Mike Anderson’s Seafood restaurant has two new co-owners—Harry and Chip Robert, who are the brother-in-law and nephew, respectively, of the eponymous restaurant’s founder, Mike Anderson, Sr.
The Roberts, who for 30 years have owned and operated the Mike Anderson’s restaurant in Gonzales, are buying an equity stake in the restaurant chain, which has three locations in Baton Rouge, Central and the New Orleans Riverwalk. Chip Robert will help run all three locations. His uncle, Mike Anderson Sr., and cousin, Mike Anderson, Jr., will continue to be part owners and involved in the operation, he says.
Terms of the deal, which is expected to be finalized this week, are not being disclosed.
For Chip Robert, the opportunity to become part of the well-known seafood restaurant has long been a dream. As a college student in the 1990s, he worked at the chain’s signature restaurant on West Lee Drive, and for the past 15 years he has been involved in growing his family’s franchise-owned location in Gonzales.
He and Mike Anderson Jr. began discussing a potential partnership early last year, and among his goals is to improve the overall customer experience at all Mike Anderson’s locations.
“My plans are to focus on the restaurants we have and making them the best they can be and giving the Baton Rouge and Ascension Parish communities an experience that is a great experience,” Robert says. “I want the food to always be spectacular and I want the service to be even better.”
There are no plans to rebrand the restaurant or change its name or rustic décor. Eventually, Robert says the family may look at expanding the chain to additional sites but not anytime soon.
“Our focus right now is to try and make everything more consistent,” he says. “We’re going to make the food and the experience and everything more consistent across the board for everybody involved.”
Mike Anderson Sr., an LSU football All-American in the early 1970s, opened his first restaurant in 1975 on Highland Road near the LSU campus. It moved to its existing location on West Lee in the mid-1980s, with the additional locations opening in the 1980s.
—Stephanie Riegel
