The white stucco house at 986 France St. looks like an ordinary home from a distance, save for a magenta dot in the middle of the wall below the open porch.
Upon closer look, it’s a nailed-on vinyl record, emblazoned with “Lagniappe Records” in faded retro checker squares. A matching sign is pegged into the ground next to it. Down the steep porch stairs a faint squawk and rustling sound is heard.
In the front rooms of the home of Tess Brunet and Patrick Hodgkins, the newly opened Lagniappe Records runs 12 to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 12 to 5 p.m. Sunday, with the approval of sassy house cockatiel Agnes.
“The commute to work is a lot easier,” Hodgkins said.
Co-owners Brunet and Hodgkins recently moved to Baton Rouge from Nashville, Tenn. But Hodgkins said Tennessee’s Music City was “more music industry than musical.”
The couple missed “the Louisiana vibe” from living in New Orleans prior to Nashville and decided to move back and contribute to local small businesses, opening up the front of their home as a vinyl record shop.
Brunet said a sense of intimacy inspired the smaller approach to opening up shop. While open to expansion, the owners want to build a following in a small space in which they can interact with the customers.
A trip to Lagniappe feels like a house visit, complete with chats about records or local happenings and playful interactions with Agnes.
The couple feel they are promoting a sense of community, and not just with their customer interaction. Two of their neighbors, one on their block and another across the street, hadn’t met before Brunet and Hodgkins moved to town and brought them together. Brunet said the surrounding neighborhood is friendly and supportive of the store.
Brunet and Hodgkins need all the support they can get, since the store is new and working in a different format than its more traditional and trend-focused competitors.
As musicians and record collectors themselves, Brunet and Hodgkins know too well how expensive vinyl can get in the digital age. Their collection, which is about 75 percent vintage and 25 percent modern releases, is priced to compete with its higher-priced counterparts.
When rifling through the shop’s bins of records, it’s rare to find something more than $8, and any duplicates are automatically marked down to half-price each.
“I feel like records should be accessible to everybody,” Brunet said. She and Hodgkins agree that keeping prices reasonable is important to them.
Communication disorders junior Jessica Flaherty has been collecting vinyl since high school, but has never shopped in Baton Rouge for them. Besides stops at the Alexandria Flea Market when she visits home, Flaherty says she avoids record shopping because it’s usually expensive.
“I like the idea of … converting an old house,” Flauherty said of Lagniappe Records. She said this sounds more like the experience she loved at home in Tioga, La., a town near Alexandria, than the type of upscale places that sell vinyl as a novelty item.
Film junior Will Kallenborn said he has more interest in vinyl shopping in Baton Rouge now that Lagniappe has opened.
“I used to only buy old records from thrift stores because I didn’t want to buy $30 new ones,” Kallenborn said. He said he also just prefers music mixed for vinyl, as opposed to newer music slapped on a record.
Lagniappe Records will also serve as a small-scale venue to the musical stylings of Brunet and Hodgkins, as well as of guests. The first of these events will feature Brunet and Julie Odell, as well as unnamed guests, on Sept. 15, at 3 p.m. Tickets are available through the Lagniappe Records Facebook page for $8.
Crates of classical vinyls stand on display on Sunday, September 8, 2013, in the newly opened local record store Lagniappe Records.
