One of Baton Rouge’s most popular and long-standing family-owned restaurants, Bistro Byronz, reveals the transformation of its Mid City location later this week to Brasserie Byronz: a stylish, design-forward rebrand that continues the concept’s French throughline.
If Bistro Byronz was a comfy, come-as-you-are café, Brasserie Byronz is its lively, sophisticated cousin, a next-generation evolution that leans into refinement while remaining energetic and fun. It’s the kind of place where you can dress up or down, sip one of several new Champagnes and cocktails, and dine on timeless brasserie dishes like French Onion Soup, Steak Frites, Roast Half Chicken and creative appetizers, says Byronz Restaurant Family Group CEO Emelie Kantrow Alton.
The restaurant, which temporarily closed earlier this month for renovations, reopens this Friday, Sept. 27. Its new décor, menu and cocktail program are inspired by the brasseries of Paris, New York and New Orleans. The restaurant group’s other locations, Bistro Byronz and Pizza Byronz in Willow Grove, will not change. “That will give us three distinct concepts for Baton Rouge,” Alton says.
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Brasserie Byronz has been in the works for about 18 months and is being executed by BRFG with Kantrow’s brothers, Michael Kantrow and Samuel Kantrow, who operate the New York-based creative agency Makeable. The siblings also pulled in their longtime family friend and restaurateur, Michael Babin, a native Baton Rougean and founder of Neighborhood Restaurant Group (NRG), which has around 20 concepts in Washington, D.C.; Maryland, Virginia and, recently, New Orleans. In the Crescent City, NRG operates Devil Moon Barbecue and Brewery Saint X and the forthcoming late-night eatery Junebug, opening this year.
Chef Shannon Bingham, who directs culinary operations for NRG’s New Orleans concepts, shaped Brasserie Byronz’s new menu.
Regulars of Bistro Byronz’s Government Street location will notice all sorts of fresh upgrades, including soft, amber lighting, hexagonal floor tile, pressed tin ceiling tiles throughout, and globe drop lights and sconces. New banquettes line the main dining room’s east wall and are outfitted in brick-red fabric inspired by New York restaurants Pastis and Balthazar, cozying up the vibe. Arched millwork painted a deep, near-black gray has been installed around the bar and dining room’s many mirrors.
Like a good brasserie, the bar is now a focal point, thanks to the removal of barriers that previously prevented a clear vista from the dining room. That’s intentional, Samuel says.
“In a brasserie, you want to hear the cocktail shaker as drinks are being made,” he says. “There’s something fun about the clang and the excitement happening around you.”
A couple dozen new specialty cocktails will be on offer, including six different standing martinis.
As for the food, beloved dishes like Blue Cheese Chips will still be available, but many legacy items now signal the brasserie upgrade. Building on Bistro Byronz’s famed pot roast, for example, Brasserie Byronz features the new Pot Roast Bourguignon with red wine gravy studded with mushrooms and carrots. The popular Byronz Sandwich, an original menu item made with ham, salami, Canadian bacon, black olives and other ingredients, has inspired the new Croque Byronz, a croque monsieur play with gruyere and bechamel.
And there are many completely new items to experience, including starters like Goat Cheese Croquettes with pickled cranberries and honey; Crawfish & Spinach Gratin with grilled bread; and the Dips app—a trio of pimento cheese, garlic chickpea spread and French onion—served with chips and crudités.
The rebranded concept has made “upping its french fry game” a chief priority, Babin says.
“We’re hoping to have some of the top french fries in Baton Rouge,” Babin says. “On some level, fries are the most prosaic, mundane food, but done right, they’re the ultimate craveable food.”
Alton chimes in.
“It’s that word, ‘craveable,’ that we’re going for,” she says. “It’s really good, but still approachable.”
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Like Bistro Byronz, the menu offers a good variety across starters, soups, salads, sandwiches and entrees. For many of the sandwiches, Brasserie Byronz will use fresh sourdough bread from St. Bruno Bread Co., Alton says.
The brand Bistro Byronz has enjoyed a long history in Baton Rouge that dates back to the late 1970s, when brothers Mike Kantrow and Byron Kantrow opened the first Bistro Byronz on Government Street across from Baton Rouge Magnet High School. It grew to four locations before closing in the 1980s.
In 2006, the Kantrow family reopened the restaurant on Government Street in the location now occupied by Spoke & Hub. It relocated a few blocks east on Government to the Square 46 development in 2021. Brasserie Byronz is at the corner of Government and Mouton streets. For more information, find it on Instagram at @brasseriebyronz.