay’s.—Rachael Upton