After more than 10 years with Galatoire’s Bistro, executive chef Kelley McCann is leaving the restaurant in August to start his own as-yet-unnamed new venture with other local restaurateurs, 225 Dine reports.
As he departs, several changes—many that McCann helped kick-start—will go into effect at the bistro located at 3535 Perkins Road, suite 400. An updated menu unveiled earlier this summer was part of a larger plan to make Galatoire’s Bistro “exactly that—a bistro,” Galatoire’s president Melvin Rodrigue says.
A bistro, in its truest form, is a smaller restaurant serving simple meals in a casual atmosphere rather than a place for a rare formal dinner.
“Galatoire’s Baton Rouge isn’t Galatoire’s New Orleans, and I think that misconception sometimes blurs what kind of restaurant Galatoire’s Bistro is,” Rodrigue says.
The new menu combines the current lunch and dinner menus, a change Rodrigue says alters the restaurant’s tone. Instead of having a formal dinner menu, patrons can choose options from one menu all day long, plus a couple of weekly lunch specials.
The bistro also is actively working to replace McCann, who is finalizing plans for his new restaurant concept.
“If I can, I would really like to have a chef in here before Kelley leaves so they can spend some time together,” Rodrigue says, adding that the new chef would also spend time training at the flagship Galatoire’s in New Orleans.
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