Ruffino’s owner Ruffin Rodrigue and Executive Chef Peter Sclafani have crossed the great basin to bring us cuisine that is both new and familiar, daring and soothing, and can be easily summed up in one word: Woah.

Sclafani’s menu is a blend of Italian- and Southern-inspired dishes that range from crabmeat cheesecake to his unparalleled version of a caprese salad, a mixture determined by the “gumbo of customers” and their tastes, says Rodrigue. Though Ruffino’s on the River, located in the former Cochon in Lafayette, will have a menu nearly identical to the Baton Rouge location to begin, Rodrigue and Sclafani want Lafayette’s discerning diners to determine the final dishes.

Sclafani, a member of the Louisiana Seafood board ...

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