A family-friendly restaurant with New Orleans roots has opened its first Baton Rouge location.
As 225 Dine reports, The Velvet Cactus opened in a 6,000-square-foot space on Monday at 7655 Old Hammond Hwy. The restaurant will serve the same Mexican-inspired dishes here as it does at its location in the New Orleans Lakeview neighborhood. Some highlights include a chorizo and shrimp cheesecake appetizer, fajitas, margaritas and taco options that change regularly.
Construction of the restaurant began last year after owners Herb Dyer and Rusty White bought the building in December 2013. The Velvet Cactus also features an outside patio with waterfall and pond. Dyer told Daily Report last November that he’s waiting to see if the restaurant will be a success before he plans any more Velvet Cactus locations here in Baton Rouge. The original location opened in New Orleans in early 2012.
Also in the latest edition of 225 Dine, Barcadia owner Billy Blatty talks about the upcoming opening of the Baton Rouge location of the restaurant/bar/arcade. Blatty says there are only a “few hurdles left to clear” on the delayed project, but didn’t mention specifics.
“We anticipate being open the last week of January,” he says, adding that no grand opening plans have been made yet. “We plan to soft open so we may identify and massage out the kinks that often appear when opening a new business in a newly renovated building.”
Barcadia had originally hoped to open last fall in the former Serranos Salsa Company space at 3347 Highland Road.
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