It's Baton Rouge: Out to Lunch

Here’s a plotline we’re all familiar with, something from a novel or a movie. After years of good health, our heroine begins to feel less like herself. She feels sluggish and fatigued at work. She loses her appetite and can’t sleep at night. She begins to worry. So she makes an appointment with her doctor and the recommended specialists, of which there are many. Yet, the medical diagnosis is the same: there’s no cure for what ails her. Then, as in all Hollywood blockbusters, our heroine discovers a miraculous, surprising cure, recovers her health, and lives happily ever after. Hollywood describes these “ripped from the headlines” tales as “based on a true story.” In this episode of Out to Lunch we hear two of those true tales. NaQuellar “Nikki” Thompson was a stay-at-home mom with three children when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019. Her doctors had no explanation why the cancer progressed so quickly, so Nikki decided it must be in part a result of what she was eating. She became a vegan and, after three years of living a vegan lifestyle, opened Veganish Vibes on Bennington Avenue in 2022. Dr. Lynn Duhe was drawn to holistic medicine by her own health and wellness journey. In 2017, she began to suffer from migraines. When five different doctors gave her no hope for recovery, she turned to a chiropractor and a nutritionist for treatment. In 2019, Lynn Duhe launched Miracle Wellness Center, which became a full medical practice in 2022. Nikki and Lynn both turned to alternative medical treatments after receiving a potentially fatal diagnosis. With harrowing, true tales “ripped from the headlines” — both Nikki and Lynn were cured. But the story doesn’t end there. Separately, Lynn and Nikki decided to share what they had learned from their experiences with the public by opening their respective businesses. And today Baton Rouge is the better for it. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Photos by Ben Rabalais from Albaledo Media at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you think back on your most memorable meal, what comes to mind? The company you kept? The exceptional wine list? An entre made up of the freshest Louisiana ingredients? Chef Barrett Meeks and Abney Harper are two Baton Rouge restaurateurs making memorable meals for locals with successful establishments located just doors apart from each other on Corporate Boulevard in Baton Rouge. Executive Chef Barret Meeks of Mansurs On The Boulevard developed his passion for cooking when he was just 8 years old. He’d been invited into John Folse’s kitchen at Lafitte’s Landing Restaurant to see how a dessert was plated. Later, after graduating from LSU and the Louisiana Culinary Institute, he opened a food truck called The Bengalier. In 2015, Chef Meeks joined the kitchen staff at Mansurs on the Boulevard, working his way up the ranks to become Executive Chef in 2021. Abney Harper met her husband and business partner while a student at Tulane University Law School. Years later, after practicing law for over a decade, she left her practice to join the restaurant industry. Today Abney is the co-owner of two businesses: Prima Apres, a fast casual pasta and pavlova restaurant, and Sucre Baton Rouge, and Sucre Covington, desert restaurants famous for their macarons and gelato. Whether we're eating Italian cuisine, Creole specialties, or mom's favorite recipes, in Louisiana we love gathering around a table with family and friends for an exceptional meal. Those meals are often inspired by cCreole history and traditions and typically end with a sumptuous bread pudding or bananas foster. But other equally memorable meals end with bite-sized surprises like a French-inspired macaron or exotic pavlova, a meringue named after a Russian ballerina. In Baton Rouge we're thankful for these specialty culinary experiences that are made possible by Abney Harper and Barret Meeks. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Photos by Ben Rabalais from Albaledo Media at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all know raising kids takes a village—but what if you’re the one building that village? What if you're the one creating the spaces where children feel safe? Daycare Tessa Holloway is the Owner and Director of Kidz Karousel, a network of early learning centers with nine locations across South Louisiana. What started as a personal decision to save her children’s daycare in Port Allen has grown into one of the region’s most recognized family-centered childcare businesses. Tessa and her husband built Kidz Karousel around the needs of families, because they were one. Today, Kidz Karousel is a sought-after partner for major employers like Woman’s Hospital and Our Lady of the Lake. Daddy When we talk about building stronger communities, we often start with kids' education, mentoring and opportunities. But what if we went one step further and invested in the people raising them? That’s exactly what Levar Robinson is doing with Fathers on a Mission. After years of mentoring youth, Levar realized the deeper need wasn’t just helping kids—it was supporting their dads. Today, he leads a growing nonprofit that empowers fathers to be more present, more prepared, and more connected. And in doing so, he’s reshaping what family support looks like in Baton Rouge—and soon, across Louisiana. Parenthood isn’t easy—it takes dedication, patience, and a whole lot of support from the community around you. Levar and Tessa are both showing us that building stronger communities starts at home—whether that’s creating safe, nurturing spaces for kids or empowering the fathers who shape their lives. Their work is a reminder that real change happens when people step up, not just to fill a need, but to build something lasting for families and the whole city. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Only a particularly hard-hearted human could see a dog or cat in trouble and not want to help. Maybe you’d share a post on social media. Or make a donation to a shelter, or a Go-Fund Me for a pet. But would you contemplate turning your back on your current career and dedicating your professional life to saving the lives of thousands of pets? That’s what J.T Hackett did. (J.T’s real name is Jacelyn, but everybody calls her J.T.) For 12 years J.T. was co-owner of Petz Plaza, a pet-focused business that provides services like daycare, boarding, and grooming. That’s a business that’s focused on fortunate pets. In 2019, J.T turned her attention to less fortunate pets when she became the Director of Programs at Baton Rouge’s Companion Animal Alliance. The Alliance is a shelter that takes in over 9,000 stray or abandoned animals a year. In 2024, J.T. became the organization’s Executive Director. I mentioned that J.T was co-owner of Petz Plaza. The other co-owner of the business was her husband, Michael Hackett. When the Hacketts sold the business to private equity, Michael turned his attention to other successful ventures. Among them, he bought into The Main Squeeze – a juice franchise that started life in Lake Charles and now has stores spread across the country. In 2021 Michael decided to turn his expertise at business into a business. He founded a consulting company specializing in branding, public relations, business development and community outreach. The company is simply called Hackett Consulting and its wide range of clients include Rebuilding Together Baton Rouge, Our Lady of the Lake, a local automobile dealership, a mortgage lender, a concierge nursing group, and The Baton Rouge Area Chamber. What is as remarkable as the scope of these businesses is the fact that when a company hires Hackett Consulting they get Michael Hackett. He is the company. There are a lot of variations to marriage. There are couples whose marriage is a mystery, who seem to have nothing in common. At the other end of the spectrum there are couples like the Hacketts, who seem to have everything going for them. Typically, we have guests on this show who don’t know each other. We invite people to lunch who we think would get along, and could benefit professionally from knowing each other. Today we’ve worked backwards. We knew you J.T. and Michael get along, and that they benefit professionally from knowing each other. What we didn’t know is that their dedication - not just to each other and to business success, but to higher ideals and to Baton Rouge – is inspiring. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Asking for help isn’t always easy, but sometimes, it’s the smartest thing you can do, especially when it comes to learning. Amanda Martin learned that firsthand as a parent. When her kids hit middle school, she started looking for academic support — something beyond worksheets and flashcards. She found that the tutoring landscape felt outdated and uninspired. So Amanda decided to build the kind of place she wished existed: Studyville — a modern, membership-based tutoring lounge where students can get expert help with homework, test prep, college admissions and more, all in a space that makes learning feel engaging. Some people join an organization just looking for a job. They’re in and out. Others stay long enough to build a career. And in rare cases, they end up shaping the future of that organization from the top. That’s exactly the story of Alicia Vidrine. She started at the Tiger Athletic Foundation as an intern during her last semester at LSU, and over the years, she climbed the ladder step by step. Today, she’s the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Under Alicia’s leadership, TAF has expanded beyond funding facilities. Today, it helps power scholarships, operations and long-term support for student-athletes, all while adapting to a changing landscape in college sports. Working your way up the ladder in your career is never easy. It doesn’t matter if you can see the rungs of it from the start, or if you have to build your own ladder as you climb it. Both Amanda and Alicia exemplify this journey of growth and perseverance. Alicia climbed her ladder all while adapting to the ever-evolving world of college athletics. And Amanda built hers when looking for a better way to support her kid's education. Both of them saw opportunities to make a difference in their fields and took the bold steps necessary to bring your visions to life. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Food is culture. It’s memory and identity. But turning tradition into innovation takes more than a good recipe. It takes creativity, grit, and a deep understanding of what people crave. Yvette Bonanno knows that well. She grew up in the Baton Rouge restaurant scene and that early exposure sparked a lifelong love for food. Today, she’s combining that experience with cutting-edge food production as the founder of Crave-a-Ball, a Baton Rouge-based company turning classic Louisiana dishes into hand-held, deep-fried, ready-to-serve balls. Yvette’s aiming to build Crave-a-ball into the next great Louisiana food brand. In business, longevity is no accident. It’s the result of resilience, reinvention, and often, a strong sense of purpose passed from one generation to the next. Darren Pizzolato grew up in the heart of a legacy: Tony’s Seafood. Darren was born into the business—literally—and has never worked anywhere else. Over the years, he and his family expanded Tony’s Seafood into one of the largest seafood markets in the region, known for its live catfish, award-winning boiled crawfish. Darren's family was also a driving force behind the launch of Louisiana Fish Fry, a brand that went on to become a national staple before the family sold it in 2018. Today, he’s helping shape the next chapter of that legacy in collaboration with Yvette’s company Crave-a-ball. Food has always been more than just fuel here — it’s a connector, a tradition, and a way to bring people together. And once a tradition is started, it’s easy to follow along and stick with it. From Tony’s Seafood, a Baton Rouge staple that has kept the community coming back for decades, to Crave-a-ball, a new venture that is pushing the boundaries of boudin ball flavors, both companies are continuing the legacy of their families while adding to decades-old recipes. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Entrepreneurship can start in a lot of different ways. Sometimes it starts with a tiny idea that just grows alongside a community. Other times, it comes from a personal need—something you realize just isn’t out there yet, and you decide to build it yourself. That’s exactly what happened with Abbey Lovett. She’s a mom of two who saw something missing in the Baton Rouge business scene: a flexible, supportive workspace built with women in mind. So, she created Pathos Collective—a space that gives members 24/7 access to: a coworking area, a fitness center, professional development events, and is even working on bringing in in-house childcare. Since launching in November 2024, Pathos has hosted multiple sold-out events and has already grown to over 30 members. Some entrepreneurs start by spotting a gap in the market and figuring out how to fill it. Others follow a passion that ends up turning into something much bigger. Jenni Peters is definitely in that second group. She fell in love with running back in grad school, and that passion eventually led her to open Varsity Sports, a specialty running store in Baton Rouge. What started as a shop for serious runners has grown into a welcoming hub for the whole fitness community—offering everything from shoes and gait analysis to group runs for people at all levels. Now with locations in Baton Rouge, Mandeville, and New Orleans, Jenni hasn’t just built a business—she’s built a community. At the core of any great business is the ability to really connect with people. Whether it’s through a product, a service, or just creating a space where folks feel seen and supported—those connections are what make businesses thrive. And that’s definitely true for both Abbey and Jenni's businesses: they've both built something that goes way beyond business. Whether it’s a coworking space or a running store, when you create a sense of belonging, you’re building something that lasts. