Jared Doise always knew what he wanted. “I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” he said. “I had a bachelor’s and a graduate degree. But I wanted to open a sports bar.” Doise credits his years working at LaFonda’s for his inspiration. “Man, I learned so much about the bar business from them,” he said. “It was really a springboard for me.”
In 2003, an investment of $60,000 turned the old gas station on Bertrand Drive into the first Legends location. He remembers the opening. “(Former UL head coach) Rickey Bustle and his staff were my first customers. But it didn’t take long for the neighborhood to embrace it. Then two years later, a buddy of mine wanted to sell Amanda Scott’s downtown. That became our second location, and we just went from there.”
The latest Legends is now open in Scott. The concept is the same … but there is one big difference. “It’s the first one we built from the ground up. My friend Scott Carboni owned the land and asked if I’d be interested in building there.”
Like the other locations, Legends in Scott serves food as well as drinks. And, they have outside dining and a drive-thru as do the other locations. That proved critical when the pandemic hit. “We saw the smoking ordinance coming so we made sure we had outside areas for those folks. That, combined with the drive-thru windows kept us in business while others weren’t so fortunate.”
And, Doise is quick to point out: it’s a family success story. “My mom works for us,” he said. “In fact, the burgers are her recipe.” Before remodeling and an expansion of the menu, the burgers were cooked on George Foreman grills. “I bet we went through about 150 of those things,” he said, laughing.
Legends has become the first name in Lafayette when it comes to the bar and grill business and now has eight locations.
“Curb appeal is important. I do a lot of the cleaning myself. It isn’t rocket science. I just put on my jeans every day and go to work.”