The Rutledge Café & Cannatella Grocery

A road diet unexpectedly leads to premium meats and cheeses

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What they didn’t tell me about the Government Street “road diet” is how much premium meat and cheese would soon be featuring in my own diet. My belt and I blame the small but sensational new eateries feeling confident enough to set up shop in Mid City Baton Rouge, now that traffic on this stretch has slowed from a headlong sprint to an observational putter. (Currently the slowdown is thanks to a thicket of Orange Cones of Construction but will ultimately be due to there being fewer lanes for cars to fill.) 

Looming especially large on the landscape is White Star Market. The wide-open and constantly mutating nature of a food hall can be frustrating, but the variety of concepts being tested on local diners is worth the compromise on counter service and communal tables. The Rutledge Café, helmed by Scott Higgins and Jenn Breithaupt,  is the newest vendor and impresses with its ability to poke fun at presumed pretension without sacrificing the emphasis on gourmet ingredients. “Le Hot Dog” earns both a smirk and a swoon with its combination of melted Raclette cheese, zucchini relish, and a cloud-light bun. The bread for at least two of these sandwiches comes from the artisanal Bellegarde Bakery in New Orleans. And the chips … well, they’re Zapp’s, because there’s no point in quibbling about who makes the best.

Equally obsessive about ingredient quality, Cannatella Grocery has been known to weigh its muffalettas to arrive at an ideal heft of 1.5 lbs. per sandwich—which it accounts for with successive strata of top-quality mortadella, salami, ham, Swiss, provolone, olive salad, and housemade bread. We heralded Cannatella’s arrival in our January 2019 issue as the grocery store—a mainstay in Melville, Louisiana, since 1923—made plans for a second location in Baton Rouge. And here it finally is, catering to household needs with everything from laundry detergent to charcoal, plus muffalettas, eggplant parmesan, crabmeat-stuffed chicken, and even boudin—all housemade, of course. Grocery shoppers might struggle to keep these flavorsome wares wrapped on the ride home, but you could always buy two links of boudin and bring home just one. Don’t try that trick with the eggplant parm—you’ll get caught marinara-handed. 

Visit The Rutledge Café at 4624 Government Street and Cannatella Grocery at 3869 Government Street.

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