Every story about the new restaurant at 8635 Highland Road describes Sammy's Grill the same way, as a place that served Baton Rouge for nearly four decades. WAFB's opening-week report puts it that way, and it is accurate as far as it goes. In January 2020, though, the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report said Sammy's on Highland was "permanently closing" after 32 years.
That permanent closing lasted only a few months. Since then the building has been through a second "last night," a renovation, and a change of ownership, and the address still pulls people back. Now it is home to The Historic Highland Road Grill. Willie Chapman's family soft-opened it on Thursday, Oct. 15, and they built the whole concept around a bet that the room matters as much as the restaurant inside it.
A Building That Has Already Had Two Endings
Here is how the address has changed hands over the years.
- 1988. Sammy's Grill opens on Highland Road, according to the restaurant's own account in WAFB's June 2026 coverage.
- January 10, 2020. The Highland location closes less than a day after the original Prairieville Sammy's announced its own closure. Business Report called both closures permanent.
- February 2020. WBRZ reported that restaurateur Wayne Stabiler was taking over the Highland building and keeping the Sammy's name. He also planned to pay back wages owed to employees, and he said the reopened restaurant would have a similar menu and similar pricing.
- Later in 2020. Highland reopens under the familiar name, per 225 Magazine.
- February 2024. Sammy's comes back to Ascension Parish with a new Prairieville restaurant at 37306 Perkins Road near Airline Highway, in the former Porchlight Grill.
- June 14, 2026. The Highland location serves its last day. Its social media post said, "As our lease has come to an end, the property owners have chosen to move in a different direction."
- October 15, 2026. The Historic Highland Road Grill holds its soft opening at 5 p.m.
The "nearly 40 years" line folds all of that into one sentence. For most of those years, the people who reopened the building held onto what customers already knew there. In 2020 that meant the Sammy's name and menu. In 2026 the name went with Sammy's, and the room stayed.
What the Chapmans Chose to Keep
Willie Chapman took over the building in July, and he told The Advocate he felt his only real choice was to honor the place and the memories people had made in it. In that same interview he pointed out that Sammy's was only the most recent chapter:
"There are so many people that love this building, love the previous businesses here, whether it be Sammy's or Sneakers or the business before that. There are stories on top of stories."
That idea runs through the renovation. The glass-block wall behind the bar is still there, and so are other familiar features that were in good enough shape to keep, 225 Magazine reported. An old wooden bar down the hall also survived. Chapman believes it dates to the 1960s or '70s. Several former Sammy's employees are back on staff as well.
The new touches are meant to bring back memories too. The 8,200-square-foot building has three dining rooms that seat about 200. The main room has a gallery wall of framed tiger photos, and another wall holds a huge Louisiana map, the kind Chapman says used to hang in "your dad or uncle's office." His sister Emily Hazelwood led the interior design. One staff member's parents got engaged in this building years ago, and stories like that are the kind of memory the family set out to preserve.
Behind the walls, the work was more practical. Chapman told The Advocate the team spent three months bringing the building up to code. That covered long-running plumbing problems, all new electrical work in the bar, the private dining room and one of the two kitchens, repaired bar restrooms, and a new floor in the prep kitchen. They changed very little of the layout.
A Menu Split Three Ways
The same balance between keeping and changing shows up in the food. Chapman puts the share of the menu that honors Sammy's at about 30%. The rest is a mix of dishes from Willie's Restaurant, the family's seafood spot at 11260 Coursey Blvd., and dishes that are new to both restaurants.
| Where it comes from | Examples reported so far |
|---|---|
| Nods to Sammy's | The "2 Links" plate with boudin, smoked sausage, a goat cheese ball, cheese and house pickles; a prime rub press with chimichurri, onion ragu, mozzarella and au jus, modeled on a Sammy's sandwich |
| From Willie's | Gumbo fries, a new take on Willie's cheese fries; the bold and fried seafood, which Chapman says comes "directly from Willie's" |
| New to the address | Pesto hummus, hot honey cauliflower, affogato, a Coke float |
Chapman's wife, Kayte, put together the bar menu. It opens with about a dozen cocktails, including an espresso martini, an old fashioned, a mint julep, and the Historic Storm, a frozen take on the Hurricane made with light rum, dark rum, passion fruit syrup and lemon. His sisters Emily Hazelwood and Amanda Singley are co-owners. The family has run Willie's in Baton Rouge since 2009.
Plenty of Sammy's regulars will want to know about crawfish. Chapman said people ask him about it constantly, and the answer is yes. Pasta dishes and specials are planned for the coming months, and more seafood is due in January. The family has not released the full menu yet.
Planning a Visit in the First Few Weeks
The Historic is one week into its soft opening, so expect a short dinner-only schedule for now. The opening reports don't agree on the exact days, so check before you go.
- Hours listed by The Advocate: 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday, 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed Mondays.
- What WAFB and 225 Magazine reported: limited hours, with dinner Thursday through Sunday during the soft opening.
- Lunch: Chapman said it may start around the first or second week of November, as staff training continues.
- Reservations: online booking was expected shortly after opening. The restaurant's website, thehistoricbr.com, is the best place for current hours and booking.
Where That Leaves Sammy's
The Historic is a separate restaurant, and the Chapmans have no tie to Sammy's beyond the building and the staff they rehired. When Highland closed in June, Sammy's said it was looking for a new Baton Rouge-area home and that customers could still visit its Prairieville location on Perkins Road.
Three days after Highland's last service, WBRZ reported that a late-night fire had broken out at the back of the Prairieville restaurant. Nobody was inside. Crews from Ascension Fire District 3 and the St. George Fire Department brought it under control within 45 minutes. The restaurant called it an electrical fire and said Prairieville would be closed until further notice while it assessed the damage. The local reports since then have not announced a reopening date for Prairieville or a new Baton Rouge location. Sammy's own channels are the place to watch for that news.
If you're curious about a part of Baton Rouge that has changed a lot over the years, whether it's a restaurant you remember or the street around it, I'm always happy to talk it over. I've watched these places come and go for more than two decades, and I enjoy sharing what I know. Let's Connect with Jodie B. Strain.