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Baton Rouge is a city known for its strong sense of community. But it’s also a city that’s becoming more aware of the need to protect and enhance its natural environment. In a region where development has often meant the loss of green spaces, there’s a growing movement to restore and care for what’s left—especially its trees. Sage Roberts Foley is Executive Director of Baton Rouge Green, an organization she’s been involved with since 2010. Baton Rouge Green is a nonprofit dedicated to planting trees, maintaining green spaces, and improving the urban landscape. Sage is passionate about making a tangible impact, and under her leadership Baton Rouge Green has taken on some ambitious projects that are already transforming the region. Trees are great to plant, but they’re not something that gives you an immediate return on your investment. Trees are, more than anything, an investment in our future. But a beautiful tree-canopy future for Baton Rouge isn’t going to be worth much if the future citizens of the city don’t have roots here. And that’s where the Baton Roots Community Farm comes in. Baton Roots is an urban farm. And a collection of agricultural projects that provide an opportunity for community members to learn best practices in sustainable agriculture. It’s an initiative that falls under the umbrella of a Baton Rouge organization we’ve talked about before on this show, The Walls Project. The Associate Director of Baton Roots Community Farm is S.K. Groll. Every year when June 1st rolls around we start talking about hurricanes. If this does anything - besides inducing a community-wide sense of anxiety - it makes us confront the fact that we’re living in a precarious place. Whether you believe climate change is man-made or simply the result of a natural cycle, we have to do whatever we can to make Baton Rouge resilient enough to withstand whatever nature and the future throws at us. While most of us do what we can by thinking positive thoughts and staying upbeat about life here, folks like Sage and SK are getting up every day and actually doing something to help ensure city life is not just sustainable, but better for future generations. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We love to divide things into categories of two. Tall or short. Hot or cold. Liberal or conservative. And then there’s creative, or not. That one’s simply not true. Everyone has something they want to see come to life. Everyone has a vision of something they’d love to create that doesn’t exist… yet. 18 years ago, Chris Dykes started tracking his habits on an Excel spreadsheet. In the course of the next 18 years, Chris quit his job and co-founded an app-building business, Clear Blue Design. With this new company at his disposal, Chris looked at his spreadsheet - which he was still using every day - and came to the conclusion there had to be a better way. That’s when Chris and his team created the app, Ever Better. Subscribers choose what they want to improve - fitness, finances, or whatever they want - and the app gives them a way to measure their personal growth. When it comes to being creative, not everyone gets their foot in the door right away. Claudine Diamond, owner of Blue Lotus Visions, didn’t find her passion until a little later in life. In 2010, she started teaching herself how to paint with acrylics, then oils, then watercolor and now, 15 years later, she’s landed on mixed media. Claudine works with botanical materials, some found in her own garden, that she transfers onto paper using a gel plate and acrylic paint. Through her company, Claudine is building a community of artists. Together they host call-to-artist parties where they collaborate on singular pieces of art with upwards of six artists creating one piece. In a world where art can provoke several emotions, Claudine prides herself on making art that makes people happy. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Animals. For most people animals are a part of their everyday life. Maybe it's your dog that loves it so much when you come home from work. Maybe there's a duck in the park you go to that remembers you because you feed him every time you see him. Regardless of where you run into them or what your relationship is with them, animals affect all of us. But some deal with animals you don’t see every day. One of those people is T-Mike Kliebert, Head Tour Guide at Kliebert & Sons Gator Tours. T-Mike grew up working on an alligator farm with his grandfather. There, he helped with the alligator and turtle business. As he grew older, though, and regulations started to change for things like distribution of turtle eggs, the business switched to more of a sanctuary for the animals. After T-Mike’s grandfather passed in 2018, and after taking over the company, T-Mike moved Kliebert & Sons Gator Tours to a temporary two-acre property in Ponchatoula. He’s currently working on expanding and making the gator’s “forever homes”. Not all of us have alligators, but a lot of us do have tame everyday pets. Whether it's a dog, cat, rabbit or bird, 66% of American households have some sort of pet. And those pets need vaccines, check-ups and doctor's visits just like we do. What we might not think about when we bring our pets to the vet is how much work goes into a business like that. Just like any doctor’s office, the vet needs meticulous record keeping and a place for online bookings to be kept. Most vets use a variety of tools for these tasks. Elliott Greenwood is looking to change that through his new application, Chckvet, not to be confused his company name Chckup. Chckvet aims to be a home for all of the services a vet needs: an automated online booking system, a client portal for pet records, newsletter templates and more. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you draw up a business contract, lawyers try and predict the myriad things that could go wrong and plan strategies and remedies so if they do there are no surprises and you know what to do. Well, outside of business, real life is different. You can’t even imagine the number of things that can go – well, if not totally wrong, not as right as you’d like. When things go off the rails, or before they do, to try and head off the worst outcome, there are places and people to turn to. Like Stephanie's two guests on Out to Lunch. Rachael Hebert is Executive Director of The Red Shoes, a non-profit center for personal and spiritual growth with a mission of supporting women on their life’s journey. Located in Mid City here in Baton Rouge, The Red Shoes was founded in 1999 to celebrate, empower and nurture women and offers a space to explore and develop their inner life. Rachael is a licensed clinical social worker and who took over as Executive Director in 2024, but she has a long history of working with the organization dating back to 2007 when she worked as an administrative coordinator at the center. The experience inspired her to become a social worker and to establish STAR – the Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response, which has proven in the decade since to be a vital community resource. Rachael is also involved in other community nonprofits including community radio station WHYR. Greg Tiritilli is an addiction counselor here in Baton Rouge with years of experience helping individuals navigate the challenges of recovery. Greg is the Program Director for residential and long-term programs at St. Christopher's Addiction Wellness Center, where he plays a key role in shaping treatment strategies and supporting both clients and staff. Greg joined St. Christopher’s after previously working as an addiction counselor at The Recovery Center of Baton Rouge. Greg is a native of Dallas and a graduate of LSU who is now deeply rooted in the Baton Rouge community, balancing his professional dedication with a love for the outdoors, live music, and spending time with family and friends. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Hi, how are you? " It's amazing how often the word "hi" and the question “How are you?” go together. The latter is such a standard greeting it barely registers as a serious question. The standard answer is, “Good. How are you?” Now, if we were to stop there and have a real conversation about how we are, most of us would say we’re good, but we could be better. We’d like a better job, better car, bigger house, more money, less stress… But much of the time these kinds of life-improvements are out of our control – or they’re a more distant goal. So, if we can’t do better immediately, what we can do is feel better. One of the ways we do that is with food. There’s comfort food. And there’s food as medicine. One particular medicinal food that’s having a moment these days is mushrooms. Here in Baton Rouge, Jordan Gros is a Biological Engineer and CEO of a mushroom-as-medicine company called Mycocentrics. The use of mushrooms as medicine stretches back thousands of years and encompasses cultures as diverse as Chinese, Indian, and Native American. In searching for a cure for her own spinal injuries and chronic pain, Jordan applied her college education in biological engineering to the healing power of mushrooms, and when she found it worked, she founded her company. Different cultures have different definitions of “comfort food.” In India it’s typically Butter Chicken or samosas. Italian comfort food is lasagna, pizza and risotto. Here in the US, we in the South have a lock on comfort food with dishes like pancakes, chicken and waffles, biscuits and gravy, and gumbo. If mom’s not cooking today, or you’re too busy to cook for yourself, you can get all these comfort foods, and much more, at Another Broken Egg Café. More than 26 years old, Another Broken Egg Café is currently one of the fastest-growing, daytime-only food franchises in the country. There are more than 100 locations in 16 states. Here in Baton Rouge, Devin Carls is the Territory Manager for Another Broken Egg Café. We’re all busy. We’re typically rushing between work and home, keeping it together with friends and family, trying to stay healthy and happy. In our daily zipping around, we can take things for granted. We might not think twice about mushrooms, for example. And if we do, it’s more likely to be in a cream sauce than in a tincture. And we might just drop into Another Broken Egg Café whenever we feel like it and expect to get a table and order anything off the menu without considering the massive amount of organization that’s going on behind the scenes to keep the doors open and the lights on. Oscar Tickle sits in for Stephanie Riegel on this episode of Out to Lunch, recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the past few decades, technology has taken over the way we live our lives. From the books that we read to news we receive, the way we consume media has been changed forever. But recently, there’s been a movement to return to the analogue. Whether it’s vinyl records, DVDs, or even newspapers - the demand for physical media is growing. Creators and storytellers across the nation are meeting that growing need by making new and interesting physical content of their own. Christopher Payne is doing just that with his publication Fine Print. Christopher grew up in a small town in California named Cherry Valley near the Mojave Desert. While living there, he honed his skills as an artist, producing art that focuses on what he describes as, “nature viewed through a distorted lens”. After finding artistic success in exhibits, on magazine covers, and having artworks placed in movies and TV shows - and after living in LA and Austin - a new job search led Christopher to Baton Rouge four years ago. Now he leads his Fine Print team across the nation from here in the capital city. It goes without saying that the news has had one foot out the door of the physical medium for years now. This has caused magazines, newspapers and newsletters to have to make moves to stay alive. One of the main things you’ll see them doing is establishing a strong internet presence to make sure their readers can get their news anywhere and everywhere. Ivory Payne is no stranger to this evolution. Ivory is a graphic artist and the publisher of the Baton Rouge Weekly Press, a paper that started life 47 years ago and today has a significant internet presence - though Ivory still prints physical issues for those traditionalists who want it. Ivory says the paper has a circulation of around 60,000, which, per capita, makes it one of the most well-read local papers in the country. Ivory was born and raised here in Baton Rouge but spent much of his working career in Ohio. He came back home in 2016. Back here he wears many hats, including President of the Louisiana Black Publishers and Media Association, assistant pastor at the Greater New Birth Full Gospel Fellowship, and publisher of a bi-annual coffee table book about African American leaders who make a positive impact in their communities, called Leaders Publications. It’s clear to see that these two Paynes don’t just share the same name, they’re two sides of the same coin. On the heads side of the Payne coin, Ivory is keeping the public informed