In many ways, the stories of the restaurant industry paint a picture of 2020. Closings and reopenings; illnesses and financial struggles; heartache and hope.
225 Dine has been covering dining in Baton Rouge for more than a decade, but 2020 was the craziest, hardest, most rewarding year to cover local food yet. Here are the stories readers clicked on, shared and kept coming back to, all year long.
Thanks for reading 225 Dine this year—see you in 2021.
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Our list of restaurants offering takeout or outdoor dining
As soon as restaurants were ordered to shut down dine-in service this spring, our team got to work putting together this massive list of restaurants offering takeout. (And once restaurants were allowed to open for outdoor seating, we added that, too). We lost track of how many times we updated this story in the spring, so we’re glad to see it was such a big resource for local diners. More than 50,000 unique visitors accessed this story.
The 2020 Best of 225 Awards
Not even COVID-19 could stop 225 area residents from voting—and campaigning—for their favorite restaurants, shops, people and businesses. Our online nominations and subsequent voting processes took place during the early days of the pandemic, and both ballots recorded near-record turnout. In true 2020 fashion, our staff announced the winners during a virtual livestream in late June.
Our list of Black-owned restaurants in Baton Rouge
As the country underwent a national reckoning on race and equality this summer, an outpouring of support for Black-owned restaurants followed. Local food influencers dedicated posts to Black-owned businesses, and the 225 Dine team updated its own list of Black-owned restaurants. The list had originally been compiled by staff writer Cynthea Corfah for Black History Month, and the first version was another of our most-read stories of the year.
The local crawfish market’s rollercoaster 2020 season
Did you get to go to a crawfish boil this year? If not, you’re probably not alone. COVID-19 and social distancing crippled the crawfish market, with prices hitting record lows, as Maria Marsh reported in this 225 Dine story.
Our most popular First Looks inside new restaurants, bars and coffee shops
Millennial Park gave Baton Rouge its first shipping container park, and it was our top-read First Look feature all year. But readers also clicked on our stories about North Gates’ The Revelry, authentic barbecue spot Memphis Mac BBQ, the first Baton Rouge location of Drago’s, Gonzales’ first distillery Sugarfield Spirits, the long-awaited opening of Torchy’s Tacos, the brick-and-mortar debut of Jay Ducote’s Gov’t Taco, the alcohol-infused treats at Spiked Scoops, the mural-covered Cedar House Roasting, and the art-farm brewery Istrouma Brewing.
Seven ways to support Baton Rouge restaurants right now
It was mid-March when we compiled this guide to helping the food industry during the stay-at-home order. Our ideas—such as taking virtual cooking classes, ordering takeout, buying gift cards and drinking local beer at home—still apply months later, as COVID-19 cases are surging across the country.
The most-anticipated 2020 restaurant and bar openings
It’s always fun to look back on these year-end stories one year later, like this one penned by staff writer Cynthea Corfah in early 2020. The good news: Most of these businesses did ultimately open in the 2020 calendar year, despite delays and challenges due to the pandemic.
Baton Rouge’s oldest LGBTQ bar celebrates Pride and its 50th anniversary
Even if it was a much quieter Pride this year, George’s Place still took time to reflect on an important milestone. In June, the bar marked 50 years of being a safe, inclusive place to enjoy drinks or a drag show. In this story, Maria Marsh explored what the bar has meant to its patrons, performers, staff and owners.
Will outdoor dining really help restaurants?
When restrictions on restaurants began loosening late this spring, reporter Hannah Michel asked restaurant owners to get candid: Would outdoor dining make a difference to their already incredibly tight margins? We didn’t know it back when we wrote this story, but outdoor dining would boom by the summer and become a crucial piece to many local restaurants’ offerings. Here’s our latest guide to restaurants offering outdoor seating.
Retro drive-in movies make a COVID-friendly comeback in the Capital Region
By summer, just how stir-crazy were we all? Just stir crazy enough to make drive-in movies a very big thing. For 225 Dine,
STAFF PICKS
Our team’s favorite non-food stories
“The show must go on—and online”
“I’m sort of the resident local arts nerd of 225, so I spent much of 2020 covering how Baton Rouge’s arts community was getting through the financial hardships of the pandemic. One bright spot was how many had figured out ways to move their shows and performances to the virtual space, or were able to get inventive to connect with audiences online. I was also thankful with how honest our local arts leaders were about the struggles they were facing to keep afloat the theaters and galleries and arts collectives they had spent years nurturing.
—Benjamin Leger, managing editor
“Essential workers”
—Benjamin Leger, managing editor
“New downtown plant shop aims to cultivate community”
“This was an interview to remember. Though I was meeting the owner of Outside Stimuli for the first time, as soon as we kicked off our conversation it felt as if I was stopping in to visit an old friend. I was offered a hot mug of herbal tea as we sat and discussed plants, made jokes about shared Black experiences and shared our dreams for the city of Baton Rouge. This new downtown plant shop is a safe space for people of color, and the energy was so inviting. After the interview was finished, I was so inspired I could hardly wait to get started on the story. I’ll definitely hold that experience close to my heart. It was a great reminder of why Baton Rouge is so special.”
ーCynthea Corfah, staff writer
“Local designer Julien Bass shares his take on the fashion industry”
“I have always loved fashion. So any opportunity where I get to fangirl over clothes, styling and fashion icons is a treat. Since I first met Julien, he’s stood out in a crowd with his unapologetic style. For this interview, I wanted to dive head first into his closet. I wanted to see all the gems. And that’s exactly what we did. As he pulled out different garments from his large walk-in closet, I oohed and aahed at the colors, textures and artistic revisions he made to some of his vintage clothes. Our conversation was just as laid-back as his personality and it filled my cup so much I was able to pour all of my excitement into the story. This is a must-read.”
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ーCynthea Corfah, staff writer
All of it
“I normally love to pick my favorite story of the year, but this time I’m opting out. Hear me out. It’s just too hard to pick. Because if I’d have to sum up 2020 at 225, I’d say: Our team excelled at planning less and pivoting more. The pandemic tinged nearly every word we wrote this year, and I’m pretty proud of the way our team quickly turned around stories about how COVID was impacting everything from the restaurant, arts and shopping industries; to local hospitals and churches; to city elections and social justice protests; to the challenges of planning for Halloween and Mardi Gras. Somehow we still managed to sneak our usual fun stories (plus an anniversary issue) into the mix here and there. It was a super weird year to be a journalist. It was difficult to build reporter-source rapport while social distancing, and stories became relevant (or irrelevant) at the drop of a hat. But it was a reminder to me how important the work we do is. We’re all living history right now. My hope is that our small 225 team did all we could to record this tumultuous, wild, dark-yet-still-somehow-hopeful year.”
—Jennifer Tormo, editor