Months after the restaurant group behind the planned Stroubes Grille dropped out of the Juban Crossing development, the owner of Café Américain is set to open a seafood-focused concept at the location.
The new restaurant, called Café Américain Seafood, will feature a 200-seat dining room, outdoor patio, oyster bar and a menu focused on fried, blackened and grilled seafood.
“Our main goal is to be the go-to seafood restaurant out there for Livingston Parish,” says owner Brian Blackledge, who opened Café Américain’s Baton Rouge location on Jefferson Highway in 1987.
Stroubes Grille was to be a new concept from the partners behind downtown Baton Rouge restaurants Stroube’s and Capital City Grill. The restaurant was supposed to move into an 8,500-square-foot building at Juban Crossing. But the August 2016 flood, which inundated the shopping center with several feet of water, delayed construction on the building.
John Schneider, part of the would-be management team of Stroubes Grille, says the investors backing the project pulled out a few months ago, citing delays stemming from the flood.
“It was a $1.5 million commitment on their part,” Schneider says, adding there are no immediate plans to open Stroubes Grille at another location. “I just lost the window of opportunity.”
Schneider, who is a partner in the group that owns Stroube’s and Capital City Grill, had signed an agreement with owner and founder Rick Volland, who would have provided management support and allowed the use of items from both menus.
Instead, the space is now being renovated for Café Américain Seafood. Work has been underway for three months and is nearing completion.
Juban Crossing is a $350 million project that broke ground in 2011 and features a Rouses Supermarket, Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar and several retailers along Interstate 12 in Livingston Parish, just east of Denham Springs. Greg Reggio, partner in the New Orleans restaurant group that owns Zea Rotisserie & Bar, says work should begin soon on a Zea location at Juban Crossing, which will serve as a prototype. The new building should take eight months to complete.
Juban Crossing developer Stephen Keller says the shopping center is doing better since the flood led to lengthy delays and recovery work from tenants. He says he landed Café Américain four to five months ago, shortly after the Stroubes Grille plans fell through.
“I think they do an excellent job in Baton Rouge and I think they’d be a great complement to the shopping center,” he says.
—Sam Karlin