through one publication and highlighting innovators with another. On the tails side, Christopher is using his skills and talent to lift up others' work as well. Ivory and Christopher are both very passionate about what they do and that’s important: If it weren’t for organizations like theirs, physical mediums would surely phase out of existence. Oscar Tickle sits in for Stephanie Riegel on this episode of Out to Lunch, recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Baton Rouge has long been a city of tradition. People here can be a little resistant to change. This is true from centers of political, economic and even medical focus. But recently, the stage has been set for the capital city to become a place of innovation. We never know where life might take us. Something small that happens to us, or that we witness as children, may change the course of our lives. Andy Barth grew up in Baton Rouge and was in and out of the hospital. After his mom suffered a stroke, he watched her experience with rehabilitation and therapy. Andy also spent time in the hospital due to several knee injuries that led to surgery and physical therapy. Seeing how the physical therapists conducted themselves and how they interacted with their clients, Andy saw a future for himself doing that same thing. Now, he’s been a physical therapist for 21 years and has become an innovator in the field with his company, Gold Standard Therapy Solutions. Gold Standard Therapy Solutions is a therapist owned and operated referral agency that connects healthcare providers and healthcare agencies in Los Angeles. Here in Baton Rouge, Andy is developing a nationwide digital version of this service, called Care Connexion. There are two components to change: vision and courage. The vision to see how things could be done differently, and the courage to do them. Maybe it's because Andy lives and works between Baton Rouge and Los Angeles that gives him vision and fresh perspective. Whatever it is, he's inspiring others with his innovation. Oscar Tickle sits in for Stephanie Riegel on this episode of Out to Lunch which was recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The golden rule of real estate has always been, "Location Location Location." Today in Louisiana it's more like, "Location, Insurance, Mortgage." When we say "real estate" we're mostly talking about something more than just a transaction. "A man’s house is his castle," as the old saying goes, or maybe we should say a person’s house is their castle. But whatever, the adage speaks to something really meaningful about the value and significance we place on home ownership. It defines who we are. And for most people their home is their single most valuable asset. As recently as 2005, nearly 70% of Americans owned their own home. Today that figure is closer to 60%. And with the rising costs of homeownership, it is hard for many people to buy a house – especially their first house. But there are plenty of people in the business of buying and selling houses and helping others do the same. Trey Willard is a realtor and owner of the W Group, a residential real estate brokerage firm based in Baton Rouge that Trey founded in 2020 and has grown in the years since to include more than 50 agents in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Lafayette. Trey is a native of Baton Rouge who got his start as a professional DJ and also worked as a server at a chain restaurant, where he honed valuable skills - like how to read a room and quickly build reslationships. Trey got into the real estate field in 2010, when he started out as an assistant to a local Keller Williams agent and realized he had found his calling. Mimi Doucet is a senior loan officer at GMFS Mortgage, a Baton Rouge-based residential mortgage lender with locations in over 12 states and more than 200 employees. GMFS was founded in 1999. Today it's the largest residential brokerage in Louisiana and has helped more than 150 thousand people buy a home. Mimi has been a mortgage broker for more than 30 years, getting her start in the early 1990s and working at several firms before joining GMFS in the early 2000s. She has been recognized by the industry as one of the top lenders in the state for the number of loans she has closed. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In some ways, there are two Louisianas. There's the one the tourism marketing folks sell to visitors, centered on New Orleans on one side of Baton Rouge and Cajun Country on the other. And then there's the Louisiana that we live in, which is Baton Rouge. Maybe to tourist salespeople it looks like there's nothing very exciting going on here, but that is far from the truth. Baton Rouge is anything but a civil-service seat of government town like other state capitals. Though we do have a decent number of people who work in government departments, we also have people who create a unique Louisiana culture that's a tapestry made up of all kinds of threads that are drawn together here. This tapestry is created by people like Stephanie's two lunch guests: Oscar Tickle and Kimberly Szuszka. Oscar is a multimedia producer and content editor at Melara Enterprises, which publishes the Baton Rouge Business Report and 225 magazine, among other publications. And in his job there, Oscar gets to help tell some of those interesting Baton Rouge stories through videos and podcasts. Oscar joined the company in 2023, after graduating from the LSU Manship School of Mass Communications as a journalism major with a focus on environmental reporting. He also has made his own documentary – a fascinating 45-minute film about the Hunt for Louisiana’s Swamp Cows. Kimberly Szuszka is adding to the unique cultural tapestry in Baton Rouge with Okki Tokki, the city’s only Korean restaurant. Kimberly opened the restaurant in 2024 in the heart of downtown and specializes in a casual, build-your-own bowls model, with a focus on exposing customers to the kinds of authentic Korean ingredients diners from around here may not be accustomed to seeing. Kimberly grew up in Baton Rouge and opened the restaurant because she said she always wanted to have a Korean restaurant in her city and after graduating from LSU, decided to fill the void herself. She is also active in promoting Asian culture through organizations like the Asian Night market, which we talked about on this show previously. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you’re launching your own business, some of the first questions you have to ask yourself are, who is your target market? How are you going to differentiate yourself from the competition? Are you going to try to be all things to all people? Or go niche? Will you specialize in a certain area, or combine some of your talents and skills to appeal to a particular customer base? Getting these foundational questions wrong can be the difference between making it and being one of those 50 % of small businesses that fails in the first year. Fritz Embaugh, founder and CEO of Baton Rouge's Plus One Design and Construction, figured out nearly 20 years ago what he wanted his company to be. Plus One provides turn-key services on commercial and residential projects – from architecture and design to planning to construction and project management. Among the firm’s varied portfolio are well known restaurant buildings – like Curbside Burgers and French Truck Coffee—churches, apartment complexes and renovations to the LSU Hilltop Arboretum. Fritz is a licensed architect and general contractor, who started the firm in 2005, after more than a decade working with local architectural and construction companies. He is also a veteran of the Gulf War, where he served with the U.S. Marine Corps. Chloe Eick is founder of Chloe Eick Art and Appraisals, a Baton Rouge firm that provides appraisals of arts and antiques. Chloe is an artist herself, with talents in a variety of media. She founded the firm in 2023, after graduating from LSU and becoming a member of the International Society of Appraisers. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We live in fractured, divided times where sometimes even simple facts about basic reality are too much for folks to agree on. Partisan politics, social media and the internet serve to divide us and keep us apart. And experts tell us all the time that even though we're more digitially connected than ever, we're paradoxically more isolated and lonely. How do we address this complex challenge? On this edition of Out to Lunch, Stephanie is visiting with two community-engaged local entrepreneurs, one focused on bringing people together, the other on helping them heal. Sean Braswell is owner of Simple Joe Café, a mid-city diner that serves breakfast and lunch and has positioned itself since opening in 2015 as a community gathering spot. The kind of place where neighbors meet up for home-cooked meals or friends meet weekly for coffee, and just linger and visit in a warm friendly atmosphere. Sean began his professional career in the military, serving in the Marines and the Navy simultaneously, later went into sales and mortgage brokering, then nursing. Neither was the right fit. Along the way, he worked as a waiter and eventually worked his way up to head staff trainer at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse here in Baton Rouge. And that's when he realized that opening a restaurant might be the thing. In the years since it's opening, Simple Joe has regularly topped the lists of people's choice awards, like Best of 225. When he's not busy at the restaurant, Sean believes in volunteering and giving back to the community he loves so much.  Amanda Hargrove is Director and Chief Financial Officer of Hope Community Services, a mental health services agency that provides individual and family therapy, medication management, psychiatric support and treatment to children and adults. Hope primarily serves people in East Baton Rouge parish, though in the years since Covid it has branched out to offer telehealth services as well, which has enabled it to reach a broader service area. Amanda and her partner in Hope, Monica Parker, founded the agency in 2014.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"All the world's a stage," as Shakespeare famously wrote, and we are "merely players" performing roles, today as professionals or politicians or teachers in a classroom of students. or parents modeling behavior for their children.  In an era when traditional media, social media, and ever-present modes of telecommunications determine how these roles and personas are received and perceived, crafting images, honing messages, and telling stories around them has given rise to entire industries. Stuart Feigley is president of Feigley Communications, a Baton Rouge strategic marketing agency that specializes in creating ad campaigns across a wide spectrum of industries, including healthcare, education and government. Stewart co-founded the firm in 2006, and in the years since, Feigley Communications has handled such high profile local cleints as LSU, the La Dept of Health, and the Baton Rouge Area Chamber among others. Stuart is a native of Baton Rouge with 36 years experience in the field. After graduating from the LSU Manship School of Communications he went off to big national firms in Dallas and Ohio, where he worked for large corporate clients. He came home in 2006 to found Wright Feigley Communciations with the late Jeff Wright, rebranding the firm as Feigley Communications in 2016.  While Stuart is helping clients on the figurative stage, Sarah Klocke is working with people on the real stage – as in theater. Sarah is Executive Director of Theatre Baton Rouge, which has been delighting audiences in Baton rouge since 1946 with dramas, comedies and beloved Broadway musicals. You may remember we interviewed Sarah's predecessor Jenny Ballard on this show a while back. Sarah took her place in October 2023, as the organization was struggling to recover from the pandemic and the financial challenges it wrought on performing arts organizations across the country. Sarah came to Baton Rouge most recently from St Mary's College in Omaha Nebraska, where she was the program director of theater and communications. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Making a business plan is an essential part of launching a new business. But it's not a skill an aspiring business owner necessarily has. Which is where Camille Terk comes in. Writing business plans is literally what she does for a living. Her firm, Terk Consulting, is a boutique consulting firm that specializes in business planning. Camille founded her firm in 2005 and in the nearly two decades since has served over 700 clients, helping them draft business plans and pitch-decks to present to investors and lenders. All told, she estimates she has helped her clients raise more than $350 million. Camille has an MBA, is based in New Orleans, and is one of the few firms specifically focused on doing business plans for small business. She counts among her clients some of our previous guests on this show, including: Falaya, Marex Services, Resource Environmental Solutions and Speedy Eats.  