Free Republic

They're starting to call it YATon Rouge. Not only have people from New Orleans found refuge here, but now New Orleans businesses are starting to set up shop in the Capitol City. The Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce says more than a dozen merchants have moved their businesses here since Katrina. A few who are working on the move include Boudreaux's Jewelers, Mandina's Restaurant, Chattabox Dress Shop, and the Cork and Bottle. Already moved and settled in downtown is Rasputin's, a Russian restaurant and bodka var similar to the one on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans. Also, Thursday was...

First the storm, then the floods. Now hell is apparently freezing over. Galatoire's is opening in Baton Rouge. The storied French Quarter restaurant, one of the steadfast symbols of New Orleans' singular cultural heritage, will, for the first time in its 100 years, regale customers with soufflé potatoes and trout amandine at a restaurant other than the one Jean Galatoire opened on Bourbon Street in 1905. Galatoire's Bistro, as the new restaurant will be called, should open in the capital city mid-November "maybe sooner," Rodrigue said. The Bourbon Street restaurant suffered roof damage, he said, and will need to have...