Fresh digs: After working on renovations to add a coffee shop and other amenities for more than a year, Robért Fresh Market is celebrating a grand opening at 7355 Highland Road on Saturday, June 23, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The New Orleans-based supermarket took over the lease of the former Matherne’s in the Kenilworth Shopping Center in 2016 and started renovations in 2017.
Out of order: The largest oil processing unit at ExxonMobil Corp’s Baton Rouge refinery was shut down Tuesday and isn’t expected to be restarted until July, sources familiar with plant operations tell Reuters. This is the second time in recent weeks the refinery has shut down major components. It also shut down one of its units—one accounting for 42% of the refinery’s capacity—on May 29 for repairs and restarted it last week.
Anniversary of spice: One of Louisiana’s most famous exports, Tabasco sauce, is celebrating its 150th birthday. Edmund McIlhenny created the pepper sauce in 1868 on Avery Island—though it isn’t technically an island. It’s actually a salt dome, a geological phenomenon in which an underground bed of salt pushes up the terrain and its that same salt that’s used in the sauce. Read the full story.
