Innovative brunch spot Scrambled to open next to Octavia Books

Scrambled, a brunch restaurant from chef Steven Green is opening in early November on Laurel Street, in the space that housed Toast’s Uptown location, until that brunch spot closed earlier this year. In June, Green signed the lease for the space on Laurel Street to open Scrambled. He described the venture as a step up from the typical breakfast joint. “We’re going to offer classic breakfast food on our menu, but we’re also going to have fun with it,” Green said. “We want to include things on the menu that will make adults feel like kids again.”

Green, a New Jersey native, attended culinary school at the French Culinary Institute in New York.

Staff of life: Talking with Bellegarde Bakery’s new worker-owners

Bellegarde Bakery, named for what was possibly New Orleans’ first bakery (established in 1722), has joined the small but growing ranks of cooperatively owned and run businesses in New Orleans. The acclaimed bakery at 8300 Apple St. in Hollygrove was founded in 2012 by Graison Gill with a mission to produce high-quality naturally fermented breads made with flour milled in-house. After 10 years, Gill announced his intent to move to London to start a new bakery there. Rather than sell the New Orleans business, he and his team worked to orchestrate a transition to a worker-cooperative model.

Suspects sought in two early morning business burglaries (video)

The New Orleans Police Department is requesting the public’s assistance in identifying and locating suspects in two business burglaries that occurred on early on Tuesday (Oct. 4). Police did not indicate that the burglaries were related. At 2:19 a.m., a man rode up on a bicycle to a business in the 4500 block of Freret Street. After prying open the front door, he walked up to the cash register and tried to open it.

City Council to vote on expanding area covered by parking overlay

City Council will vote Thursday (Oct. 6) on an interim zoning district that would temporarily expand the area subject to the University Area Off-Street Parking Overlay restrictions. The proposed interim zoning district would include the Carrollton, Marlyville-Fontainebleau, Broadmoor and Uptown neighborhoods in the restrictions aimed at curbing “doubles to dorms” developments. These private student housing developments are rented by the bedroom. 

The University Area Off-Street Parking Overlay, passed in October 2021, addresses the residential density from D2Ds by requiring a permeable off-street parking spot for each bedroom added to a property. It applies to new construction and renovations with more than five bedrooms in residential buildings without a homestead exemption. 

The interim zoning district and overlay were both created to address the lack of Uptown parking because of the greater residential density from D2D development.

Developers plan to turn Our Lady of Lourdes into a reception hall

Plans are in the works to turn the long-dormant Our Lady of Lourdes church on Napoleon Avenue into a reception hall and event venue. The project is in the early stages of development — so early that the developer named in a letter informing neighbors about the plans, Arts Design Hospitality + Development, is not registered with the state. “The LLC has not been formulated yet,” said Zach Smith, a land-use consultant working with the developers. “But eventually we have two individuals who will comprise that group.”

David Fusilier, a contractor with Perle Construction, and Doug Cloninger, director of Amicus Investment Holdings, plan to purchase and renovate the century-old building, listed at $1.25 million. The church anchors the uptown-lake corner of the square block bounded by Napoleon, La Salle, Jena and Freret.