Electric Love
The Electric Depot lights up the contemporary spirit of a time gone by during February's "Mid City is for Lovers" Valentine's Day Supper Club.
The Entergy electric power company took hold of Baton Rouge in 1913, the last great year of the Belle Époque in its francophone forebear across the sea. By then, the Lumière brothers’ invention of the cinématographe had already encouraged the first silent films, the Moulin Rouge was making craftsmanship of cabaret, and Art Nouveau bistros were turning fine dining into a fine art.
Over a century later, the vestiges of that era remain part of a collective nostalgia, a yearning for the brick-and-iron aesthetic of industry combined with something more wistful and romantic, a certain je ne sais quoi perfectly encompassed by Mid City’s Electric Depot, the ideal backdrop for our Valentine’s Day Supper Club.
Once a collection of Entergy warehouses, the six-acre campus opened last year amid the raw allure of its industrial past. Roomy interiors of exposed brick and metal pipes stand in cozy contrast to fairy lights twinkling over the courtyard alley, their soft white glow visible along Government Street. Tall window panes capture beads of humidity, offering a hazy peek into the property’s various businesses: Red Stick Social (the concert venue, restaurant, bar, and bowling alley), City Roots Coffee Bar, Achroma photography studio, apartment spaces, and the soon-to-open Blue Corn Tequila & Tacos, Boru Ramen & Poke, and Sweet Society Japanese Ice Cream & Desserts.
“We’re very proud of this space we were able to create in Baton Rouge’s historic warehouse district,” said Marlee Pittman, director of the Electric Depot. “Especially with our rooftop patio, and the festoon lighting over our central lawn, it’s really an enchanting place to enjoy Valentine’s Day with loved ones.”
Whether awash in the aroma of roasting coffee or humming to the ghosts of French heritage in our own city of love, one thing is for certain: this colony of cool is just getting started.