Main Street Market reopens, welcoming a teaching kitchen and four new food concepts

Grab a latte, sink your teeth into some chicken tikka masala or a shrimp po-boy, and take home fresh Louisiana produce. After a lengthy renovation, the new and improved Main Street Market officially opened Monday in downtown Baton Rouge.

The refreshed space at 5^th and Main Streets now holds four fast casual restaurant concepts, a fair trade coffee shop stocked with Red Stick Farmers Market items, a teaching kitchen and an abundance of dining tables. The facility is open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“People are just really happy that we’re open,” BREADA executive director Darlene Adams Rowland says. “The new space allows us to keep fulfilling our mission of providing economic opportunities for farmers and offering fresh food and a gathering place to the community.”

The state-owned Main Street Market was first conceived in the mid-1990s during the first phase of Plan Baton Rouge, the city’s downtown revitalization plan. It was originally completed in 2002, hosting restaurant and retail pods that drew downtown lunch crowds and shoppers at the Saturday Red Stick Farmers Market.

But over time, its design and infrastructure were badly in need of updates, Rowland says.

The indoor market now features a fresh, modern look with more room for crowds to maneuver. Its new amenities include River & Roots Market at the north end, which opened in November and sells specialty coffee beverages, pastries and farmers market goods and produce. At the south end, a state-of-the-art teaching kitchen will host local chefs for live cooking demos using local ingredients.

Earlier this week, three of the four new restaurants soft opened. Breakfast eatery The Cozy Griddle serves breakfast sandwiches, bowls, burritos and other items. New spot Sapor Indian Fusion offers Indian favorites like butter chicken, chili chicken and naan. Creole Creations, also a food truck and Tiger Stadium and MAC vendor, sells made-to-order boudin balls, po-boys and seafood platters.

The fourth concept, Vivian’s Rotisserie and Grill, opens soon with a focus on healthy items like salads, grilled proteins and plant-based fare.

“Everything you’ll get from us is from scratch,” says Creole Creations founder Chisolu Isiadinso. “We really want to focus on authentic food and being able to bring home cooking and comfort food.”

Isiadinso says she sources local shrimp and catfish for her platters and po-boys and makes homemade cornbread and her own boudin balls. Along with a standing menu, she plans to offer daily specials like red beans and rice and fresh yams.

Father-son team Darryl and Tarick Johnson, who previously ran the Main Street Market Southern plate lunch restaurant SYI, have returned with a breakfast-focused concept, which Tarick also opened in May on Coursey Boulevard. The Cozy Griddle serves homemade biscuits, breakfast sandwiches, pancakes and sausage from farmers market vendor Cutrer’s Meat Market in Kentwood.

Sapor founders Sai Arukala and Ram Jogi say they plan to serve a steady menu of Indian staples as well as rotating specials. In January, they also plan to add yet-to-be-revealed Indian breakfast items. “You won’t be able to find them anywhere else,” Arukala says.

River & Roots serves Feliciana’s Best Creamery dairy products and Counter Culture Coffee from North Carolina, a certified B Corporation known for its sustainability and fair pay to farmers, says Main Street Market manager Kay Shirer. She adds that the new coffee shop also allows patrons to buy produce from the Red Stick Farmers Market.

“We’re excited to give everybody access to farmers market goods and produce all week long,” Shirer says. “It’s great for those downtown workers who might not have time to come back downtown on the weekends.”

On both Dec. 13 and Dec. 20, the regular Red Stick Farmers Market will be joined by the Arts Market, giving patrons more chances to pick up gifts by regional makers in time for the holidays. For more information, breada.org.

Main Street Market is at 501 Main St.