After more than 15 months of planning, Superior Grill recently began construction on its second Baton Rouge location.
The new restaurant, which broke ground in late July, will be located on the site of a recently demolished, 7,000-square-foot building that fronted the Kenilworth Shopping Center on Highland Road at Kenilworth Parkway. The building previously housed Arzi’s restaurant and, before that, Monjunis.
Construction on the new Superior Grill location is expected to take about 10 months, according to Superior Grill District Manager Steven Fontenot. Company officials hope the restaurant will be open by May 2017.
Plans for the second location were announced in May 2015. Fontenot says getting it off the ground has taken more than a year because the drawing and design process took longer than originally anticipated.
“We were just trying to get all our ducks in a row,” Fontenot says. “We wanted to make sure we got everything just right.”
The Kenilworth location will be Superior’s second in Baton Rouge. Since 1991, it has operated a location at 5435 Government St. that has built up a loyal following over the years.
Superior Grill also operates restaurants in New Orleans, Shreveport and Birmingham, Alabama. Additionally, its parent company operates Superior Seafood and Oyster Bar in New Orleans and Cocina Superior in Birmingham.
The new Superior Grill isn’t the only major change to the aging Kenilworth Shopping Center, built in the 1960s. Last year, New Orleans-based Robert’s acquired the center’s anchor tenant, a Matherne’s supermarket, and plans a thorough overhaul of the store’s interior and exterior in the coming months.
—Stephanie Riegel