If somebody went to Camille and told her they wanted to open a vegan restaurant in Zachary Louisiana, I don't know what Camille would say but she might suggest that that doesn't immediately look like a recipe for success, right? Maybe a poboy shop or a Bar B Q restaurant, but vegan. In Zachary? Well, Neshia Rowe opened Golden Vegan restaurant in Zachary in 2022, after launching the concept from her home in 2021. Was it a success? Sure was! And still is. In fact it's turned out to be such a success that Neshia has since opened two more Golden Vegan restaurants – one at LSU and the other at Southern University. Neshia will be the first to admit that Zachary was an unlikely locale for her first restaurant. She says she founded it there because the area didn't have a lot of healthy food options and the concept behind her menu is to educate her customers about healthy eating, to help them gradually transition from a diet of fast food and fatty food to plant-based options that don't deprive and taste great. And, talking of great tasting food, Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Around two million people in the United states will be diagnosed this year with cancer. Taken together, each one of these individual life-changing diagnoses forms a part of an overall cancer care industrial complex which adds to up to an annual $75 billion sector of the national economy. And, like every other business heading into the second quarter of the 21st Century, cancer treatment is changing and advancing with the implementation of technology that includes AI.  In Baton Rouge, very few people are more familiar with the current state of cancer care than Sotirios Stathakis, Chief of Physics at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, and a radiation oncology physicist with more than two decades of experience in this highly technical field. Sotirios came to Mary Bird in 2023, and in his role there oversees the cancer center's physics and dosimetry teams. He also is involved in implementing new AI technology at Mary Bird to help improve internal processes, with the goal of improving both outcomes and the patient experience. Sotirios is a native of Greece who was educated in Canada and Scotland before returning to Greece to obtain his PhD in medical physics. Prior to his current perch in Baton Rouge, he served in a similar role at the University of Texas Health San Antonio Mays Cancer Center, an NCI-designated cancer center .   While cancer care is one of the fastest growing segments of our healthcare economy, another rapidly expanding field is pet care, which is growing by 7% a year. In cold hard cash, over the past 12 months Americans spent even more on pet care than cancer care: a whopping $80 Billion. According to numerous studies, we love our pets to the point where we'll sacrifice all sorts of other discretionary expenses to lavish our furry friends with whatever they need to be their best selves. Locally, Lauren Swartley is a hands-on expert on the subject of pet care. Lauren is the founder and owner of Lend A Paw, a premium dog walking and pet sitting company that is bonded and Insured through Pet Sitter Associates, and Pet CPR & First Aid Certified through the American Red Cross.  Lend A Paw is also the first and only Fear Free certified pet sitting company in Louisiana. Lend a Paw provides in-home one-on-one care for pets, with specially curated visits and software, so you're able to view your pets in real time.  Lauren founded the business in 2018, after she adopted a heartworm positive Staffordshire terrier named Hayes and fell in love with him and the cause. Despite advances in medical science and the onward drumbeat of AI, for reasons we probably don't totally understand, lavishing love on our pets reportedly improves our opwn health. In this win-win world Sitorios and Lauren have more in common than you might think at first glance. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez. at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are cose to 3 milllion apps available today – nearly 3 times as many as there were a decade ago – and they are designed to do everything imaginable, whether it's helping us buy a house, track a hurricane, rent a car or remember to breathe. In other words, there is nothing that cannot be digitized and commodified with the right software and a creative entrepreneur. One of the popular fields of app by numbers downloaded are apps that marry the worlds of music and tech. You've no doubt heard of Spotify and Pandora, but you are less likely to have heard of music industry apps Tipzy and Bloom. Brandon Harris is founder and CEO of Bloom, a booking app that bills itself as an Airbnb for the music industry by centralizing the live event booking process.  Users – principally performers and venues - communicate, schedule and organize upcoming events, negotiate payment terms, and execute transactions through the app. And they can use app to discover each other. Brandon also has another tech company,  Hareseca, that is focused on serving the space industry, specifically NASA, with software and AI products. Brandon is a native of Baton Rouge with a passion for space exploration and music; seemingly diverse interests that inspire his tech driven initiatives.  Tenley Gorman is cofounder and Chief Operating Officer of Tipzy, a Baton Rouge startup that also operates at the intersection of music and tech. Tipzy uses AI to curate the perfect playlist of background music to set the desired vibe for bars and nightclubs. It's a niche service but an important one: music plays a key role in shaping a bar's bottom line and patrons' overall satisfaction and Tipzy makes it easier for establishments to excel at both. Tenley has firsthand experience in this area: she worked as a bartender and also has a background in mathematics and data science. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When is the last time you heard someone say, “I love email?” I would bet, probably never. Every day it seems like we're swamped with more spam. And when we do actually rely on email for something important, well, you know how that goes. You send someone an email and ask them three questions. They reply to one. You reply with a comment about their reply and re-ask your other two questions. They reply with a comment on a whole other subject and before you know it you've got a long list of back and forward messages you're scrolling through looking for who said what, when. It's just so totally inefficient. Now, imagine that you're an architect and you have to rely on this kind of communication with multiple contractors and sub-contractors to manage a construction project. This is what actually happens in the real world. It's crazy. And that's why Chuck Perret created a company called Centerline. Chuck says the goal of the company is, “to kill email.” Centerline is cloud-based data management for architects that pulls all of their project-related information out of their inbox and puts it into what's called a Project Information Model. Chuck launched Centerline in 2021, began taking clients in 2022, saw 350% growth in 2023, and today the company has architectural firm clients across the country. If  Centerline is a software solution that solves a problem for a specific industry, imagine a company that solves any kind of problem, by simplifying any kind of task with software solutions, for any industry. Oil and gas. Maritime. Healthcare. Even sports, and local government. You might be thinking, “That sounds a bit ambitious.” Well, sometimes shooting for the stars works, because that's what Kellen Francis's company, Codegig, does. One of Codegig's major clients is Shell. Not a local Shell gas station, but 30 different departments of Shell Oil, including the entire Gulf Coast. They also work with another couple of companies you may have heard of: Dow Chemical and Valero. Anyone who's ever had a job has had "one of those days" at work. One of those days where whatever we're doing is so tedious, or the opposite – so mind-bogglingly difficult – that you just stop in your tracks and think, “Theres' got to be a better way.” What happens after that, typically, is that we suck it up and get on with it. But every once in a while, guys like Chuck and Kellen come along and actually invent a better way. Ann Edelman sits in for Stephanei Riegel on this edition of Out to Lunch which was recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The complexity of healthcare today and all the western advances that go with it – from AI generated diagnoses to online scheduling platforms to cold, impersonal clinical settings – has a lot of people – and their four-legged friends - looking for alternative, more holistic, wellness-centered approaches to healing and feeling better.  Stephanie's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch are are experts in this segment of healthcare. Dr. Keta Patel is owner of the Excel Wellness Center in Baton Rouge, which focuses on holistic wellness and functional healing, and is particularly focused on helping women combat hormonal imbalances from hyperthyroidism, perimenopause and menopause, insulin resistance and autominnune conditions. Keta is a chiropractor and also offers chiropractic care at her clinic, which she opened in 2015. She is also a nutritionist and has become well known on the speaker circuit, where she talks about the relationship between holistic wellness and hormones and her approach to helping patients - especially women - feel better so they can be their best. Dr. Alvin Jaufre is an equine chiropractor - which means he works on horses. If you didn't know horses needed chiropractors, you're not alone! Actually, though, it's a busy and growing field that Alvin has been involved in since 2014, when he opened Lagniappe Animal Chiro.   Alvin grew up in south Louisiana and is one of just nine nationally certified veternirary chiropractors in the state of Louisiana. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show  by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ask anyone in Louisiana, or any other state, and they'll tell you that two of the greatest problems today facing the average American are access to affordable housing and access to quality affordable healthcare. Despite billions in federal funding and policies intended to help, the need continues to grow. On this episode of Out to Lunch, Stephanie talks with two local entrepreneurs who are taking matters into their own hands to fill the void and make things better. Wendy Green Daniels is President and CEO of Beechwood Residential, a Baton Rouge-based real estate development and consulting firm that specializes in multifamiy affordable housing. Wendy founded the firm in 2012, with a mission to enhance the lives of residents and revitalize communities through the creation of high-quality, socially impactful housing. Before venturing out on her own, Wendy, who grew up in Baton Rouge, spent more than a decade learning the ropes from other successful nonprofits, including Mercy Housing and Columbia Residential in Atlanta. Over the years she has overseen the development of more than 4,500 mixed-income housing units. Sandrine Nkouga is the founder and CEO of the El Shaddai Family Clinic, a new primary care clinic in Prairieville that specializes in family medicine and also treats patients for behavioral health issues, weight management and chronic disease. Sandrine is a native of Cameroon, Africa, who came to the US as a young child and grew up in Virginia. She received her doctorate in nursing from Touro University in Nevada, and after moving here with her family for her husband's career, opened her Louisiana clinic in 2023 to help address the demand for more primary care providers and to make it easier for uninsured or underinsured patients to receive quality care. Wendy and Sandrine's businesses are both great examples of a recent trend in business, a kind of for-profit activism. These types of businesses combine entrepreneurship and social activism, harnessing the power of the capitalist economy for the good of all of the community, not just the wealthy, powerful, or fortunate.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos form this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For most of the 35-thousand years or so that humans have roamed the Earth, we were able to represent what we see and hear through art and music. But we were not able to capture images and sounds and replicate them until - in the grand scheme of things - relatively recently when the inventions of the industrial revolution brought us rudimentary photography and phonographic recordings. Imagine how that changed the world. Not only the way we see and hear ourselves and others, but the way we think about reality. In the nearly two centuries since, technology has created unlimited creative opportunities for people in the audio and visual fields and given rise to some exciting new possibilities. On the forefront of changes in the audio world for the past couple of momentous decades, Bill Kelley has been a Recording Engineer at the LSU school of Music and Dramatic Arts, a century old school on the LSU campus with more than 400 students and two dozen majors. Bill produces 300 or so recitals a year for students and faculty, and supports them with their various creative projects. Bill also has several creative projects of his own: he's a musician and has also created an audio production tool, The Rhythm Tickler, that makes it easier to build digital loops that musicians can use to create new compositions.   On the visual side of the ledger, Kristen Soileau Freeman is a Baton Rouge-based wedding and lifestyle photographer with an approach that is at once spontaneous and organic on one hand and artful, and studied and beautiful on the other. Kristen hung out her shingle, Kristen Soileau Photography, in 2010, while she was still a student at LSU, where she majored in fine arts. In the years since, she has grown her business into one of the city's most in-demand wedding photographers, which is no small thing in an era when brides must have the Insta-perfect photo from the moment of the proposal til end of the wedding reception – and everything in between. Kristen is a native of Lake Charles, who came to Baton Rouge in 2009 to attend LSU. Both Bill and Kristen are great examples of the wisdom of the piece of advice often directed at people looking for career guidance: "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life." They've both turned creative passions into careers that enable them to capture the beautiful sights and sounds of the world around us.