The owners of Atomic Burger, a Metairie restaurant known for its hamburgers and milkshakes frozen with liquid nitrogen, expect construction to begin soon on their Baton Rouge location after months of setbacks.
The restaurant was originally slated to open last spring, but was caught up in the city-parish permitting process.
Work to clear the land for the eatery at Ben Hur Road and Burbank Drive began this week and Joe Spitale, who co-owns the restaurant with his brother, Nick, says they believe the permit to begin construction is “imminent.”
Once started, the buildout is expected to take five months and Spitale is aiming for the restaurant to open at the end of the year.
Marking the company’s readiness to begin construction, Spitale transferred the property earlier this week from AB Burbank LLC, an entity formed to hold the land until the project was ready to move forward, to Atomic Burger LLC. The sale was for $1,120,587.21, according to documents filed with the East Baton Rouge Clerk of Court.
“We’re putting all of our energy to improve the Metairie location and getting Baton Rouge up and running,” Spitale says. “We hope it will be a good meeting place for people in the area.”
The Spitales closed on the .8-acre parcel of land at Ben Hur Road and Burbank Drive, part of the new Arlington Marketplace, for $872,000 last July.
At approximately 2,900 square feet, the Baton Rouge restaurant—two miles from LSU—will be larger than its Metairie sibling and will seat 100 people. The eatery will feature an outside dining area and a window inside the restaurant where customers can see inside the kitchen.
