In the heart of downtown Baton Rouge, the new Blues Café will combine jazz and blues music, traditional Southern cuisine and specialty brunch cocktails to bring something new to downtown denizens when it opens later this spring.
Owned by the husband and wife duo Damon and Tameeka Stewart, The Blues Café will combine Damon’s love for blues musicians from his childhood with Tameeka’s knack for introducing people to new and interesting foods. “My family loved blues and jazz, and of course the state of Louisiana is based on that, and also zydeco music,” Damon says. “We came up with the name because we thought (Baton Rouge) needed a restaurant that would cater to the music industry.”
Damon’s hope for the restaurant, taking the place of the former T&T Café on Third Street, is that it will attract both musicians and music lovers alike.
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To start out, the café expects to feature live bands for weekend brunch, with plans to expand into the evening as times goes on, Tameeka explains. Offering brunch, lunch and dinner menus, the restaurant will also serve specialty drinks, as well as mimosas and Champagne and other “things that you can relax to after a long day of work,” Damon adds.
Tameeka, the café’s chef, is already familiar with Southern food favorites, having managed her own catering business, Baton Rouge Personal Chef Services, since 2018.
“Damon and I have been in this business for some time now,” Tameeka explains. “I’ve been catering for over 15 years.”
But it was her husband, an AT&T contractor, who pushed her to bring her talents to a brick and mortar. “He does an awesome job helping me cater, so it’s kind of an easy transition,” she says with a laugh.
The Blues Café will also sponsor the fourth annual Sunset on the River, a cultural festival taking place April 9 at the Riverfront Plaza. The event brings the same zydeco and jazz music Damon is incorporating into the café to the wider downtown community, hoping to “get a ton of people to come out with their lawn chairs and enjoy themselves,” he says.
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Both Sunset on the River and the Blues Café are part of the couple’s efforts to bring a different bit of culture to downtown.
“We don’t really get stuff like blues and brunch downtown,” Tameeka says. “We are really trying to bring a different vibe to the area.”
The Blues Café is set to open at at 320 Third Street by the end of April. It will be open 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, and noon to 6 p.m. on Monday. Find The Blues Café on Facebook.