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can see photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For more than half a century, American educators and policymakers have been grappling with a problem that just keeps getting worse: A lot of American children don't learn how to read, at least not very well, and despite new programs and curricula, the literacy gap keeps growing. In Louisiana, the problem is particularly acute – studies show that more than a quarter of our population has a low literacy rate. Baton Rouge author Susie Shepherd is working to change those statistics. She is a children's book author, with eight titles to her name, who volunteers her time promoting reading and literacy among children. Susie is a retired teacher from Baker with more than two decades' experience working in special education and also has a masters in autism spectrum disorders, so is particularly keyed into the needs so many young learners have. In addition to her children's books, Susie also has published a collection of poems.  Literacy is just one of our many challenges in Louisiana, and while Susie is focused on helping young people learn how to be better readers, Yolanda Robertson - better known as Yogi Rob - is focused on helping them lead healthier more well-balanced lives, because Louisiana is not exactly the healthiest state in which to live. Yogi Rob is the founder and creator of an online platform, called variously The Yonk or OrganicMePlease, dedicated to helping customers on a journey to self-healing and well-being through a wide range of services and resources to support holistic healing, including homemade organic skincare products and holistic healing advice.   Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.laSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite what statistics show about fewer people getting married and more people getting divorced, Americans spent more than $50B on weddings last year, and the numbers continue to grow. Venues, food, liquor, music, gowns, flowers, cake, photographer – and that's not counting bachelor and bachelorette parties or what's involved if the big day is a destination wedding in another state or country. Call it the wedding industrial complex. Or call it good fun. Either way, local entrepreneurs know all about it and are capitalizing on the opportunities to meet ever-growing demands of couples who want more than a courthouse ceremony. Ramsey Roberts Sims is one of Baton Rouge's wedding authorities who knows as much about brides (and probably grooms) as anyone in Louisiana. Ramsey is owner of I Do Bridal Couture, a boutique that specializes in designer bridal gowns at its two locations in Baton Rouge and Covington. Ramsey started the business in 2012, a few years after shopping for her own bridal gown and becoming frustrated with the lack of high-end inventory and personal service. I Do Bridal Couture bills itself on offering that type of exclusive inventory and personal customer service. In recent years, Ramsey, along with her husband, has also started an online children's boutique with her husband, somehow juggling both businesses with their three young children. Ramsey, thanks so much for joining m eon out to lunch.    Once you've decided to get married, you need a place to hold the ceremony and celebration. Mary Skinner is CEO of Oak Park Events, a local events firm with two venues – Oak Lodge in Baton Rouge and Parc 73 in Prairieville, which specialize in wedding receptions, and also play host to a variety of other special events, parties, and gatherings. Oak Park Events was founded by Mary's parents and she worked with them as manager from 2009-2012, back when there was just one venue, Oak Lodge. Mary helped oversee the design, construction and eventual expansion of Parc 73 then she left the business to spend several years in commercial real estate, which is what she was trained in, rejoining in 2016 as CEO. Her parents recently retired so now Mary is running the company. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For as long as humans and pre-human ancestors have been on the planet -- roughly 2.6 million years or so, we have been eating meat. In fact, recent studies have suggested that had it not been for our carnivorous consumption, humans would not have evolved the way that we did. Over the millennia our tastes have changed but not our love of meat. These days consumers - who spent more than $122B in 2023 on meat - are seeking out high quality, artisanal, organic and sustainable meats. Which is good news for local entrepreneurs cashing in on the craze.   Ross Brown's company, Bougie Bologna, specializes in making an all natural bologna using smoked pork shoulder – and if like a lot of Ross's customers you grew up thinking of bologna as a luncheon meat from Oscar Mayer think again. Ross describes his meat product as Cajun smoked sausage in sandwich form. Ross founded the company in 2022, after nearly two decades in the oil business, because he believed in the product and wanted to be his own boss. Bougie Bologna has proven to be a hit. There are currently three varieties sold in grocery stores from Lafayette to New Orleans, including a deal with Rouses Supermarkets that will put the products in 70 locations across south Louisiana. Ross, aka The Bougie Man, is a native of Lafayette, who is still getting used to running a demanding business that is growing faster than he could have imagined.  Derek Stuart is co-owner of The Meatatory, as in meat and laboratory, a craft butcher in Prairieville that specializes in craft burgers and sausage recipes, high end Wagyu and specialty beef cuts, as well as local staples like Boudin balls and barbecue. Derek and his wife, Laura, opened the Meatatory in 2022. It is both a retail storefront and a catering business with a menu that includes charcuterie boards, sides and desserts. Like Ross, Derek grew up in south Louisiana, Ascension Parish, specifically, and developed a  passion for food and cooking meat early on.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you subscribe to an online news service, you're used to getting notifications about news stories the algorithm thinks might impact you. In Southeast Louisiana, you'll pretty regularly see variations on the headline, “Sea Level Rise Threatens Coastline” or “Louisiana Loses a Football Field of Wetlands Per Hour.” If you're like most people, you keep scrolling. Or, maybe you read the article, shake your head at the dire situation, but shrug it off because, well, what can you do?  The reason you can afford to take a laissez faire attitude toward our disappearing coastline and wetlands, is because there are people who don't. There are people working every day, here in Baton Rouge, to preserve our piece of Planet Earth. Darius Bonton is the founder, owner and principal of Bonton Associates. Bonton Associates are an engineering company focused on designing and implementing infrastructure and transportation systems that allows us to build what needs to be built, and get where we need to go, without destroying the environment in the process. To the contrary, Bonton is all about delivering solutions to water and transportation issues that do more than just comply with environmental regulations, they actually improve our existing way of life. If you're looking for an organization whose name doesn't pull any punches, how about the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana. “The Coalition” the title refers to is a wide range of organizations and people who partner to do an even wider range of activities to save our coast - from planting grasses in marshlands to giving expert advice to local, state and federal organizations. The Coalition is Louisiana's first statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to coastal restoration. They started out in 1988, and since March 2024 Ethan Melancon has been their Advocacy Director. In 1789 the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge published a poem called The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner. You might not be familiar with the poem, but you probably know a line or two from it. Namely, “water water everywhere / Nor any drop to drink.” The poem is about a sailor stranded at sea, ironically, dying from dehydration while being surrounded by water. The theme of the poem is nature's indifference to human suffering. Whether or not nature is indifferent to us, we humans continue to do our best to adapt to the elements, and even downright defy them. We owe our very existence in Southeast, and Southwest, Louisiana to past generations' willingness to drain swamps, build levees, and bounce back from hurricanes. In our current generations, it's the work of companies like Bonton Associates and organizations like Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana who are continuing to organize, design and execute strategies for containing the power of nature that allow us to remain here, and hopefully will for generations to come. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. Jim Engster sits in as host for Stephanie Riegel.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Arts and music are essential elements of any real community. They unite us, bring out the human spirit and remind us of the incredible gifts and talents and good things we can do when we let our creativity fly. Baton Rouge isn't particularly known as a high brow kinda place as far as the arts are concerned but there are plenty of hidden gems, and you don't have to scratch the surface hard to find outlets and venues that are showcasing the best of the musical, visual and performing arts. Jason Langlois is Executive Director of the Manship Theater, which opened in 2005 on the ground floor of the Shaw Center for the Arts. The building was transformative for downtown Baton Rouge and the theater was its anchor tenant, bringing new cultural offerings to the heart of the city that include musical performances, dance, poetry, plays and movie nights.  Jason grew up in Austin and New Orleans and has lived in Baton Rouge since 2001 when he was a student in the EJ Ourso college of business. He has been at the Manship since 2009, started their Films at Manship program and more recently the standup comic series. Over the years Jason has helped grow the theater and put it on more stable financial footing, bringing in new audiences with ever more offerings.  Raudol Palacios is Artistic Director and cello and ensemble teacher at Palacios House of Arts, a local family run nonprofit that offers lessons in the musical, visual and performing arts to people of all ages – and regardless of their ability to pay. Raudol and his parents, Gloria Ruiz and Manuel Palacios, started the Palacios House of Arts in 2018, as a way to bring their love of music and arts to the community. The family is originally from Cuba and in 2015 the family moved to Baton Rouge, when Raudol was studying music at LSU. Today, he is a professional musician and also helps run the school with his parents, teaching classes, organizing events and programs and other cultural activities that engage community participation. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Louisiana ranks last in a lot of lists but one area where the state is pretty close to the top is in the number of lawyers per capita. That's right, Louisiana is 11th among the 50 states in terms of the number of attorneys in the state. While that means you won't have trouble finding someone should you need to file a lawsuit or negotiate a contract or divorce your spouse – it's probably a safe bet that they're not necessarily all good lawyers or happy lawyers because, let's face it – it's a difficult, stressful and challenging profession that requires a lot of expertise.  And in matters where expertise is required, more is not necessarily better. Lexlee Overton is a Baton Rouge attorney who has found a way to help her colleagues be better, perform better for their clients and feel happier in their profession. Lexlee is a seasoned lawyer, executive leadership expert and peak performance specialist. And melding all this together, Lexlee has created a coaching method, for lack of a better term, that she calls Mind Over Law. Mind Over Law offers team building workshops, one-on-one counseling and training sessions, coaches legal teams, and leads a national leadership program for women. Lexlee developed this method after spending more than two decades in the legal profession and experiencing the kind of burnout she now tries to help her clients overcome.  While Lexlee is coaching lawyers, Lauren Temple is coaching people on how to maximize their fitness and physical performance – which brings mental well-being along with it – through her two boutique fitness clubs. Lauren's two fitness clubs, which are both on Perkins, are called Tone BR. The two clubs are a merger of what used to be Tread BR and Pilates Plus. Lauren is a native of Baton Rouge and single mom, raising two daughters, who experienced a terrible injury and had to learn how to walk again. After overcoming those challenges, Lauren was determined to run her own fitness studios. In the years since, she has grown the clubs into successful and growing businesses  in a market that is notoriously competitive for gyms and fitness club operators.