Restaurants & Retail

The lunch specials at the new Iron Fork are a mouthwatering lineup of what co-owners Tory Cummings and Hershall Bergeron call soul food with a Cajun twist.

Michael Mathews, owner of Baton Rouge-based outdoor store The Backpacker, is opening the store’s third location, this one in Mandeville.

The Duplantier Place Shopping Center at 257 Lee Drive was sold to a Metairie-based LLC for $3.1 million in a deal Monday.

The shipping container has become a coveted and expensive lifeline for retailers and manufacturers, and they’re in such short supply that companies are having to rethink how they stock shelves, placing a premium on smaller, more compact merchandise: squishy toys, headphones and slippers instead of, say, play kitchens, televisions and hiking boots, The Washington Post reports. 

That trend has only continued, as consumers embrace a to-go infrastructure that is more convenient and varied than ever. 

Thanksgiving is next week, so if you haven’t started planning yet, it’s time to think about what will be on your table. Why not take the stress out of preparing a family meal with some dishes, desserts and sides from local restaurants?

Though Bistro Byronz has been a Mid City staple since 2005, its new location inside Square 46 has the best of the old with new menu items.

Two years ago, only a modest number of area restaurants offered al fresco seating. Since the pandemic began, however, more have expanded or added patio dining, and customers have embraced it. If you’ve tried to grab an outdoor table on a balmy weekend night, you’ve probably found one hard to come by.

American workers’ stampede toward the exits hasn’t let up, but recent surveys show that it’s primarily women and workers in the food, retail and hospitality sectors making career changes at the highest rates. 

Whether more coffee shops want to control the quality of their coffee by self-roasting or just like the trendy look of an in-house roasting machine, the practice is becoming more common for local coffee shops. Places like Brew Ha-Ha!, Cedar House Roasting Co., City Roots Coffee Bar, French Truck Coffee and Reve Coffee Lab all roast beans for their drinks.