With so much focus on all the restaurants, bars and hotels that have opened up along Third Street downtown, one would think the rest of downtown is a no-man’s land of offices, government buildings and parking garages.
That’s no longer the case when one of the most inviting new restaurants in downtown, Cocha, opened on Sixth Street around the corner from the Main Street Market at the end of 2016. Husband and wife team Enrique Pinerua and Saskia Spanoff quietly fired up the kitchen before the new year, but they have since begun a regular lunch and dinner service with a focus on global cuisine.
The interior is modern but comfortable with dark wood furnishings, exposed brick and picture windows looking out on this quiet section of downtown. The adjoining bar area features seasonal cocktails and clever high-top tables with tin troughs in the center for icing bottles of wine. Toward the back of the restaurant is a more intimate dining area with full view of all the buzz in the open kitchen.
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That’s where chef Jourdan Fulbright and sous chef Katelyn Miranda Alaniz work on a carefully crafted menu culled from produce and proteins found at the Red Stick Farmers Market around the block and from regional farmers. Spanoff says that while the menu aims for a global influence, more than 75 percent of ingredients are procured from organic and non-GMO purveyors in the Baton Rouge area.
And about that global influence, our lunch consisted of items difficult to pronounce but not at all difficult to enjoy: a Korean-style bibimbap, a Venezuelan-style criollo and a steak panini with chimichurri.
Cocha’s bibimbap consists of jasmine rice or quinoa as the base, a fried egg, plenty of fresh and sautéed vegetables like mushrooms, cucumber, broccoli and tatsoi greens and an addictive, savory red sauce called gochujang that I used to dip all my veggies. Diners can ask for a protein like pork, steak, chicken or shrimp on top, but as a lunch item, I found the bibimbap pretty satisfying on its own without making me sluggish by the afternoon.
The criollo is based on the traditional Venezuelan rice and beans dish pabellón criollo, but Cocha’s take is an expertly stacked medley of rice and black beans topped with succulent roasted chicken, peppers and onions and sweet plantains on top. On the side are slices of fresh avocado and a sample of the restaurant’s homemade arepa, which is a Venezuelan corn cake sliced in half and stuffed with crumbled cheese.
If, like me, you want more arepa (because yes, you do), the lunch menu includes it in the sandwich section as well, stuffed with roasted chicken or cheese.
Our final lunch item was the steak panini featuring tender marinated strips of steak, peppers and onions and a generous smear of chimichurri all sandwiched between crusty baguette bread.
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In all, the dishes were well prepared and fresh with enough contrasts in flavor and texture to keep things interesting. It’s hard not to like a place that’s brave enough to expose Baton Rouge tastebuds to such worldly flavors and executes it all so well. If you have a hard time choosing, the restaurant offers a business lunch with your choice of soup or one of two salad options and half of any of their sandwich offerings for $12.
Spanoff says they are planning to start brunch service on Saturday, Jan. 21, with an aim to pull in some of the farmers market crowd, offering regular brunch items Saturdays and Sundays starting at 11 a.m.
Cocha is at 445 North Sixth St. Its hours are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Saturday 5-10 p.m. and Sunday 5-9 p.m. (Note: The weekend hours will change once brunch service starts.)