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Baton Rouge often gets a bad rap for being a belt and suspenders kind of town, where people eat in chain restaurants and go to movie theaters and don't do the kind of interesting, unique things – be they related to food, music or festivals – that are so characteristic of some fo sthe state's other big cities. But its' simply not true! And bright young entrepreenuers are taking risks to dispel those misconceptions. Bread Steven Gottfried is owner of the St. Bruno Bread Company, a commercial artisan bread bakery in Baton Rouge that delivers fresh bread daily to local restaurants and more than a dozen grocery stores. St Bruno is a wholesaler and doesn't have a storefront. And that's intentional, in furtherance of Stephen's mission to raise the standard of daily bread and elevate the experience of eating everyday foods. Steven is a native of Baton Rouge who learned the craft from chef Gary Darling in Covington before spending several years honing his skills first in San Francisco and then at Bellgarde Bakery in New Orleans. He went out on his own in 2017, originally in New Orleans, but the COVID pandemic changed those plans, and since late 2021, St. Bruno has been based in Baton Rouge. The upside of Covid is that we in Baton Rouge can now get a variety of St Bruno breads including sourdough, French baguette and po-boy loafs.  And now, the Circus! Laura Siu Nguyen is an event planner and communications professional who is also the founder of Night Market BTR, a new annual event that celebrates Asian American history in the style of a Lunar New Year festival. Laura created Nigh Market BTR to celebrate culture, community and creativity in Baton Rouge and brings people of Asian American heritage together. Laura is a native of Honduras, who came to Baton Rouge more than 15 years ago to attend graduate school and never left. In the years since, she has been involved in helping launch and promote a variety of events and activities – including her own.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show on itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Safety in the workplace may not be the kind of thing most people think about, but if you work for a company with more than a handful of employees -- and particularly an industrial or construction company that involves heavy machinery or dangerous chemicals -- safety is paramount to what you do every day and is top of mind of important people in your organization. In fact, it's so important, there are whole categories of employees who do nothing but safety-related stuff and finding them and hiring them has spawned a cottage industry that is proving lucrative for one local entrepreneur. Safety John Cambre is president of ResponsAble Safety Staffing, a Baton Rouge Company that  provides trained safety staff on a contract, temporary or permanent basis to clients in the oil and gas, construction and general industrial sectors. The company was founded by John's father, Darryl Cambre originally as a safety consulting company in 2007. John, then fresh out of college, joined the firm and quickly realized that the greatest need their clients had was to find qualified employees in the safety field so he built out their expertise and changed the company's brand in 2010. In the years since, he has grown ResponsAble Safety Solutions into a national company with clients across the country.  Skills While safety is important in an organization so is performance, especially if you're talking about a team or competitive organization. But a lot of people get caught up in the pressure of performing, or may not be maximizing their potential, which is where Aaron Pearson came in. Aaron is the owner of iDeveloped Skills Academy, a training program that that works with athletes to help them identify areas where they can improve and develop their skills and potential. Aaron founded the company in 2010 and has since developed several spinoff ventures -- Elite by ECW, an athletic clothing brand that makes custom-jerseys for local sports teams; and, EazyTicks, a digital ticketing and operating platform for area schools.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reached alarming levels of spread - more than our health care system was able to handle - so public health officials ordered state and local governments to shut things down. Aand our lives were forever changed. It's strange now to think back on those weeks; how we adapted and coped, and what we learned about ourselves, our businesses and institutions and our communities. It was difficult and stressful, tragic for many, exciting for others, and creative entrepreneur's took advantage of the opportunity to rethink the way we do things and find new ways of bringing people together and creating community Jenn Ocken, a Baton Rouge photographer, business consultant, podcast host and writer, made a name for herself in a big way during the pandemic with her Front Porch Photos—portraits she took of families and couples and people with their pets on their front porches at a time when we were all living on our porches and in our yards. The Front Porch Photos, shared widely on social media, helped unite the community and reminded us that we were all sharing the moment together. Outside of photography, Jenn's career has been thriving with workshops and consulting that helps clients live a more empowered, fulfilled, harmonious life. Her latest tool is called ThrivFOCUS- - an innovative journal that integrates goal setting, self reflection and organization.  Sherin Dawud co-founded and co-owns the Nura Company, a local firm that specializes in consulting, marketing and event-planning with a focus on helping nonprofits and mission-driven clients in healthcare, education, advocacy and entertainment that want to make the community a better place to live, work and play.  Sherin co-founded and co-owns the firm with Raina Vallot. Like Jenn, Raina and Sherin were inspired by the events of the pandemic to create the firm. Companies were looking for new ways to connect with people. They saw it as an opportunity to reimagine impact through marketing.  In the years since, they have worked with such clients as the Baton Rouge Youth Voice Initiative, the Baton Rouge Alliance for students, the National Fried Chicken Festival, which is held in New Orleans each fall, and Peace Over Everything. Sherin originally teamed up with Raina to co-found Power Pump Girls in 2017, a social impact club whose mission is to empower women to connect and serve. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Much as we love to tout our fun loving lifestyle in south Louisiana, we have some of the worst health outcomes in the country – including the highest rates of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and infant mortality. On this edition of Out to Lunch, Jim Engster sits in for Stephanie and is joined by two lunch guests who both head up institutions in Baton Rouge's growing Health District. Beyond providing reactive medical care to these already existing health issues, John Kirwan, Rene Ragas and their respective institutions are focused on what causes these diseases in the first place and how to proactively keep our population healthier long term.   John Kirwan is Executive Director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center here in Baton Rouge, which is renowned the world over for its focus on diabetes and obesity. John himself is internationally renowned as an expert in diabetes and nutrition science with more than 30 years of research and teaching and a specialty in type 2 diabetes and how to potenitally cure it. John came to the center in 2018 from the famed Cleveland Clinic, and in the years since has generated more than $50M in research funding and spearheaded the opening of Pennington's obesity treatment center. John was a guest on Out to Lunch  back in the pandemic era, when we were meeting on zoom. A lot has happened since then and it is great to see John in person.  Rene Ragas is President and CEO of Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge, the largest birthing hospital in the state. Since opening in 1968, Woman's has delivered nearly 400,000 babies and is reocngized for its Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit, expertise in mammography and breast and cancer care. What's perhaps less well known is the hospital's research capabilities, especially in cervical cancer, where Woman's has been a pioneer since the implementation of pap screening test used to detect this type of cancer. Rene joined the hospital in 2022. He has more than two decades of experience as a healthcare executive, most recently as north shore market president for the FMOL health system. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. During the recording of this show the power went out in parts of Baton Rouge but the medics and Jim soldiered on! You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometime around 100,000 years ago, what we think of as modern humans started wearing clothes. In the centuries since, the outfits and accessories we people have come up with have evolved from utilitarian garments to elaborate expressions of our culture and creativity. Clothes and accessories are fun, fanciful and define who we are. Baton Rouge entrepreneurs are building successful businesses that capitalize on our desire to define ourselves by what we put on our bodies and atop our heads. Karla Coreil, co-owner of Chapeaux, a Baton Rouge based millinery business that combines 19th-century British quality and tradition with South Louisiana style and flair. Karla and her partner in Chapeaux, Jenn Loftin, opened the business in 2022 and custom make creative head pieces for high end occasions like the Kentucky Derby and down home celebrations like the St Patricks Day Parade. Chapeaux also hosts private parties, which they call Chapeaux Party, at which guests can make their own festive hats and head pieces. Karla is an attorney. Jenn has a Ph.D in education and works in educational publishing. When they started the business they said they were worried about how to spread the word. Turns out, Chapeaux caught on so fast their problem now is keeping up with demand. Joey Redditt is founder and owner of Jo Design Studio, a Baton Rouge couturier that makes custom clothing for men, women and children, with a particular focus on  special occasion dresses. Joey has been designing clothes since 2010, when he was gifted a sewing machine. At the time, he had his own successful teeshirt company, Grab it Rabbit. After that business took off, he decided to try his hand at designing clothes. Today he has 35 thousand followers on Instagram, his own studio and a growing number of customers. Joey works fast and Jo Design Studio offers to make bespoke creations -- sometimes in just a few hours.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Brian Newton at itsbatonrouge.la.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Technology has opened doors in so many industries and enabled us to do so many things we couldn't even imagine in the past. At the same time, we've made things more complicated for ourselves, creating systems that don't always talk to each other and languages we don't understand. On this edition of Out to Lunch, two lunch guests who are helping break through the clutter, with products and services that are enabling our tech systems to work for us more effectively - and helping businesses better communicate their messaging. John Morello, is Chief Technology Officer of Gutsy, a tech firm that has come up with a better way to help companies protect themselves against cyberthreat. More specifically, Gutsy uses process mining – and we'll get into that in a minute – to ensure that the various cybersecurity systems a complex organization has in place are talking to one another and doing what they're supposed to be doing. If John's name is familiar to you, it may be because he was a guest on Out to Lunch in 2019, when he was running Twistlock, a tech firm that developed cloud-based cybersecurity solutions. In the years since then, John and his partners in Twistlock have grown that company, attracted new investors, and created the spinoff, Gutsy, to address a need they identified running Twistolock. John is a 14-year veteran of Microsoft, who lives in Baton Rouge and is also a master diver and very active in coastal conservation.  Kenny Nguyencis founder and CEO of Three Sixty Eight, a Baton Rouge-based creative and strategic media agency that focuses on branding, marketing and advertising with a high tech, high energy super creative approach. The company's origins date back to 2011, when Kenny and his friend were still students at LSU and started Big Fish Presentations, which specialized in public speaking and presentation services. In 2016, it merged with another local firm to form 368. In the years since, it has grown to include clients that include CenturyLink, McGraw-Hill Education, GE and Pepsi.