The Rum House plans opening in late March

Fans of New Orleans restaurant and bar The Rum House have been not so patiently waiting for Baton Rouge’s location to open. Development on the Caribbean eatery started last summer on a half-acre site on Perkins Road in front of the Perkins Palms mixed-use development between Essen Lane and Kenilworth Parkway, and managing partner Michael Buchert says he hopes it will open by late March.

“It’s been quite a journey,” he says. “Most of the construction is done. We’re getting a lot of cosmetic stuff done. We’ve started hiring and taking applications. It’s coming.”

Unlike the New Orleans location where Buchert and managing partner Kelly Ponder moved into an existing building, the Baton Rouge Rum House was designed from the ground up.

The interior will feature a 52-foot-long bar custom made to look like the side of a boat, and the barstools will resemble boat captain chairs. The 4,500-square-foot building has another 2,700 square feet of outside space that will be used as a half-covered, canopy-style patio with picnic tables, rope-swing barstools and an outside bar. Combined, there is space for around 150 patrons, Bouchert says.

Buchert, a Baton Rouge native who went to LSU, says he’s always wanted to open a Capital City location.

“We didn’t have to think about it hard,” he says. “We both grew up here, and our families still live here. It made sense to have a location here.”

For more information on The Rum House, click here.