Louisiana Culinary Institute taps Troy Deano, Dolce Vita for new annex

Louisiana Culinary Institute has announced plans for an annex with about 8,000 square feet of space for restaurants and food concepts. The building is located at 10423 Jefferson Highway, behind LCI.

LCI director of public affairs Charlie Ruffolo says the first restaurants to fill the building will be Brackish and Dolce Vita Pizzeria.

The former comes from chef Troy Deano, who has previously worked alongside chef John Besh as well as at 18 Steak and City Pork Deli & Charcuterie. Brackish will focus on Louisiana-centric cuisines, including seafood options as well as charcuterie boards and house-made meats.

“Everything you could support from Louisiana from a culinary perspective will be put into Brackish,” Ruffolo says. “We are now in the construction phase. We literally just started putting the pencil to the paper, designing it and figuring out everything.”

Ruffolo adds that it will be around five to six months before Brackish opens.

Dolce Vita Pizzeria, a wood-fired pizza grill and restaurant, will follow Brackish. Dolce Vita started as a Baton Rouge food truck from Bogdan Mocanu and his wife. The business evolved into a brick and mortar location in New Orleans on St. Charles Avenue last year after Mocanu couldn’t find an adequate Capital City location. Mocanu sought Ruffolo’s help in opening the restaurant, which Ruffolo owned with Mocanu until November when Mocanu left and lost interest in the restaurant business.

Now, Ruffolo has complete ownership in Dolce Vita and has renovated the New Orleans location, which will be unveiled this week. The Baton Rouge location will have some of Mocanu’s staples as well as fresh pasta, paninis and desserts. However, Mocanu will not be involved in the pizza restaurant. Ruffolo says the timetable for Dolce Vita’s construction will be shorter than Brackish.

“We’ll knock [Dolce Vita] out right after Brackish,” Ruffolo says.

The annex will have a rustic throwback feel, and new food-centric businesses will be added in time. One possibility is a seafood market.

“Out of three ideas, the seafood market is still in its infancy,” Ruffolo says. “We are trying to see what else we could support. A seafood market makes sense.”

For more information on LCI, click here.

This story has been updated since its original post.