A year after settling into a new Beauregard Town location, Lagniappe Records is moving west.
Co-owners Tess Brunet and Patrick Hodgkins announced today that the record shop will move from its Baton Rouge location at 705 St. Joseph St. to downtown Lafayette.
Brunet, who opened the vinyl record shop with Hodgkins two years ago in a home on France Street, says the decision wasn’t an easy one. However, she notes that rising rent for the Baton Rouge location was a key factor in the decision.
“[The rent] was being raised to something we’re not comfortable with,” she says. “We wanted to be in Beauregard Town. We thought we would stay in this area. But we had to broaden the search.”
The new shop will have around the same size and be located at 313 Jefferson St. in Lafayette. The setup will be a bit different, as the space is more “shotgun-style,” Brunet says. The owners plan to open the Lafayette shop in August.
“This place in downtown Lafayette is the right location,” she says. “We could’ve moved into a strip mall in Baton Rouge. We could have been on the other end of town. That was not appealing to us all. Initially, this was devastating news. There was a moment when we thought we would have to close. Then this spot came open, and it was hard not to seriously consider it.”
Brunet says business will go on as usual in the new location. The do-it-yourself label, which has fostered young Capital City bands such as Loudness War and The Chambers, will continue in Lafayette, as will live concerts. Lagniappe Records’ last day in Baton Rouge is Sunday, July 26.
“We have made a name for ourselves here, and people [in Lafayette] know about it,” Brunet says. “We still want to have some roots in Baton Rouge. We want to participate in pop-up shops and bring some cool bands from Lafayette here. It was a bold move, but we are looking on the bright side.”
Read a Business Report Entrepreneur feature on Brunet and Hodgkins from July 2014.
—Matthew Sigur
