Here's the Nola.com link, but it's behind a paywall. I was able to pull it up using some archive site.

Nola.com

The Bon Ton Café has a history going back to 1877 that spans several distinct chapters. The one New Orleans knew for close to 70 years ended early in 2020, just before the pandemic, when its owners retired and the Bon Ton closed.
Very soon though, the restaurant will reopen for its next chapter with new owners, a new name and a new direction.
The restaurant is now called Bon Ton Prime Rib, and it is slated to open in mid to late November.

It will be a new restaurant in the same address at 401 Magazine St. Some of the dishes for which Bon Ton Café was known will return, as will the old restaurant’s signature cocktail, the Rum Ramsey.
But one of the big changes is referenced right in the new name Bon Ton Prime Rib.
The new menu will be a blend of Cajun flavor from the Bon Ton past with steaks that are the specialty of its new owners.
“Everyone knows the Bon Ton, so we wanted to start with that good will and feature what we do well,” said Jerry Greenbaum, co-founder of the restaurant group CentraArchy, which created Bon Ton Prime Rib.
“This is not your father’s Bon Ton, or your great, great grandfather’s Bon Ton, because that’s how far back it goes.” Greenbaum said. “This is new.”
Cajun flavor, prime cuts
CentraArchy is a Charleston, S.C.-based company that has 14 restaurants across the southeast, including one in New Orleans, the steak house Chophouse, which is just across the street from Bon Ton Prime Rib.

The marquee dish at the new restaurant will be prime prime rib – that is, prime rib cut from prime grade beef. Greenbaum calls this dish the key to the whole restaurant (more on this below).
Elsewhere on the new menu, there are conventional steakhouse cuts and an array of Cajun dishes inspired by the restaurant’s past. That includes crabmeat au gratin, an etouffee (now made with crawfish, shrimp and crabmeat together), bisque, crab cakes and snapper roasted with Cajun seasoned butter (see a draft of the opening menu below).

The restaurant was first opened in 1877 just down the street, at 308 Magazine St. That makes the Bon Ton the third-oldest restaurant in New Orleans, behind Antoine's and Tujague's, though it changed a great deal through successive owners. It moved twice, first to 322 Magazine St. (which, coincidentally, is the address now occupied by Chophouse) and finally to its present home.
Today’s incarnation took shape between those moves. In 1953 it was acquired by the Alzina and Al Pierce, who hailed from the bayou country around Houma. They installed a menu of dishes from that region, which was a major departure from the French Creole standard of New Orleans. The Bon Ton became an early outpost for Cajun cooking in the city.

The family owners’ next generation, Debbie and Wayne Pierce, later took over and ran the Bon Ton for decades, adhering to traditional and even old fashioned ways.
Meanwhile, Greenbaum’s company opened Chophouse in 2011, in what had been the restaurant Cuvee. Greenbaum said he’d been looking for another location in New Orleans ever since, and always admired his neighbors at the Bon Ton. When the Pierce family was ready to retire, he saw an opportunity and offered to buy the property.
“I’ve always loved the Bon Ton, the building is gorgeous and it has such a history,” he said.

He has close ties to New Orleans. He and his wife Barbara met while attending Tulane University and they visited frequently ever since graduating (class of 1962). The same year Chophouse opened, Greenbaum joined Tulane’s board of trustees, bringing him to New Orleans even more.
What’s new now
The plan to buy Bon Ton was in the works when the pandemic arrived and upended all restaurant plans. A renovation eventually got under way and reopening was imminent in September 2023 when a fire broke out, forcing a complete redo. But Greenbaum pressed ahead.

Today, the restaurant has been reconfigured once again with the deep booths in the center of the room and around the perimeter, and a much larger bar, now moved across the room near the entrance.
Bare brick walls, iron columns, exposed beams and windows with louvered shutters topped with half-circle transoms all evoke the past here.
The prime prime rib is central to the new menu. It will be served in two sizes (a 12 oz. regular cut and “the Bon Ton Cut,” at over 30 oz.), but in only one temperature, medium rare. The restaurant will also have a reservation system specifically for the Bon Ton Cut, so customers can reserve one when booking a table to ensure its availability.
Bon Ton Prime Rib will serve dinner only, another change from the old Bon Ton, which was known for lunch, and will open on weekends, when the former restaurant traditionally closed.
Bon Ton Prime Rib
401 Magazine St.
Projected opening: mid-November 2024

Menu

Here's a picture of the inside. I don't like it.

I have no interest in prime rib when I go to New Orleans to eat. I'll be looking to see if the crab au gratin is the same. I might go if it is, but Galatoire's is also very good. No more crawfish bisque is really disappointing. Why would I order a Cajun bacon appetizer before my dinner meal? I wouldn't. Actually, most of the menu is disappointing. I was hoping they would keep much of the old menu and just add to it with what else they wanted to offer. They really took off some favorites. There is NO bread pudding listed under desserts!