Juban’s Restaurant Group is “pressing pause” on Adrian’s Restaurant & Bar, effective immediately.
It’s unclear whether the restaurant—which opened in 2017 in Highland Park Marketplace on Perkins Road East—will permanently close, though a decision will reportedly come in August or September.
News of its grinding halt came Monday evening, shortly after Gov. John Bel Edwards announced a staged phase two reopening that will allow increased commercial activity in Louisiana beginning June 5, with most restaurants able to operate at 50% capacity.
It’s good news for many establishments in Baton Rouge. But for others, like Rama, The Rum House, White Star Market and now seemingly Adrian’s, it’s too little, too late.
In an email sent last night, Michael Boudreaux, managing partner at Juban’s Restaurant Group, said that while “everyone is very well aware of the challenge that restaurants are facing,” his restaurant group has to “multiply that challenge times four” when considering its other three concepts: Juban’s, Beausoleil and Christina’s.
“We’ve decided to shift our focus to our other three restaurants,” Boudreaux said in the email. “We don’t know what the future holds. We’ll make decisions as more information presents itself and as the ‘new normal’ becomes reality.”
Juban’s Restaurant Group owns the 11,000-square-foot building. Boudreaux tells Daily Report the restaurant will be closed through the summer, adding “it’s just not worth the fight right now.”
George Kurz, who owns the rest of Highland Park Marketplace and was instrumental in developing Adrian’s, says Boudreaux had previously told him about the planned move, but declined to disclose any further details about the conversation.
Broadly speaking, Kurz says other local restaurants are having similar discussions, partially caused by people still not feeling safe enough to leave their homes, and partially by laid-off staffers receiving federal benefits not returning to work. Some tenants in Kurz’s other developments have already notified him of their plans to shutter, while others are on the fence.
“Many people have decided they don’t want to go into further debt to stay in business,” Kurz says. “You can’t just turn an economy on and off.”
