After recently announcing two new locations in Lafayette Parish, Metairie-based Loft18 is now planning to add a Baton Rouge location. Offering golf and other sports simulators, Loft18 focuses on providing a lively sports bar, restaurant, and hospitality experience to distinguish itself from other golf simulator establishments and golf facilities like Topgolf. The Baton Rouge location is set to open in May at 4580 Constitution Ave.
Loft18 started by offering golf simulators, alongside classic pub food and a full bar. After the first year or so, it started rolling out simulators for other sports like football and baseball. Those simulators use the same hardware setup as a golf simulator but are made with completely different software. In a recent interview with What Now New Orleans, co-owner Greg Whitman compared Loft18 to hospitality operations like Walk-On’s and Hooters.
“As a sports bar, we think that we have everything that they have more,” he said. “Our food and service are great, but we also have the simulators, which we are the next step in entertainment, especially when you combine them with a sports bar environment.”
He added that the simulators are incorporated in each Loft18 location in a way that supports the hospitality experience.
“There’s been a lot of places that have been trying to put simulators in their businesses, but we really, truly build around these things and you know architecturally and figure out the flow, with the bar and kitchen layout, so it all works as a cohesive unit,” he said.
