Saskia Spanhoff and Enrique Pinerua know that the best restaurants do more than serve food.
Since 2016, Spanhoff and Pinerua, owners of Cocha in downtown Baton Rouge, have built their lives around the corner of Main and Sixth streets.
"It’s not just putting a plate of food in front of people. They want to be loved," Spanhoff said.
They describe the restaurant, named after a Venezuelan term of endearment, as a gathering place for harvest-inspired meals, wine tastings and community events. Their goal is for folks to feel at home and cared for at the restaurant which blends the best of local farms with an international flair.
Cocha's thoughtful menus, which change seasonally, reflect the couple's attention to detail and goals for the restaurant they have created.
"We don’t want to be mediocre," said Pinerua. "Most people of a certain consciousness like good food — and good wine."
Cocha seeks to deliver what those of "a certain consciousness" are seeking with their rainbow beet salad, Indonesian stir-fried noodles, osso buco, Korean pork belly sliders, grilled Spanish octopus and more.
Legendary Louisiana restaurateur Paul Fleming plays a major role in the Cocha story. Fleming started P.F. Chang's, Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and other restaurants. After Spanhoff, who grew up in Baton Rouge, finished at LSU, she moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, where she met Pinerua while working at one of Fleming's restaurants at the time — Ruth's Chris. They married in 2002.
"Paul Fleming got us on the track of who a true restaurateur was," Spanhoff said. "Paul is responsible for my love of wine."
At Ruth's Chris, Pinerua said he learned even more about impeccable restaurant service.
Fleming eventually sold Ruth's Chris and started Fleming's and asked Spanhoff to help with the new restaurant's wine program. The couple moved to Los Angeles, where Spanhoff worked for a high-end wine company working with restaurants including Spago's.
Pinerua got into show business, including acting and managing actress Lupe Ontiveros ("The Goonies," "Desperate Housewives").
"Between Saskia's wine and my entertainment, there was something every night," Pinerua said.
Spanhoff said Los Angeles' cut-throat restaurant environment taught her what did and didn't work. After several years of working in the fast-paced and demanding business, she decided to take a six-month sabbatical.
"Once you get out of that hamster wheel, you realize what you're doing," Pinerua said. "Saskia said, 'It's time for a restaurant, but it's going to be ours.' We thought it was going to be in San Diego."
After some exploration and a visit back home to Baton Rouge, Spanhoff asked, "Why not Baton Rouge?"
The slower-paced lifestyle and being near family was a draw.
"It didn't hurt that I was from here. Even though I hadn't lived here in 25 years, it was easy to know the movers and shakers," Spanhoff said.
When Pinerua asked where they should have a restaurant in Baton Rouge, without hesitation, Spanhoff said, "Downtown."
Larry Sciacchetano, who passed away in 2019, played a pivotal role in making their downtown-Baton Rouge vision happen by working with them on the site of Cocha, which they now own. They've also recently purchased the building across the street.
"Larry believed in us," Spanhoff said. "Without him, doing this would not have happened this way."
Pinerua said Sciacchetano was like a father to him.
"He made it possible for us to survive the first couple of years," Pinerua said.
Since the restaurant opened in 2016, they have worked to help build the downtown community.
"We want the foodies here," Pinerua said.
The twice-a-year change of the menu differentiates Cocha for the foodies, but they go beyond working with their regular customers. The restaurant owners work with the Big River Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance and do their best to find ways to help feed the local homeless community.
"I love the interaction with the people who make up this town — the purveyors, the staff, the customers. I’m a people person — though I hide it," Spanhoff said.
Pinerua said they take their responsibility in owning Cocha seriously — and beyond it just being about the business.
"Doing this makes me think about every single person who walks through that door. How am I going to make this person’s life better?" he said, and that includes the nearly 30 people on staff at Cocha. "How do we make a difference in these kids’ lives? What do we do to make these kids’ lives better?"
Spanhoff and Pinerua said they don't have plans to expand or create a chain with their working model of a restaurant at the corner of Main and Sixth in downtown Baton Rouge.
"This is our hub," Pinerua said. "We take it seriously."
And it shows.