Original hickory smoked sauce, cheap hamburgers, Barq’s root beer and flaked ice – these are the ingredients that make Nicholson Drive’s newest
restaurant Bud’s Broiler so special.
The famous New Orleans restaurant opened a location on Nicholson Drive on July 6.
Owner Shannon McGuire is excited for the LSU community to experience the restaurant.
“We came weeks before school started, so we’re waiting for the students,” McGuire said. “It’s so affordable. We have regular customers already.”
Bud’s Broiler offers an array of hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, fries and milkshakes, maintaining the original menu Alfred “Bud” Saunders created at the first restaurant in New Orleans in 1952. Since then, nine Bud’s Broiler locations have opened in New Orleans.
Business manager David Dillard wants to preserve the simple set-up from the original Bud’s Broiler in New Orleans and build a community of regular
customers.
“A lot of people have their number memorized when they walk in. They don’t even have to look at the menu,” Dillard said. “They say ‘I’m a No. 4 person’ or ‘I’m a No. 1 person.’”
Regular customer and Baton Rouge resident Rebecca Stanford, who has a daughter that teaches at the University and a son at the LSU School of Architecture, says she and her husband are “delighted” the restaurant has opened up in Baton Rouge.
“I’m a No. 6 girl,” Stanford said. “He’s a No. 4. It’s the best. We’re from New Orleans. We’d go back just across the line to get into Kenner and get a good burger.”
McGuire says it is no accident the new Bud’s Broiler location is only separated from Tigerland by Nicholson Drive.
“Being right by Tigerland, it just kind of felt like it was perfect,” McGuire said. “Our hickory smoke sauce is what makes us famous, and it’s really good for hangovers.”
The new Baton Rouge restaurant replicated the same wooden tables and brick walls featured in the original Bud’s Broiler restaurant. McGuire highlighted the Game of Thrones-themed pinball machine, jukebox, golf video game system and nine televisions that display sports throughout the day.
McGuire also owns the Bud’s Broiler in the New Orleans City Park, which closed down after Hurricane Katrina. Being a New Orleans native and “big Bud’s Broiler fan since childhood,” McGuire decided to purchase it in 2009 to reopen. It did not take long for she and Dillard to team up to bring the restaurant to Baton Rouge.
“We love it here,” Dillard said. “We feel like we’re learning more every day with Baton Rouge.”
Both McGuire and Dillard spoke about their openness to meeting more LSU students and fans, as they already plan on hosting Greek Life Exchanges and catering LSU tailgating events.
