The Santa Fe Cattle Co. has closed its Coursey Boulevard restaurant just one year after opening.
The restaurant, which was located at 11575 Coursey Blvd. in the space previously occupied by Walk-Ons, opened in late October 2014. An employee who answered the phone at the company’s corporate headquarters on Jefferson Highway confirmed the restaurant’s last day in business was Wednesday. She also said the company will continue to lease the space and use the facility for training. Restaurant management did not return a call requesting comment as of this morning’s deadline.
Santa Fe Cattle Co. is at least the third restaurant to occupy the 7,000-square foot space in the Coursey Boulevard shopping center in recent years. Before Walk-Ons, which closed in Feb. 2014, O’Henry’s operated a restaurant there. Local real estate appraiser Wesley Moore says intense competition among fast casual and chain restaurants along the busy Coursey Boulevard corridor may be one reason so many eateries to occupy that space have had trouble.
“There is a very substantial supply of restaurant space there,” says Moore, of Cook, Moore and Associates. “That is such a competitive corridor it makes it that much more challenging for restaurants to stay viable.”
Santa Fe Cattle Co. is based in Baton Rouge, though no longer operates any local restaurants. A Prairieville location closed after two years in business last fall. The company currently has 18 locations throughout Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, according to its website.
—Stephanie Riegel