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Brian Newton at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Healthcare is big business, and it's only getting bigger. In 2021, healthcare expenditures topped $4B in the U.S. By 2028, that figure is expected to reach $6.2B. Within this growing and rapidly changing sector, nurses play an outsized role. They comprise the largest component of the healthcare workforce, they're the primary providers of hospital patient care and they deliver most of the nation's longterm care. They're also helping to lead the charge in new ways of delivering care, creating companies right here in Baton Rouge that are reinventing the way nursing is done. Renita Williams Thomas is a pediatric nurse specialist and the owner and CEO of In Loving Arms Pediatric Day Health Center, an outpatient center for children with medically complex needs such as congenital heart disease, traecheotomy, seizure, and genetic and neurological disorders, among others. The center combines skilled nursing, education and therapy and enables children with chronic conditions to interact with other kids their age who may also be going through similar health challenges. Renita founded the center in 2012 after spending more than two decades in the field with the Southern University School of Nursing - where she earned her bachelors and master's degrees in nursing - Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, the Louisiana State Department of Health and the Lousiaina School for the Visually Impaired.  Blasia Rivet is a Registered nurse and the founder and owner of Decision Critical, a concierge nursing agency that offers in home and mobile private duty nursing services in the Baton Rouge region. Services are tailored to fit patient and caretaker needs and include acute and chronic conditions, elderly care support, post op recovery, and more. Blasia founded Decision Critical in 2014 to fill the need she saw in the community for a higher level of personalized care than one can get beyond the doctor's office. Blasia is a native of Baton Rouge and a graduate of southeastern Louisiana university school of nursing.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Brian Newton at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite the ease and convenience of online shopping, which enables us to procure almost anything we want from anywhere in the world in short order, there's still something wonderful about buying clothes, apparel, decorations for the home or, really anything for that matter, from a store that we know and love and a brand we have come to trust. Baton Rouge - which likes to call itself "a big small town" -  has several homegrown brands that have been in business for generations. In the years since Katrina we've also welcomed a number of well known retailers from downriver in New Orleans. One of them is Perlis, a family-owned apparel retailer has been a fixture in New Orleans since 1939 that has dressed generations of Uptown gentlemen and, in more recent decades, women, in what the company calls Southern Style. In 2009 the Perlis family opened its first Baton Rouge location on Jefferson Highway. Bobby Berthelot has been the store's manager since 2013. A native of New Orleans, Bobby majored in business and after graduating learned about the ropes of merchandising, retail and made-to-order menswear at the venerable Rubenstein's on Canal Street in New Orleans then Brook's Brothers before becoming GM at Perlis in Baton Rouge.  Lauren LeBlanc Haydel is the founder and owner of Fleurty Girl, another well known south Louisiana brand that hasn't been around as long as Perlis but is taking the region by storm. Lauren founded the company in 2009 when she was a single mother of three and decided to risk it all creating t-shirts for women that celebrated New Orleans. Today, there are nine FLeurty Girls, including a location in Baton Rouge that opened in the summer of 2023, and Fleurty Girl ships its south Louisiana-inspired merchandise – including t-shirts, gifts, door hangers, gifts for the home and an amazing array of sparkly Mardi Gras stuff – all over the world.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. Photos by Brian Newton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm sure you're familiar with the saying, “Beauty is only skin deep.” It's meant to be a reminder – and a reassurance – that there's more to a human being than appearance. While that's true, our appearance is vitally important to us. You only have to spend 5 minutes on social media to reaffirm that's as true today as it ever has been. Our appearance used to be a kind of genetic lottery. Not so much any more. Today you can get your hair, eyes, nose, lips, breasts, tummy, and butt lifted, sculpted, enhanced, reduced or reshaped to more closely resemble how you'd prefer to look. Signs of aging we euphemistically call “laugh lines” and “crow's feet” can be smoothed away so your selfie looks as youthful as everybody else's on Instagram. Without a filter! This kind of physical enhancement used to be the province of Hollywood stars and the wealthy citizens of Manhattan and Beverly Hills. Today we have access to these treatments in Baton Rouge. One of the places you can take this journey here is Ford Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Dr Ann Ford Reilley has been practicing medicine for 30 years and was the first woman in Louisiana to be certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. Dr Reilley's daughter, Dr Kate Chiasson, has gone one better than her mom: Dr Chiasson is double board certified, by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Plastic Surgery. Mother and daughter plastic surgeons are partners at Ford Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. There are others forms of body modification we use to enhance our appearance. One of the most ancient - and currently most popular - is tattooing. We have archaeological evidence of humans with tattoos as far back as 5,000 BC. In the early 20th Century, tattoos came to be associated with outlaws and sailors. Somewhere along the line that changed. Today, tattoos are regarded as pieces of art, acceptable in all walks of life and they show up everywhere - from the bedroom to the boardroom. Daniel Esen has been a tattoo artist since 2008, and he's been inking skin in Baton Rouge for over a decade at his own shop, Black Torch Tattoo. Back in the 1970's, a hairdresser turned entrepreneur by the name of Vidal Sassoon marketed his salons and beauty products with the slogan, “If you don't look good, we don't look good.” Sassoon was talking about something as impermanent as a haircut. For Ann, Kate, and Daniel, his slogan applies in a far more consequential form. After they leave their shop or your clinic, their patients and clients are changed forever. Tattoos and cosmetic surgery are permanent. What Ann, Kate and Daniel are doing every day requires skill, talent, confidence and courage. They're working in professions in which there is literally no room for error. This conversation is a fascinating insight into what it's like having that kind of responsibility. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Brian Newton at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Downtown Baton Rouge has come a long way over the past two decades, thanks to a lot of careful planning, tireless advocacy, public and private investment, and a commitment from a lot of small businesses to set up shop in the capital city's historic center. Stephanie's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Baton Rouge are are two of those small business owners and have unique insights into what it's like doing business in the heart of always-evolving downtown Baton Rouge  Saskia Spanhoff co-owns Cocha Restaurant on Sixth Street downtown with her husband, Enrique Pinerua. The couple opened the restaurant in 2016 with a focus on locally sourced, sustainable, non GMO foods with a Southern menu that draws on the region's Spanish, French African, and Caribbean influences. In the years since, it has grown into one of downtown's most popular gathering spots. Saskia is a native of Baton Rouge and LSU graduate with over 25 years of experience in the restaurant and wine industries. She has worked at restaurants around the country.  Scott Hodgin is owner and Managing Partner of TILT, a local firm, also based downtown, that specializes in branding, marketing and packaging design for a variety of local products that may be sitting on the shelf in your pantry, including Camellia Beans, Blue Plate mayonnaise, Faubourg Brewing beer, and Big Easy Kombucha. Scott co-founded the firm in 2005 after spending several years learning the ropes at other firms.  It's probably no exaggeration to say that every person in the US over 5 years old knows what Coca Cola is and what Walmart is. Assumedly, having achieved 100% market penetration these companies can now quit advertising. However, we see Walmart and Coca Cola marketing everywhere, from YouTube to highway billboards. Why? Because, as we learn in this conversation, it's one thing to have a popular business like a downtown restaurant but it's a whole other thing to keep the branding as fresh as the food. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Real estate development is one of those high stakes businesses where, most of the time, people with a stomach for taking risks, and a lot of money – or at least access to a lot of money-- put together really ambitious plans for a piece of land, convince others to back them and then build apartments or shopping centers or new office buildings and sell them at a profit, not including the hefty developer's fees they pay themselves along the way. It's a rich person's game and most everyone else is left out. But does it have to be that way? Will Bradshaw and Daniela Rivero Bryant don't think so. They've found a way to make real estate development not only accessible but beneficial to the communities in which it takes place. Will and Daniela are the co-founders of Reimagine Development Partners, a company that does property development and is reimaginging what that looks like. Like other developers, Reimagine takes advantage of the Federal Historic Tax Program. But, unlike other developers, Reimagine replaces the lender – normally an institution like a bank - with a crowdfunding model. In this way, members of the local community chip in five to ten thousand dollars and become investors in the kind of property development deal normally reserved for financial institutions or wealthy investors. So, regular folks get access to the kind of potential profit, and the immediate real-world tax advantages, normally only available to property developers. Will and Daniela started the firm in 2022. He is a career real estate developer and part time professor at Tulane, where he was a founding member of the university's sustainable real estate development program. Prior to launching Reimagine, Will founded Green Coast Enterprises, a triple bottom line company, which means it is focused on people, prosperity and the planet. Daniela is an expert in urban disaster resilience and community development. Prior to launching Reimagine, she spent 15 years supporting the post-Katrina housing recovering in New Orleans and assisting local government in Latin America with resilience and recovery poverty creation. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs On The Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you turn on the news any time, any day, you're bombarded with stories about climate change and natural disasters, political strife and polarization, and the world poverty that is driving unrest and a migrant crisis. Any one of these issues - not to mention the local problems at home - is too great for any of us to solve. And yet, some of us feel so compelled to do something. But what? Dawn Brown is Water Services Director at Matrix New World Engineering, a New Jersey based engineering firm specifically focused on environmental and climate related challenges, as well as resilience and sustainability projects. These are terms we hear a lot in Louisiana and, based here in Baton Rouge, Dawn makes sense of what they actually mean for us. Matrix was founded in 1990 and opened its Baton Rouge office in 2015. Dawn is an environmental professional who focuses on project management and development with a particular focus is waste permitting and landfills. A native of Baton Rouge, Dawn was a high school biology teacher before switching careers, and while Dawn now deals with environmental issues, Rebecca Gardner is doing her own part to change the world, helping migrants and disadvantaged women around the globe through Hands Producing Hope, a non profit she founded in 2014. Hands Producing Hope sells ethically sourced products made by migrant women and women from disadvantaged countries through a retail shop on Government Street in Baton Rouge and through its website and satellite locations. The organization partners with communities through artisan training programs, maternal health education, life skills classes, adult literacy education, business mentoring and more. It's an extraordinary operation. Rebecca is a native of Baton Rouge who founded Hands Producing Hope because of her passion for helping disadvantaged families and her desire to see long-term sustainable change in impoverished communities. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Brian Pavlich at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Louisiana tries to grow its workforce we hear a lot about the energy industry, healthcare, and the food and hospitality sectors for which the state is so well known. Today we're visiting with two guests who are creating opportunities in two other areas – tech startups and film acting - helping budding entrepreneurs and aspiring actors create companies and film careers. It might not sound like these pursuits have much in common. You might be surprised. Stephen Loy is Executive Director of Nexus Louisiana, parent company of the Louisiana Tech Park, which is located in the old Bon Marche shopping center on Florida Boulevard. The tech park was created more than 20 years ago to drive economic development and job creation by providing tech startups with resources to bring their products and services to market faster and more effectively. Stephen has been executive director of the tech park since 2011 and has been with the organization since 2004, when he was hired as their Director of Communications. Today he oversees day to day operations, develops strategies to attract early stage companies, and manages one of Nexus' signature programs : Tech Park Academy.  