Oil Center’s Piccadilly to close Sunday; it’s the chain’s third-oldest in one place

Oct. 25-- Oct. 25--An Oil Center mainstay will close Sunday.

Piccadilly Holdings announced Thursday that its cafeteria at 838 Coolidge Blvd. will lock its doors Sunday. The company has leased the restaurant site there since the early 1960s. It was the 75-year-old chain's third-oldest restaurant that remained in one location.

Customers entering the restaurant Thursday found a single sheet of 8-by-12 paper on the entrance doors that thanked them for their loyalty and advised them that after Sunday they could visit a second Lafayette location at 100 Arnould Blvd., which will remain open.

Vice President for Marketing Max Jordan said the company remains committed to Lafayette and that it is seeking a high-traffic site for a second location, which might be presented in the new Piccadilly To Go format. Introduced in 2018, those are smaller restaurant sites that offer only carryout service for the chain's most popular dishes.

The first Piccadilly To Go opened near Memphis, Tennessee; the first in Louisiana was opened in a 1,320-square-foot site at 216 Lee Drive, Baton Rouge. Three more will open this year, he said.

"The Oil Center area has been in decline for some time," Jordan said of the company's decision to close in the Oil Center, which was created in the 1950s to serve the energy industry. Oil and gas commodity prices have lagged for several years, causing closures of numerous energy-related businesses in Lafayette.

"There's not enough business to support a restaurant," Jordan said of the vicinity. "The local trade market has moved on."

He said the company had tried to keep the restaurant, one of the company's 40 locations, open for lunch only, but to no avail. Piccadilly, founded in Louisiana, also operates in Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Virginia.

Employees will be offered opportunities with the company at the remaining Lafayette location and around the chain, he said.

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