Comeback complete: Big Mike’s Sports Bar & Grill in Denham Springs was the overall winner of the Restaurant Challenge at the seventh annual Livingston Parish Chamber Business and Community Expo, taking the vendor’s choice and people’s choice awards. The awards were new to the expo this year, which boasted its highest attendance ever. Walk-On’s won the online award. Big Mike’s has made a serious comeback since being severely damaged in the August 2016 flood, and was featured on the Spike TV show Bar Rescue last year as it was rebuilt.
A plus: Six BASIS charter schools are among the top 10 best high schools in the country according to the latest annual rankings by U.S. News and World Report. The Arizona-based network of charter schools is set to open its first school in Baton Rouge on Lakeland Park Boulevard this fall. BASIS has 22 schools in the U.S. and is planning to open five more in Louisiana over the next several years. The BASIS program for charter schools is known to be academically demanding and BASIS Baton Rouge will welcome its first students in August. See the full rankings.
Backdoor deals: Macy’s Backstage will open inside the Macy’s at the Mall of Louisiana on June 2 at 10 a.m. The outlet store will offer discounted items and the grand opening will have giveaways for the first 200 customers, according to a Macy’s release. The addition of the Macy’s outlet store comes at a time when shopping malls across the country are suffering. The Bon-Ton Stores Inc., a chain of department stores across the Midwest, announced in April month they would be closing more than 250 stores, and Sears has been shutting down locations across the country for months. However, Macy’s stores with Backstage outlets saw their sales rise about 7%, The New York Post reported earlier this year.
