Details emerge on second location of City Pork

Barely five months have passed since City Pork Deli & Charcuterie opened near the Perkins Road overpass at 2362 Hollydale Ave., and the restaurant is already expanding. City Pork, the tentatively dubbed second location of the popular eatery, is set to take over the former home of Dempsey’s at 7327 Jefferson Highway, which closed in April.

City Pork co-owner and managing partner Chase Lyons says he hopes the new location will be open around fall 2014, but a firm date has not been set.

This week, Business Report‘s Tom Cook reported that City Pork owner Stephen Hightower acquired the lease on the Dempsey’s building shortly after it closed. Hightower purchased City Pork Deli & Charcuterie in January as part of his Exclamation Point Hospitality Group, a restaurant company that also includes Leroy’s on Nicholson Drive and Frankie’s Dawg House in the Perkins Road overpass area.

Lyons says he and Exclamation Point couldn’t pass on expanding to a second location.

“When we found out about this spot in another great neighborhood, we didn’t think it would come around again for a while,” he says. “It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

Lyons has been surprised at the response from Baton Rougeans and never expected the original restaurant would do so well.

“Whenever [former business partner] Trey [Williams] and I had this concept four or five years ago, we didn’t have any idea it would be this well received,” Lyons says. “The feedback has been overwhelming. The customers have made us successful.”

While Dempsey’s owners told Dine that parking was one of the reasons for its unexpected close, Lyons says he doesn’t foresee that as a problem.

“We have 37 spots on the lot right now,” he says. “It’s plenty for our operation.”

Along with the original location’s menu, City Pork will bring Chef Troy Deano, formerly of 18 Steak at L’Auberge Casino & Hotel Baton Rouge, to its kitchen. Lyons says a few entrées and small plates might be added in the future, but the new location will not have a butcher shop in it, focusing on the dine-in experience.