Emeril Lagasse Opens His First Chop House in Baton Rouge

Emeril Lagasse is coming to the capital. Emeril’s Chop House opened September 24 at L’Auberge Casino in Baton Rouge — the first Lagasse restaurant in the capital region, and a significant expansion of the chef’s footprint inside his home state.

The room

The concept is a chop house in the classic American sense — the steakhouse format, filtered through Lagasse’s Louisiana instincts. Chef de cuisine Brendan Rufty leads the kitchen after training directly with Lagasse’s team, which matters: the Emeril organization has always been serious about putting trained operators, not figureheads, in its kitchens.

The L’Auberge setting is deliberate. Casino-resort steakhouses live or die on consistency and occasion dining — anniversary dinners, business meals, the kind of night out where the room has to deliver. Lagasse’s brand, four decades in, is built exactly for that.

The Louisiana context

This move extends Lagasse’s Louisiana footprint beyond his four New Orleans restaurants — a portfolio anchored by the flagship Emeril’s, which earned two Michelin stars last November. That recognition reset the conversation around the chef: not a TV personality with restaurants, but a restaurateur whose flagship holds two stars in one of America’s most competitive dining cities.

Baton Rouge has long lived in New Orleans’ culinary shadow. A Lagasse chop house doesn’t fix that on its own, but it’s a signal — the state’s biggest culinary name betting that the capital region’s dining market has matured enough to support it. The test will be whether locals adopt it as their own room or treat it as a special-occasion import.

Why it matters

Louisiana legends expanding inside Louisiana is the kind of story that resonates far beyond one opening. It says something about where the state’s dining economy is heading — and about Lagasse’s ambitions at this stage of his career. Two Michelin stars in New Orleans, a new flagship format in Baton Rouge: the empire isn’t coasting.

The details

• Address: L’Auberge Casino, Baton Rouge, LA
• Opened: September 24, 2026
• Concept: Chop house — classic American steakhouse with Louisiana influence
• Chef de cuisine: Brendan Rufty (trained with Lagasse’s team)
• Context: First Lagasse restaurant in the capital region; flagship Emeril’s (New Orleans) holds two Michelin stars