Can someone who has no bar experience open a tap room?

Let alone in Kenner, in Rivertown. Looks like a new place opened. I wish them luck.

"As beer gardens crop up around New Orleans, the new Porch & Patio Wine and Beer Garden feels like a transplant from another bed.

Its building is made from the ancient cypress bones of a historic railroad depot. From the screened porch, you can look over your beer to see both passing trains and a storybook castle. The debris fries are mounded with enough roast beef to fill several po-boys.

And still, the most notable fact about Porch & Patio is that it’s in Kenner.

Francioni is new to the restaurant business, though he’s an old pro when it comes to events. The New Orleans native runs Air-Effects/Sky-Tracker, a company that illuminates Carnival parades and countless other celebrations."

"This new, family-friendly restaurant opened in July at the edge of Rivertown, where the suburban flow of Williams Boulevard turns quaint and quiet.

Porch & Patio takes up many of the trends now running through casual New Orleans restaurants and bars. With its 30 draft beers, its wines on tap, its long, narrow beer garden benches and strings of outdoor lights, and its pet-friendly patio, it could be in the next hot spot in Mid-City or Uptown or the Central Business District. Instead it’s in Kenner, where it goes against the grain.

“We wanted to do something different, bring something here for people who live nearby to have in their own backyard,” said Michael Francioni, who developed Porch & Patio. "There's a really strong community here, and I think people have been looking for a place to come together."

The restaurant landscape of Kenner is rich and gratifyingly diverse, though much of this wealth resides in nondescript strip malls between national chains and used car lots. Watering holes tend toward the sports bar and grill style, also mostly in strip malls.

Porch & Patio sets a stage, and since opening, it has drawn a crowd."

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