Rocco's to open Port Allen location and Caribbean restaurant

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Rocco’s owner branching out with Port Allen location and new Caribbean concept in Baton Rouge

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Rocco's owner sets fire to stacks of money

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Rocco’s New Orleans Style Poboys and Café in the Drusilla Shopping Center may be best known for its authentic take on the classic Crescent City sandwich. But the restaurant’s owner is branching out into island fare with the recent opening of Caribbean Joe’s Café.

The new restaurant, which currently serves breakfast and lunch, is located at 2900 Westfork Ave., off Sherwood Forest Boulevard.

Owner Rocco Moreau, who is partnering in the venture with St. Croix native Jose Boriel, says he has long wanted to open a true Caribbean-style restaurant in Baton Rouge, and that the café is a way for him and Boriel to test the market.

“When we get everything to where we know what the public wants we will search for a real brick and mortar location and open a full-service island restaurant and bar,” says Moreau, who’s owned Rocco’s New Orleans Style Poboys and Café since 1998.

The menu at Caribbean Joe’s includes nearly a dozen of Rocco’s most popular poboys as well as a sampling of classic Caribbean dishes, such as Cubano sandwiches, jerk chicken and sautéed cabbage with sausage and jasmine rice. Boriel, who has worked with Moreau in an unrelated construction business, grew up in the Caribbean and is using many of his parents’ authentic recipes.

One month into the operation, Moreau says the Caribbean dishes have been well received by the Sherwood Forest’s lunch crowd.

“Everybody is trying everything,” he says. “We’re doing fantastic.”

Moreau is also planning to open a second Rocco’s po-boy location later this month in Port Allen. The restaurant will be called Rocco’s Westside. Moreau declines to divulge the location just yet.

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