Why so many eating joints fail in BR?

Most restaurants fail

Recently... The gubment killed them

Long term it's just a very thin margin business with a lot of competition that doesn't have a super high entry barrier so a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs go into that area. I know plenty of people with zero restaurant experience that thought it was a good idea

You need a drink to go with it.

People are surprised by how dry weed can make your mouth, so if you find yourself in the position to have to swallow a joint when pulled over, always have a drink when you carry.

covid and government disincentivizing citizens to work

Even good restaurants have a fall off in management, product goes bad and they go away.

Maybe the food sucks

And also swoosh the drink in your mouth like mouthwash and try to show as little of teeth as possible when communicating. Definitely don't smile.

Imagine quickly eating a bottle of oregano and not having some somewhere in your teeth.

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Maybe Dim Sum on Airline?

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Off of Airline. Good food but it wasn’t busy besides on Sundays. Maybe they should’ve move to a smaller building and focus mostly on takeouts.

For that shopping center the traffic isn't worth the hassle just to go eat at those places.

In addition to the same factors currently impacting food service businesses everywhere (covid restrictions, rising costs of raw ingredients, difficulty finding workers due to unemployment benefits, low margins, lack of experience, etc), BR has a few factors that often work against would-be restauranteurs:
1. Traffic
2. Home-dining culture
3. One-horse town mentality

Baton Rouge isn’t small, but it’s not a massive metro area. It’s also very spread out, and traffic causes many neighborhoods to be relatively isolated from one-another. A lot of residents become deterred by traffic and rarely leave the general neighborhoods where they live or work. Folks who live off Sherwood @ Coursey almost never spend time near LSU outside of gameday. Folks around Government Street don’t spend time on Highland near Gardere. While most food scenes are able to build off the size of their metros, BR’s food scene is really just a collection of neighborhood food scenes that rarely intersect. Short version: people don’t travel much for a meal.

Next is that most of BR has a home-dining culture. People cook and eat in the home rather than go out to eat. If they do eat out, it’s more due to convenience (grabbing a quick bite on your lunch break or while driving home) than wanting something delicious and creative. These people aren’t interested in socializing at restaurants outside of a fancy occasion. Compared with many places with “going out” cultures, BR has a smaller percentage of its population looking to dine in a restaurant than many other places. Why that demo is so small is likely due to the lack of unmarried young professionals, who tend to eat out more frequently than other demos.

As a result of that demo of restaurant-craving diners being so small and distributed among many unconnected neighborhoods, there’s only so many of them to go around for all these restaurants. These diners are cliquish, and flock to the new hip thing to try. That can be great for restaurants starting out, but as soon as something newer comes along, it can be tough to hang onto customers once their attention has shifted. The oldest restaurants seem immune, but the “trendy” spots are constantly either coming and going or in an arms race to retain repeat business. If your food isn’t cravable enough or your menu gets stale, BR diners aren’t super forgiving unless you’ve been around for like 70 years. The best restaurants tend to survive, but a lot of good ones don’t make it once they’re not the new kid in town anymore.