Category: 1718 Centenary

WE ARE OPEN!

We have FINALLY opened our new location.  This is now our ONLY location.  That’s right, the one on Olive St. is closed, and the one in the Boardwalk is closed as well.  All we have left is our new location at 1718 Centenary Blvd and our Mobile Food Truck.

Want to know more?

Here’s a breakdown of our history:

• February 2007- Opened our original location at 440 Olive Street under the name Lila’s Cakes and Chocolate.
  

  Our first location

• June 2010- We were sued by a restaurant in Florida and changed our name to Lilah’s Deli & Bakery.
• April 2012- We opened our second location in the Louisiana Boardwalk.
• September 2012- We had an electrical fire in the main circuit box (at our Olive Street location) and had to close for repairs.
• December 2012- We reopened our Olive Street location, but couldn’t afford advertising and failed to attract the attention of our customers.
• January 2013- We find someone willing to buy some of our equipment (so we can get out of the debt we incurred making repairs and the months we were closed) AND take over our lease on the building.
• May 2013- We purchase a food truck- our customers were unhappy that we “left” Shreveport, and this was the most cost effective way for us to get back into Shreveport.
• July 2013- We started rolling around town in our food truck, adding grilled cheese to our menu in August.
• April 2014- We closed our Boardwalk location.  We felt the Boardwalk was not a good match for us as our only location.  The Boardwalk does not attract much local business and our business relies on our loyal customers.
• May 2014- We purchased a building!  This building is now our bakery (1718 Centenary) and one day will also be our family home (next door).  We have lived in the Highland neighborhood since 2005, and love being here, and in an effort to reduce our expenses we purchased a building that we could both live in and work at.

. . . . and that leads us to. . .

• December 2014- After working for nearly 7 months we have finally opened our new location!  Our building required a lot more work than we originally thought, and there is still more to be done- like updating our bathrooms, finding more space for dining, painting, etc.  All of these things will be done as our budget allows, but right now we are just happy to be open.
  

  Under Construction

So, what does all of this mean?

• Right now we are open Tuesday – Saturday 11 am – 3 pm.
• We have a lot of your favorite sandwiches on our menu, and we are expanding our menu every day.
• Our budget did not leave room for a grill and hood (a cost of about $26,000- which we put into our previous building just a year before we had to close), so we will not be serving burgers, at least until we can afford it.
• We will be expanding our days, hours, and menu during Mardi Gras.  We will be busy making King Cakes again this year, and following our rule- “if we are here we are open” we will be open daily for breakfast, lunch, and an early dinner (until about 6 or 7).
• We still have a lot of work to do, and a lot of it just depends on acquiring the finances to do something.
• We will be keeping things a little low key for a while.  We will have a few different sweets and pastries everyday, but our selection will be limited.  This will help us to reduce our costs (throwing away or giving away unsold food) and make sure we are serving the freshest food possible.

What’s new?

• We are combining your favorite grilled cheese sandwiches from the truck and your favorites from our Olive Street location.
• We have a juice bar!  We can make you a fresh juice or smoothie combining organic/locally sourced ingredients (when possible).
• You can now order your lunch from our website- see that pink “Order Online” button on the right side of the page?  That’s it! Click and order from our lunch menu.  You can order for pick up or eat in.
• We have a small dining room.  Until we can finish some of the other rooms we only have seating for 10 people.  One additional room will give us an additional 12 seats, and the second room will give us seating for 20 more!

How can you help?

• You may have seen our GoFundMe page- it is still active and we are accepting donations!
• But we don’t just need donations.
• We need you!
• We need you to join us for lunch.
• We need you to tell your friends.
• We need you to like us on facebook and share our posts.
• We need you to let people know we are open again!
• We need you to continue to support us!

Thank You!

We appreciate all of the support you have given over the last 8 years, but we still need you.  As a small mom and pop local business we depend on our customers to come regularly.  The money you spend here stays local.  It stays with us (and right now just one employee).  We work hard to give you the best customer service AND product we can.  If you are ever disappointed with either, contact us!  We can/will do our best to make sure you are happy-  that’s what shopping local means.  Our customers mean everything to us.  Many of our customers have become our friends and family.  You have watched our daughter grow up, you have welcomed our baby boy when he was born in 2011, you have joined us for a long cup of coffee or a relaxing lunch, and many times we have sat with you and enjoyed your company when business was slow enough to afford us that luxury!  You- our customers mean we can support our family doing what we love to do.  So come on by 1718 Centenary Blvd and eat with us!