re: Cochon closing in Lafayette

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I'll admit, after pulling it [the menu] up, it looks decidedly less interesting than the NO menu.

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That wasn't how it was at the beginning. The menu was very similar to NO's. But when troubles started they began dumping the more labor intensive items, the very items that made this place unique. All my favorite items were gone within a year, with some of them disappearing only a few months after opening.

Nobody ordered the items that the quality and care were evident. They ordered boudin balls evidently and lump crabmeat stuffed blah blah. So Lafayette.

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That wasn't how it was at the beginning. The menu was very similar to NO's. But when troubles started they began dumping the more labor intensive items, the very items that made this place unique. All my favorite items were gone within a year, with some of them disappearing only a few months after opening.

Nobody ordered the items that the quality and care were evident. They ordered boudin balls evidently and lump crabmeat stuffed blah blah. So Lafayette.

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That was my understanding.

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That wasn't how it was at the beginning. The menu was very similar to NO's. But when troubles started they began dumping the more labor intensive items, the very items that made this place unique. All my favorite items were gone within a year, with some of them disappearing only a few months after opening.

Nobody ordered the items that the quality and care were evident. They ordered boudin balls evidently and lump crabmeat stuffed blah blah. So Lafayette.

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They must have cut them out fairly quick because that's the same menu I've seen every time I've been there

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Good point, but it just as much about the margs as anything one could argue.

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Which are terrible, unless you like everclear adn margarita mix. So I guess it's not really just about the taste then.

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More so about getting f'ed up and hitting on cougars.

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Right, so it's not just about the taste.

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Right, so it's not just about the taste.

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It is. Most people really like the margaritas there. The fact that they are strong and have cougars is a bonus. Now the food there sucks except for the fried rabbit and fried chicken in my opinion.

I ate at this location once for lunch. My meal was quite good, but there were only 3 other tables in the entire place with people at them. Driving back to the interstate I noticed that the local boiled seafood shack had a full parking lot.

I think any restaurant is going to have a hard time succeeding in that location. It's a big space. If Link et al owns the location, they will likely make more money turning it over as a rental than they will running a restaurant.

Ruffino’s, the popular Highland Road restaurant, plans to open a Lafayette location in mid-April.

Ruffino’s on the River will be located on Camellia Boulevard in River Ranch in a building that is currently occupied by Cochon Lafayette. Cochon is set to close on Feb. 10, said Ruffin Rodrigue, who co-owns Ruffino’s with chef Peter Sclafani III. Rodrigue said he has been intrigued by the Lafayette restaurant market for a number of years. The success of the Lafayette location of Baton Rouge-based Walk-On’s was also an eye-opener, he said.

“People have been asking me for a while when we would go into Lafayette,” he said. But Rodrigue and Sclafani wanted to wait until they had the right staff in place in Baton Rouge. “Peter and I will be going to Lafayette to help out, so we wanted to make sure we had the staff in Baton Rouge to offer the same great food and great service,” Rodrigue said.

Ruffino’s on the River will have the same menu as the Baton Rouge location — steaks, seafood and Italian dishes. The restaurant will be on the Vermilion River. “It’s one of the prettiest restaurants I have ever been in,” Rodrigue said. “There’s a patio, a beautiful bar and a wood-burning stove.”

Cochon Lafayette was founded by Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski, both James Beard-award winning chefs who had a lot of success with New Orleans restaurants. Link announced this week he was closing the Lafayette restaurant to focus on his Crescent City properties.

Rodrigue praised Link and Stryjewski, but said Cochon Lafayette’s menu was “so eclectic and so upscale.”

“There was no steak or fish on the menu,” he said.

Ruffino’s opened in 1998 as DiNardo’s, a venture between then LSU football coach Gerry DiNardo and restaurant owner T.J. Moran. The name changed to Ruffino’s in 2001, an Italian spin on Rodrigue’s first name. In 2010, Rodrigue and Sclafani bought Moran out.

LINK