Tess Whitehead pours cooked pasta into a paper bowl as a crowd of customers forms at Prima Apres on Nicholson Drive on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. Prima Après is the new gourmet, fast casual, build-your-own pasta and pavlova restaurant that opened in July at 4225 Nicholson Drive in Baton Rouge. The restaurant is a marriage of Italian pasta and French meringue turned pavlova — the result of the marriage of Abney Harper, Prima Après co-owner and chef, and her husband, James Vitrano's careers.
The two were classmates in law school at Tulane and went on to marry other people and have three children each. They both worked in law and then left their separate practices to go into the restaurant business. Tess Whitehead squeezes vodka sauce into a bowl of radiatori pasta while making a customer’s order at Prima Apres on Nicholson Drive on Wednesday, July 31, 2024.
Vitrano worked on the executive/corporate side, while Harper worked as a chef. They've now been married for a year but life and business partners for six years. "We are a Brady Bunch of six kids," Harper said.
"Prima Après is the first child we've birthed together." In Italian, prima means first, and après means after in French. A meal at the restaurant should be as follows: First, pasta.
After, pavlova. The pasta is packed in white takeout containers (think those little boxes Chinese takeout comes in). Harper acknowledges that the concept for Prima Après is a little odd.
"It's kind of random, isn't it?" she sai.