Everyone remembers that one restaurant that was the perfect place for the whole family to visit after church, ball games or shopping where everyone — from grandma on down — could find their favorite food.
For many in the South, that restaurant is Piccadilly. For generations, the Louisiana-based, cafeteria-style chain has served as a gathering spot where formative food and dining traditions are made.
Piccadilly was founded in downtown Baton Rouge by T. H. Hamilton in 1944. Over the last 80-plus years, Piccadilly restaurants across the south have been the site of many cherished memories. However, times have changed, and dining habits across the country and locally have shifted. And Piccadilly has changed with the times.
Piccadilly in its heyday
For many in Lafayette, the restaurant represents core childhood memories, particularly Piccadilly’s Oil Center location, which opened in the early 1960s and closed in 2019. Piccadilly’s mid-town location remains open at 100 Arnould Blvd.
Lafayette native David D’Aquin, who now lives and works in Atlanta, always went to Piccadilly with his family for special occasions, like report card day, First Communion and the day D’Aquin became an Eagle Scout in 1993.
The restaurant has loomed so large in his life that when the Oil Center location closed, D’Aquin snagged the letter ‘D’ from the sign as it was being hauled off. With help from designer Brian Schneider, now with the Met in New York, he restored it into a glowing art piece…