Several Baton Rouge restaurants update menus

Foodies in Baton Rouge have a hard enough time keeping pace with the non-stop influx of new restaurants, let alone carving out time to sample new dishes at old favorites. Here’s a roundup of some local menus that have expanded since the new year began.

City Pork Kitchen & Pie: The newest leg of the City Pork trifecta now offers a dessert menu much more expansive than its initial five-pie listing. The country-style kitchen offers strawberry cream, lemon buttermilk chess, chocolate cream, bourbon pecan, coconut cream and classic apple pie whole or by the slice daily. Raspberry key lime, Mississippi mud, lemon meringue, chocolate banana peanut butter, banana caramel cream, banana pudding and satsuma icebox pies are now available upon order.

Fresh Bowls: The quick-service downtown restaurant that began business with an interesting but limited menu is now a full-service breakfast, lunch and dessert shop. Despite the restaurant’s name, the menu offers much more than just soups, salads and rice bowls. A variety of wraps, sandwiches and baked potatoes are now available daily for breakfast and lunch, and the kitchen prepares lunch specials daily, such as loaded barbecue pulled pork croissants. For dessert, the cafe dishes out Krispy Kreme donuts, Dippin’ Dots and a different variety of house-made goods, including muffins, cake balls and bread pudding. Fresh Bowls also caters and delivers to the downtown area.

Simple Joe Cafe and Confectionery: This homey breakfast cafe gained popularity in Mid City as the only breakfast and brunch spot in its Ogden Marketplace home. It’s known for its mouthwatering cinnamon french toast and special Sumatra-blend River Road coffee, but the cafe is gradually adding new items to offer customers a full lunch menu and expanded hours. Simple Joe now serves chicken and shrimp quesadillas, chicken and shrimp alfredo, house-ground hamburgers and turkey burger sliders, and will continue to add items over the next month.

Cupcake Allie: Dessert guru Allie Offner is trying her hand at the savory side of dessert and now offers a few new flavors at both stores. In addition to four new bacon-infused treats—bacon maple, bacon praline, apple bacon barbecue and chocolate bacon—Cupcake Allie also offers blackberry chipotle, peach habañero and barbecue caramel cupcakes. As appetizing as those sweet-savory treats sound, Offner’s real swing at the savory side might be her cupcake boudin ball: boudin sausage coated in vanilla cupcake crumble, fried and drizzled in caramel.

La Divina Gelateria: Now open 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 8-11 a.m. on Sundays, this Perkins Road Italian cafe serves up hot breakfast seven days a week. The new breakfast menu includes classic plates such as two eggs with ciabatta toast and bacon or sausage, but also boasts Italian breakfast goodies, such as a baked egg frittata and an Italian grits bowl served with Italian sausage, roasted red peppers, asiago and fontina cheese and ciabatta toast. The cafe is also expanding its gelato options this month, adding Bailey’s, Irish Cappuccino, Guinness and Chocolate Guinness to the mix. 

In case you missed: check out the recent menu expansions at Kolache Kitchen, Table Kitchen & Bar and Canefield Tavern.

Got a tip about a new menu update? Tell us in the comments, or email [email protected].