Although the West Bank is losing the popular, longstanding Sal’s Seafood, the Marrero location is being taken over by a nearby seafood company looking to grow. When it opens at 1512 Barataria Blvd., Lefort’s Seafood Restaurant will mark a significant expansion for Lefort’s Seafood, which was founded in 2004. The restaurant space is currently undergoing light renovations and hiring servers. An opening date has not been set.
Owner Brandon Lefort took over the business from his father after he passed away in 2020. Lefort recently told What Now New Orleans that he was struggling to meet demand for live and boiled seafood at the current location on Lapalco Boulevard in Marrero. When the owners of Sal’s Seafood were retiring, they made a deal with Lefort to take over the building. The smaller Lefort’s location on Lapalco Boulevard will remain open.
“Things have gotten progressively busier, and we essentially ran out of space,” he said. “I couldn’t do more business if I wanted to in that little spot.”
In addition to live and boiled seafood, the new restaurant will also have po-boys, gumbo, and daily lunch specials. Lefort stressed that he will continue to focus on local seafood as a way to support the local economy and avoid safety concerns that occasionally come with sourcing seafood from China and other places.
“With imported seafood, I can’t tell you who harvested it, where it was harvested, or when,” he explained. “With local seafood, I could tell you the boat and day when something was caught.”
“The guys fishing on the Gulf are our neighbors,” he added. “They rely on income from restaurants like ours to purchase from and support them.”
Lefort recently announced the takeover of the Sal’s Seafood space in a Facebook post that has gotten more than a quarter-million views. He said the response has been overwhelmingly positive, and people are looking forward to the location continuing to be a dependable seafood spot.
“It’s going to be two pretty long-term established businesses kind of becoming one, in a sense,” Lefort said.
