Beausoleil Restaurant & Bar — Louisiana / Contemporary, Baton Rouge
Beausoleil has been the Baton Rouge restaurant that the city's serious diners cite as their benchmark — a kitchen that applies genuine technique to Louisiana ingredients with the specific intelligence of cooks who grew up eating this food and understand why it works.
The Louisiana sourcing is specific and visible: Gulf shrimp from specific Louisiana trawlers, fresh Gulf oysters from named beds, and the Cajun and Creole ingredients (andouille from the LeBlanc family, Gulf crab, Louisiana duck) that the kitchen treats as premium rather than commodity.
The contemporary preparations — a duck leg confit rillette with Louisiana pepper jelly, Gulf fish with a brown butter and crab preparation — demonstrate a kitchen that respects the tradition while applying the technique of a restaurant that can compete with any American city.
The wine list is Baton Rouge's most carefully assembled — a selection that takes seriously the challenge of pairing wine with Cajun spicing, which is a more interesting problem than most wine lists acknowledge.
Best Occasion: Best for Closing Deals
Baton Rouge's most accomplished kitchen. For the Louisiana government contract, the oil and gas deal, or the petrochemical industry negotiation that requires a restaurant of genuine standing.
Best Occasion: Perfect for Impressing Clients
Contemporary Louisiana cooking that demonstrates what Cajun cuisine achieves at its highest level. Clients from outside Louisiana leave with a revised understanding of what this state's food culture can produce.