The Rum House, a New Orleans-based Caribbean eatery, permanently closed its Perkins Road restaurant in Baton Rouge last week—right around the same time beloved Thai restaurant Rama closed its doors for good near the Perkins Road overpass.
“It is with deep sadness we announce The Rum House of Baton Rouge will not be able to reopen its doors,” wrote Michael Buchert, co-founder and CEO of Island Time Concepts, the owner of The Rum House. “Like most small businesses and many in the restaurant industry, the impact of COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating.”
The Rum House opened its Baton Rouge location in front of Perkins Palms in 2013. In 2014, the restaurant bought an additional parcel near the development for additional parking. The next year, Perkins Palms’ developers bought nearly two more acres for parking, saying that parking in the development had become tight since The Rum House opened.
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Island Time Concepts suspended operations at its four businesses—three in New Orleans and one in Baton Rouge—in mid March. It appears the Baton Rouge restaurant is the only one the group has permanently closed.
As for Rama, the small but popular eatery, which operated for more than 40 years on Perkins Road, posted a sign on its door saying it is permanently closed.
A spokesperson for the restaurant told BRProud that the owners tried curbside pickup but it wasn’t enough to sustain the business. The owners of DiGiulio Brothers have purchased the former Rama property.