The Nicholson Drive Kolache Kitchen is kicking off its new extended hours and lunch menu with a week-long raffle, starting March 1.
The eatery, which will now be open until 4 p.m. daily, is adding a lunch menu including seven sandwiches and three tacos. Kolache Kitchen will continue to serve its breakfast favorites through the afternoon but, starting at 10:30 a.m., will offer its lunch menu to hungry customers.
Owner Will Edwards said the business started testing out the lunch menu at its Jefferson Highway location 10 months ago. He said he wanted to try out the new menu at the newer location in a retail area before bringing it to the flagship location and its University student clientele.
“We wanted to start out there and kind of test it out and see how it would do, and it’s done well for us,” Edwards said.
The sandwiches, which range from a Cuban to a club to a brisket sandwich, vary in price from $4.25 to $8.79.
Edwards said the three taco choices will be chicken, steak and pork. The owner said Kolache Kitchen smokes all its pork and brisket in-house.
Edwards said he’s wanted to offer lunch options for some time. He said, to survive business-wise, he knew offering more than breakfast would give him a leg up in the competitive Baton Rouge food market.
With the extended hours, Kolache Kitchen hopes to draw in more customers than previously. College students sometimes don’t roll out of bed until early to mid-afternoon, and he said the later hours plus more options will give busy college students a new option for afternoon meals.
“We feel like we might have been missing a lot of business with closing too early,” Edwards said.
With the unveiling of the new menu and hours, Kolache Kitchen will be hosting a week-long raffle.
Nicholson and Jefferson location manager Heidi Dunne said as customers purchase new menu items all week, they will be entered into a raffle for gift cards, t-shirts, coupons and more. Dunne said the business will be picking around 15-20 customers as raffle winners. Winners will be notified either March 4 or 5.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Raegan Labat

Tacos sit waiting to be packaged on Monday, Jan. 12, 2015, at The Kolache Kitchen.