New restaurant will open in Luling

The owners of The Little Kitchen in Westwego will soon open a restaurant in the old Squeal and Moo location in Luling.

“We’re coming,” said Amelia Wingerter, an owner of the restaurant along with her husband, Troy, and daughters Jessica and Nicole. “I’m not a chef, I just like to cook. Everyone seems to like my cooking.”

An Oct. 7 opening is planned with a grand opening to follow an estimated three weeks later.

The new restaurant will be called Cheramie’s Food and Spirits. The Wingerters are natives of Gretna, but Amelia wants to bring her home cooking to Luling.

She said the menu will include the family’s signature seafood dishes with plans to expand into boiled crawfish and crabs on the weekends.

“We’re trying to spread out,” she said. “I hope everyone enjoys our food.”

Their fans on Facebook say they eat at The Little Kitchen two or three times a week.

As with the Little Kitchen, the family plans to feature a plate lunch special in Luling.

Amelia said they will offer red, lima and white beans with a side any day of the week, as well as pasta dishes, fried chicken, salads and their “old fashioned club,” which includes roast beef, turkey, ham, bacon and both American and Swiss cheeses.

“It’s really home cooked food,” Amelia said. “We cook with everything we cook at home. My husband does an awesome homemade chili.”

Additionally, dishes will include a shrimp stuffed potato and spaghetti plate with homemade meatballs.

For onion ring connoisseurs, Amelia said, “We don’t even slice them until they are ordered.”

She said all meat is bought fresh every morning and none of it is frozen.

The Luling location also will include a bar.

The Wingerters have operated The Little Kitchen for seven years, a concept that Amelia carried over from her parents who ran a restaurant under the same name in the 1980s in Gretna.

Initially, it was Amelia’s daughter who spotted the Luling location on her way to Houma and pleaded with her mother to visit the site. Amelia had many earlier disappointments so passed, but her daughter persisted and she gave in.

“I fell in love with the building,” she said. “It’s everything I’ve been looking for.”