Ruffino’s looks to open Lafayette restaurant by April

At a location in the heart of Acadiana where upscale Cajun fare didn’t catch on, Baton Rouge-based Ruffino’s is expanding, with plans to open by April a restaurant on the site of Cochon Lafayette on the Vermilion River. “We’ll call it Ruffino’s on the River to give it its own identity,” says Ruffin Rodrigue. Ruffino’s co-owner and chef, Peter Sclafani, and Rodrigue have signed a lease-to-purchase agreement on the building with the Link Restaurant Group, which announced today it is closing Cochon Lafayette and exiting the market so it can deepen its focus in the New Orleans market; it plans to open a new wood-fired seafood restaurant at the corner of Magazine and Julia streets this spring, to join its principal restaurant on Tchoupitoulas Street. Rodrigue says Cochon Lafayette plans to close Sunday, Feb. 10. LRG had the restaurant building constructed and opened for business in September 2011. “We had heard the business wasn’t what they had expected,” Rodrigue says. What might give Ruffino’s a leg up where Cochon went belly up? “I think our menu, No. 1: steaks, seafood and Italian,” says Rodrigue, noting Cochon focuses on slow-cooked pork and foods “that people in Lafayette cook themselves.” Rodrigue says it will take at least until April to make “subtle changes” to the building and hire staff. Otherwise, the Ruffino’s menu will stay the same. “It’s almost like this place was made for us,” Rodrigue says. —Adam Pearson