If you’re looking to experience the new Artmosphere, start with the sauce. The downtown Lafayette music venue has a meatball and gnocchi dish on the menu that features an uncommonly delicious red sauce — the kind you stop and eat with a spoon when you think no one’s looking.
The rest of the menu showcases the kind of bar food that encourages you to stay for a while. Options like chili dawgs, loaded tots, meatball subs and jalapeno spring rolls are there to be a hearty accompaniment to beer, friends and music, according to chef Marcela Bennett.
She and her husband, Justin Bennett, purchased the storied venue in the spring. Since then Artmosphere been quietly open in the quirky house at 902 Johnston St., hosting bands, trivia nights and singles’ events in the refurbished structure.
They held a grand opening on Nov. 21, with downtown and community leaders and menu samples that spoke to Marcela Bennett’s bona fides. The Houston native built her culinary career in New York, working at restaurants like Butter under Food Network chef Alex Guarnaschelli.
After meeting and working in New York City — Justin Bennett is a native Brooklynite, and the son of a blues musician — the couple decided five years ago to settle in Lafayette, a place they had come to know and love during trips down south to see Marcela’s family…