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Like the rest of the country, Baton Rouge restaurants are seeing dinner service start an hour or two earlier. It’s a nationwide trend that’s taken root since the pandemic.
As 225 magazine reports, the shift in consumer behavior prompted owner Brian Dykes and his team to begin shutting down Solera at 9 p.m. on weeknights, rather than its original closing time of 10 p.m. Hours for his other restaurant—Bin 77—haven’t changed because its live music and bar scene draw patrons throughout the evening, but things get started earlier than they used to, Dykes says.
“In 2021, we found that by 9 p.m., especially during the week, things were pretty much over,” says Dykes. “Dining is definitely earlier at both our restaurants.”
Local restaurateur Peter Sclafani, partner at Making Raving Fans Hospitality Group, has also seen an increase in earlier dining across his company’s brands, including SoLou and Portobello’s Grill.
“I’ve noticed that everything’s shifted earlier, even to 4:30 p.m. and 5 o’clock,” Sclafani says. “I was like, ‘Man, what are all these people doing here so early?’ But we’ve seen it more and more, with less and less people eating late, like at 8 o’clock.”
