Longtime Lafayette restaurateur Charlie Goodson has teamed up with chef Marc Krampe, whose family owns the local McDonald's franchise, and Jody Ferguson, owner of Casa Olé Acadiana, to form Southern Hospitality Kitchens. Krampe, 29, and Ferguson, 42, are brothers in law.
The venture, which launches Jan. 1, will add a new generation of ownership to the 27-year-old Ambassador Caffery restaurant; Goodson's two daughters, Claire and Anna, will remain at Charley G's, as will chef Holly Goetting and General Manager Courtney Vincent.
Down the road, Southern Hospitality Kitchens plans to pursue projects like cookbooks and additional dining concepts. Goodson says their first project will likely be a more casual restaurant than his upscale namesake. "As a group, we've done some restaurants in the past, and I wanted to do it again and try to stay local," he says. "There's a lot of opportunity here; you see restaurants opening all the time, and we want to be one of the people opening them."
Read more about Goodson and his new partners in the Dec. 28 issue of The Independent.