Friends Coastal Restaurant, the splashy eatery and music venue on the Tchefuncte River in Madisonville, La., that opened with fanfare last year, has filed for chapter 11, The Times-Picayune reported yesterday. The voluntary petition for bankruptcy was filed in the Eastern District Court of Louisiana on July 22, and the business will continue to operate while restructuring its debt. The filing shows that Friends has between $500,000 and $1 million in assets and about $3.7 million in liabilities. Owner Ryan Richard said that the filing was necessary due to excessive startup costs and construction overruns. The restaurant's debt is being restructured and it will emerge from chapter 11 in 90 to 120 days, he said. "Friends isn't going anywhere," he said. "We are doing great and want to continue to do so going forward." The 30,000-square-foot restaurant opened last April, a vastly enlarged version of the quaint eatery that had been on the Madisonville riverfront for decades until it was felled by the one-two punch of Hurricane Isaac and a devastating fire. The original Friends Restaurant was a fixture on the Madisonville waterfront, occupying a 1,835 four-room cottage that was moved to the riverbank many years ago. The rickety structure sustained damage from storms Katrina, Gustav and Lee, but managed to recover from each. But in August 2012, a 6-foot surge of water compliments of Hurricane Isaac lifted the old building off its pilings and left it in shambles.
