Rock Paper Taco now working on plans for three locations
Rock Paper Taco is close to opening its first brick-and-mortar location on West Chimes Street, which owners say will debut in “a few weeks.” And they’re already working on its follow-up: a second location in the former Shrimp Basket space on Perkins Road, slated to open in early June.
The newly announced location is in a 4,160-square-foot building in the Perkins Palms development. Local restaurateur Josh Duke, who launched Rock Paper Taco from a food truck in 2018, has been eyeing the location, which sits in the same development as his Olive or Twist restaurant, for years.
Because the Perkins Palms space is larger than the West Chimes suite, Duke says the Perkins restaurant will feature an expanded bar with an emphasis on margaritas and other tequila-based cocktails. The space will also include kiosks, with customers largely ordering food on their own. The restaurant, which will be open for breakfast and lunch, specializes in creative, American-style tacos, such as chicken-and-waffle tacos.
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Duke says he’s looking to expand Rock Paper Taco further toward the end of year, with a to-be-determined third location in south Baton Rouge, close to Prairieville.
Read on for the full story from a March 15 edition of Daily Report.
Restaurant and meat market The Iron Fork to move into old Calendar’s space
A restaurant, meat market and bar called The Iron Fork is moving into a 3,771-square-foot suite in the Beau De Chene Shopping Center on Perkins Road in late April.
It’s the latest tenant to occupy the seemingly star-crossed space, which will have housed eight different concepts in the past 11 years. But husband-and-wife team Tory and Jacqueline Cummings, who, along with Hershall Bergeron, are partnering on The Iron Fork, believe their concept will fare better than its predecessors.
“We’re going to specialize in takeout lunches,” Jacqueline Cummings says. “Looking at all the hospitals in the Essen area, we want to serve all those medical workers.”
In addition to to-go lunches, customers will be able to sit down and eat Cajun-style cuisine in a dining area, pick up specialty meats and prepared meals from the meat market, or grab a drink from the bar.
Read more about the restaurant’s plans in the full story from a March 15 edition of Daily Report.
A reopening date for Juban’s is still in question
The local restaurant industry is slowly rebounding, but the future of one of Baton Rouge’s best-known classic eateries, Juban’s Creole Restaurant, remains up in the air. Juban’s co-owner Michael Boudreaux says his partners in the Juban Restaurant Group hope to make a decision in the next month or two on the future of the Perkins Road establishment.
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“Whenever the economy is 100% back open, we hope to reopen,” Boudreaux says. “But for now, we can’t open if we can’t have private parties.”
Juban’s announced last July that it would suspend operations “until further notice,” with plans to reopen “in the near future.” At the time, it joined the other three restaurants then in the Juban Restaurant Group—Beausoleil, Adrian’s and Christina’s—as temporarily shuttered. In the months since, however, Beausoleil has reopened after being sold to City Group Hospitality, while Christina’s has sold and Adrian’s remains closed.
Read on for the full story from a March 15 edition of Daily Report. To keep up with Baton Rouge business and politics, subscribe to the free Daily Report e-newsletter here.