Baton Rouge Restaurants: Now and the Future

What does the Baton Rouge food scene look like today? This article will analyze food and dining in Baton Rouge now, and in the future. Baton Rouge is slowly catching up to the modern food movement. One tenet of modern cuisine is fusion, or the combination of cultures and cuisines. Baton Rouge has the benefit of being a diverse city and this helps chefs think of new ideas. For example, cajun/creole cooking is a mashup of many cultures. Baton Rouge also has a good selection of Mexican, Mediterranean, Japanese, and Vietnamese restaurants. 

Vietnamese restaurants are trending up. This is a welcome occurrence. Vietnamese dishes exhibit all the main points of modern cuisine. Vietnamese dishes are mostly simple and light but the flavors are rich and complex. Baton Rouge has some great options for Vietnamese cuisine, especially along Florida boulevard.

Vietnamese restaurants are a good example when beginning to reference the modern food movement. They utilize simple fresh ingredients and appealing colorful presentations. There are great places in Baton Rouge that are trying to evolve but they get drowned out by the massive restaurant chains.

These chains flood Baton Rouge with mediocrity. I’ve heard that Baton Rouge was a test market for chain restaurants. This would explain the massive space these mediocre businesses fill. I am being generous calling Baton Rouge chains mediocre. It is up to the new generation of food nerds to change the status quo. The best way to vote is with your dollar, and if we want the chains to go away we have to avoid them.

Chain restaurants represent the bad side of the status quo. Louisiana culture is the good side. You want good shrimp poboys, red beans and rice, gumbo, etouffee no problem they are ample. These options are tasty but they aren't catalysts in modern food. Ideally, modern food uses elite ingredients along with cooking finesse to create contemporary dishes. For example, a shrimp poboy dressed like a banh mi is a modern interpretation. There are a couple restaurants trying to create a shift to modern cuisine, but overall Baton Rouge modern food is a plant struggling to reach the sunshine.

Baton Rouge does not have a modern restaurant. There are glimpses of modern food; nice presentation here, good product there, a new twist on something at another place. American business naturally caters to the consumer. Baton Rouge is a college city and in the restaurant world that means higher staff turnover. College students in Baton Rouge move other cities and prestigious jobs. Green staff is another reason modern and fine dining struggle in the capital city. Great dining cities like New Orleans have a restaurant culture that includes veteran staff.

Baton Rouge progress on modern food will continue to be sluggish until the consumers want a change. I think the millennials have the desire for something new, but they tend to leave Baton Rouge for better opportunities in cities like New Orleans and Houston. In New Orleans and Houston you see signs of modern cuisine everywhere, because of the young professionals who build careers there.

Today's thirty somethings are the ones who grew up watching Anthony Bourdain and Top Chef. Unless we keep the young innovators in Baton Rouge, the dining movement will remain sluggish. Baton Rouge job growth is forecast to increase by 5.6% in the next two years. This includes large investments from IBM and Ameritas Technologies. These are the types of opportunities that can retain our young talent.

When Baton Rouge grows the number of young professionals with disposable income, fine dining will need an upgrade. The most exciting fine restaurant in BR is not very exciting. Fine dining in Baton Rouge is not worth the money, spend the same money in New Orleans and you get triple the satisfaction. There are people all over Louisiana who drive to New Orleans just to eat. If someone drives into Baton Rouge they are probably going to work or visiting their children who attend LSU.

Best product is another key in the modern progression. Louisiana is known for having some of the best seafood and produce in the country. Surprisingly not every restaurant utilizes them. I think the best seafood restaurant in Baton Rouge would not even survive as a tourist trap in New Orleans. This is shameful, but this is a situation the consumer has to change.

There are places like Nino’s who are doing a good job. Nino’s makes fresh pasta and they get great seafood and their presentations are pretty. A place like this, is an example for the future. The future needs more simple places with great dishes, fresh products, and pretty plates.

I believe the modern food movement can cull some of Baton Rouge’s chain dominance. Applebees, Chili’s, and Pizza Hut take up too much room and fill the food land with trash. These chains are poor in product and rich in capital.

The modern food movement is the force that can change this astonishing fact. Food mediocrity in Baton Rouge continues because of the citizens support. It is time to shift our support to a new life. Baton Rouge needs a modern restaurant, not the idea of one.