After relocating to Baton Rouge from New Orleans in January 2015, Derek Wanland is getting ready to serve up regional Cajun and Creole cuisine to the Capital City’s foodies and late night crowds.
Wanland and his wife, Sheryl Barnett, are opening a new restaurant this summer called Louisiana Bistreaux Steak & Seafood at 4564 Bennington Ave., between Gino’s Restaurant and The Station Sports Bar & Grill.
The restaurant will serve lunch and dinner and also have a quick service buffet for late-night diners. Wanland, who once operated a French Quarter restaurant, says the restaurant will offer high quality service of fresh and affordable cuisine.
“We value our customers and part of our promise to our potential guests is that we will deliver the finest fresh ingredients available and prepared by the watchful eye of an executive chef,” he says.
In some ways the restaurant is a marriage of southeast and southwest Louisiana, New Orleans and Acadiana. Britt Shockley, the formerly of Lafayette’s Blue Dog Cafe, will join Wanland’s newest restaurant venture as an executive chef. Stockley has also worked as an certified executive chef for Offshore Staffing Services of Acadiana.
“We’re bringing a commitment to excellence, where you’ll be able to order the same dish and get the exact same flavor all the time,” Wanland says.
Fresh fish will be flown in daily. Menu items will include items such as bronzed red snapper topped with fresh lump crab meat and finished with beurre blanc sauce; and steaks; as well as breakfast items such as creole scramble eggs, stone grits, Andouille sausage, buttermilk biscuits and french toast. The menu will total about 50 items, Wanland says, and the quick-service buffet offered during late-night hours will cost $10.
However, the emphasis will be on fresh ingredients, he says, and he won’t offer items on the menu if they’re not available.
“We’re not going to rush anything,” he says. “We’re not going to slam things together to keep it on the menu.”
Wanland is aiming to open the restaurant on June 21. Hiring of kitchen staff, servers and other positions will begin next month.
The restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m .then on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It will reopen for the late night crowd from 12:30 to 3 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
—Alexandria Burris
