Made-to-order beignets anchor a lip-smackin’ legacy at Coffee Call, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year

February 1, 2026

At least once a week, T LaCour and her friends gather at Coffee Call on College Drive, catching up on family news and friendly gossip over mugs of café au lait and plates of fresh beignets. Coffee Call’s powder-blue sweets-shop vibe is plenty welcoming, but LaCour ritualizes the meetups further with portable décor: seasonal napkins, a table runner and electric votives make things feel personal. Some form of this group has met at Coffee Call for more than a decade, but most of its members have patronized the come-as-you-are eatery far longer.

“I remember coming when it was at Village Square and in Catfish Town,” says original group member Emily Ziober.

Coffee shops are the original “third places”—those meaningful destinations beyond work and school where friends and strangers find social connection. But few Baton Rouge coffee shops have the enduring social magnetism of Coffee Call. Groups like LaCour’s routinely meet here. Families endure lengthy queues for weekend beignets. Swarms of teenagers descend for late-night fun after high school dances. The storied spot celebrates its 50th anniversary this May.

Coffee Call regulars (from left) Nancy Hammatt, Emily Ziober, Barbara Brown, T LaCour and Lynn Evans, along with Cindy Snyder (not pictured), were holding court with their own New Year’s table decorations during a recent visit.

“You feel like family,” says LaCour, who also hits Coffee Call’s drive-thru for weekday coffee before work at St. Joseph’s Academy. “Grandparents bring their grandchildren. It just goes back generations.”

Still family owned and operated, Coffee Call was founded in 1976 by local businessman Vincent Cannatella, who died last June at age 91. Before Coffee Call, Cannatella had opened the city’s first Dunkin Donuts franchise, says granddaughter Brandi Catoire, who runs things today with her uncle, John Cannatella. Both have worked for the restaurant since childhood.

“He was already in the coffee and doughnut business before he moved on to beignets,” she says.

Vincent Cannatella rented a commissary kitchen in New Orleans to perfect his beignet formula, then opened Coffee Call in the original Village Square on College Drive. The popular development was later leveled to make way for Walmart, with a new, repositioned retail strip erected on the complex’s opposite end. Coffee Call moved here in 2004, marking the occasion with a jazz funeral procession attended by its legions of regulars, Catoire says.

Loyalists, of course, initially missed the old place, but the Cannatella family eased the pain by taking along interior design features. That included the signature powder blue arches studded with marquee lights, which frame the dining room and ordering line. Under their cheery glow, diners dispense self-serve coffee and order beignets and a full menu of savory lunch items, including po-boys and a best-selling French dip.

Made-to-order beignets anchor a lip-smackin’ legacy at Coffee Call, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

The beignets are still made by hand. The recipe hasn’t changed since Cannatella developed it, Catoire says, but it’s heavily reliant on technique. The kitchen team makes fresh batches of dough throughout the day, going through an average of 1,700 pounds of flour each week. When she makes them, Catoire adjusts proportions of flour and water by feel, and trains others to do the same.

“As I’m looking at it coming together, I’m adding a little more flour and water here and there,” she says. “It’s an art.”

Scooped from the bowl and placed on a worktable, the dough is folded and left to rest. Then it’s divided into smaller pieces, rolled out and cut into beignet squares or strips for beignet fingers. Cutting the dough into the precise thickness also comes with experience, Catoire adds.

The beignets are made to order, so just before serving, the dough is dropped into hot cottonseed oil and fried until puffy and golden brown. Humidity levels can play havoc, so getting the fry just right also depends on a sixth sense, Catoire says. Once fried, the goodies are plated and showered in confectioners’ sugar.

There’s a common adage in south Louisiana about avoiding wearing dark colors while eating beignets, lest you leave with a dusting of white.

Catoire encourages the sugar shower.

“I tell them it looks great,” she says. “People will know where you’ve been.”

Coffee Call’s 50th anniversary celebration will be held all day May 20 at 3132 College Dr., Ste. F.