Romacelli, the Lafayette-based Italian/Mediterranean concept with restaurants in River Ranch and Sugar Mill Pond, is taking over the space occupied by Gene Todaro's Enoteca Marcello's Wine Bar & Café on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge. Romacelli, the Lafayette-based Italian/Mediterranean concept with restaurants in River Ranch and Sugar Mill Pond, is taking over the space occupied by Gene Todaro's Enoteca Marcello's Wine Bar & Café on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge. Romacelli assumed Todaro's lease June 13, at which time the restaurant closed.
"It went from us being open to them taking over," Todaro says, calling the deal a "good opportunity" for both parties.
Stuart Ottinger, corporate manager for Double R Restaurant Group of Lafayette, says minor décor changes are under way, with an expected opening in mid-July. The restaurant is located at 4205 Perkins Road, between College Drive and Acadian Thruway.
Double R Restaurant Group, owned by Lafayette's Rodney Savoy and longtime business partner Robert Gagnard of San Diego, is also the franchisee for Another Broken Egg, which opened a Baton Rouge store late last year in the former site of Harold's clothing store in Citiplace. Ottinger says the group has signed a letter of intent for a second Baton Rouge location and also has signed an LOI in New Orleans. Another Broken Egg previously operated in the Capital City but shut down its two stores after a franchise dispute.
Along with Robert Daigle, Savoy and Gagnard developed River Ranch and Sugar Mill Pond. The duo's Double R Restaurant Group, which does not own the Lafayette location of Another Broken Egg, has also been expanding the breakfast/lunch concept in North Carolina and Atlanta, Ottinger says.