While Nexus Louisiana is growing the entrepreneurial ecosystem, Jency Hogan is helping to grow the local cultural economy through the drama school she and her husband, Aaron Hogan, founded and run. It's called Love Acting and it's specifically focuses on teaching film acting, as opposed to stage acting. The Hogans are both professional actors, who founded the school on returning to Jency's native Baton Rouge after eight years in Los Angeles. Jency has produced short films, co-directed a western epic, was on the producer team of a biopic directed by Ethan Hawke, and is currently a recurring character named Vera Minder on the TNT hit Claws. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Analise Gonzalez  at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For more than a decade now, we've been talking about the changes brought about by e-commerce and how fewer and fewer of us are venturing out to malls and shops and opting instead of the convenience of e-retail platforms. As this brave new world of online shopping continues to evolve, we're seeing an ever-growing and fascinating landscape of entrepreneurs who are using pieces and parts of the new technology, mixing the old with the new, the virtual with the real, and coming up with new iterations of retail. Nathan Pearce is CEO of Pearce Bespoke, a Baton Rouge clothier that is making custom tailoring more accessible, affordable, and easy, by using some of the digital  tools that have made e-commerce so popular to create old-fashion, handmade garments. Pearce Bespoke offers tailor-made suits and separates through a mobile shop. They come to you, get your measurements, and whip up a designer piece of clothing for you in just a few weeks. Nathan has been in the clothing business for much of his career. He launched a custom T-shirt making business while fresh out of college and founded Pearce Bespoke in 2021, which now has brick and mortar locations in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Lafayette. He is also franchising the brand and has more than 50 locations across the south.  If you listen to radio shows and podcasts about business, you've probably heard entrepreneurs talk about the success of their business, describing almost gleefully how they initially failed before they made it. Well, failure isn't always as much fun as these success stories make it sound. Not every failure is followed by success. Sometimes it's followed by a career change. Take, for example, Conrad Freeman. Today Conrad runs the fabrication lab in the LSU College of Art and Design. It's a lab where faculty and students can design and build stuff using a variety of materials. Before that, in 2020, Conrad founded Freeman Handcrafted designs, which made contemporary furniture by hand for commercial and residential customers. While Conrad's furniture was beautiful, the market for his high-end products was very small in Baton Rouge and running the business was challenging, which is why he left just two years after founding the company for the position at LSU. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from thois show by Brian Pavlich at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a show about business. Not a place you'd typically turn to for dating advice. But on this edition of Out to Lunch we're talking about the business of dating, love, and marriage. For past generations – your parents or grandparents - charting a life course seemed to be a lot simpler. Especially for a woman. You graduated from high school, you got married to your high school sweetheart or a guy you met in college, and everybody lived happily ever after. Then we hit the 1970's, and 50% of marriages ended in divorce. Today in the United States, people are waiting longer to get married. Or opting not to tie the knot at all. Since 1973, marriage rates in the US have declined nearly 60%. Other statistics tell us that people are finding it harder to make meaningful connections. More young people than ever report feeling alone, disconnected, and clinically depressed.   And all this comes at a time when a staggering array of apps and online dating sites are promising to pair people up for everything from one-night stands, to casual relationships to forever partnerships. What's not working? And how do we fix it? We could look forward, to the next generation of technology and ask AI to find us love and happiness. Or we could look back. And rather than having to check a box that says, “I'm not a robot,” how about sitting down face to face with an actual human being who is a dating specialist? Yes, there is such a job. It's called a Matchmaker. Admittedly there aren't many of them. Ann Parnes is one of the very few. Ann Parnes is founder of Match Made in NOLA, a traditional matchmaking service that is, as its name implies, based in New Orleans but has expanded to Baton Rouge and does business like a real old-fashioned matchmaker – by carefully curating potential partners and introducing them to one another. Ann began her career as an attorney and spent several years prosecuting criminals, until 2014, when she felt a calling taking her in a different direction and became a certified life coach. From there she began to sense what she says was a real calling and a recognition that she had a gift for bringing people together, so in 2017 she opened Match Made in NOLA. And now her services have expanded to include Baton Rouge. most people who are dating and looking for a partner are younger. They've grown up with Bumble, Tinder, Hinge, OK Cupid, Christian Mingle, J-Date, Match.com and the list goes on. There are even specialty dating apps like “Dig – the dog lovers dating app.” So, let's start with the obvious question. Is someone who turns to an old-fashioned matchmaker burned out on dating apps? Or is a typical client someone different who can't bring themselves to use a dating app and hasn't had any success meeting anyone at The Chimes or Chelseas? Could matchmaking be for you? On this special dating love and marriage edition of Out to Lunch, Ann explains the art and science of dating to Stephanie. If you're looking for a great place for a date in Baton Rouge you can't beat Mansurs on the Boulevard. We've been meeting there every week for years on Out to Lunch and we're all still happily working together! And if you're looking for even more of an insight into Ann's life you can check her out on It's New Orleans Happy Hour.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Paris. London. Rome. Baton Rouge. Yes, your next piece of stylish designer clothing might come from right here. South Louisiana is known for food and music and other artistic and creative cultural expressions so perhaps it's surprising that we're not known for our clothing designers. With so much inspiration to draw from, meet the crestive forces behind two local clothing lines.  Dave Duncan is co-owner of Jack Duncan Design, a sustainably made menswear brand that creates shirts for the everyday man. Dave founded and runs the company with his wife Brittany Tubb Duncan, who shares his passion for finding unique prints and has her own brand, Itty by Bitty, which provides children's options in the Jack Duncan prints. Dave and Brittany founded Jack Duncan Design in early 2023 and currently operate out of their home study and shop in mid City.  Paula LaFargue is owner and designer at the Maybe Collection, a Baton Rouge-based business that also uses ethical practices to make comfortable, functional women's garments that have minimal environmental impact – and they're also beautiful and affordable. Paula started the company in 2016 after spending 10 years designing clothes for nursing moms, children and utility workers – not all at the same time. She is a a native of Baton Rouge who attended the Fashion Institute of Technology and cut her teeth in the fashion industry in New Orleans and Chicago before returning home in 2009. Paula is a returning guest on this show. We last spoke during the pandemic, when we were remote on Zoom. Since then, the Maybe Collection has grown.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The bulk of Louiaisna's population, living in cities like Baton Rouge and New Orleans, probably don't think much about it, but farming is a significant sector of the state's economy. Nearly one-third of the state's land is farmland! There are 27,400 farms in Louisiana, though it's a rapidly changing and challenging way to make a living. Even given the obstacles though, there is opportunity for a new generation of creative cultivators who are practicing new ways of raising livestock, growing crops, and creating new products with the output. Galen Iverstine is founder and co-owner of Iverstine Farms and Butcher. The name of the company refers to a farm in Kentwood, Louisiana that uses sustainable farming practices in raising its cattle, and a full-service butcher shop, smokehouse and "eatery" in Baton Rouge. At the Baton Rouge outlet Galen sells local, farm-raised meats, and supports local farming partners who prioritize land-healing methods. Galen started the business in 2010, when he purchased his 65 acre farm. It grew out of his experience senior year at LSU, when, trying to figure out what to do with his life, he took an English class that focused on food writing and in doing so learned all about food policy, industrial agriculture models and subsistence farming. It might be the most unique introduction to farming, ever! Nathalie Noel's connection to Louisiana agriculture is through our sugracane crops. Nathalie is CEO of Noel Family Distillery, a company based in Donaldsonville that uses locally sourced sugarcane to distill ultra premium spirits. Not only do they make tequila, rum and vodka, they also blend their spirits with natural flavors to produce a line of ready-to-drink, canned craft cocktails. Nathalie founded the Noel Family Distillery with her dad, Chip, who was inspired to open a distillery by his travels as a pilot, where he discovered Caribbean style and Central American rums. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Brian Pavlich at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We live at an interesting nexus today, where so much of our economy is focused on building processes and systems that enable us to exist in the virtual world while at the same time we continue to build and develop the physical world in which we also exist. Maybe one day, one of those worlds will overtake the other. For now though, we seem to have one foot in each world and pass between them multiple times every day. Navigating our journeys through both of these worlds creates unlimited opportunities for creative entrepreneurs. Dustin Puryear os founder and CEO of Giant Rocketship, a Baton Rouge based tech company that has developed an AI-powered project manager that efficiently assigns and monitors tasks for IT companies, and can reassign them if a team member faces challenges or is unavailable. Dustin founded Giant Rocketship as an outgrowth of Puryear IT, which provides a range of IT services for small and medium-sized business. Dustin still owns both companies, but spends most of his time these days focused on Giant Rocketship. Dustin has also has a developed a niche as a speaker in IT circles, where he shares insights on technology, cybersecurity and AI.  Firmly in the real world, Baton Rouge native Nick Miller is founder and CEO of Build Commercial Construction, a full service commercial construction company that works in the multifamily, retail, healthcare and industrial spaces, and also does storm and wetlands remediation - a growing segment in climate-challenged south Louisiana. Nick graduated from LSU's Bert S. Turner School of Construction Management and got his start with Manhattan Construction, where he was a project manager overseeing construction of L'Auberge Casino. He later spent several years with a large general contractor until taking the brave step of branching out on his own to form Build Commercial Construction, which specializes in the design assist delivery method of construction which increases the collaborative efforts between owners, designers and the general contractor. Recently the firm expanded its footprint to two nearby states.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Brian Pavlich at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As our economy and society have become more complex, we've started to rely on big data, data driven solutions and AI analytics to describe what we do, what we buy, and where we choose to invest. Where does all this data and information come from? And how can these analytics really help us and our businesses do better? Rachel Verron is founder and CEO of Ruby Research, a Baton Rouge based company that offers data, research and analytics services to nonprofit and government clients. Ruby Research helps clients use data to learn, improve and grow. Rachel is a mixed method policy researcher with a personal specialty in human services, child and family policy and a passion for the nonprofit space. Before founding the firm in mid-2021, she was director of business intelligence and analytics at the LSU Foundation. Prior to that she was an analyst Louisiana Economic Development. Rachel says Ruby Research represents a coming home to what she feels is her true vocation: putting the best of her knowledge and energy to work in loving service to her community. Lex Adams is CEO of Crimer, a software company that uses AI and analytics to predict patterns of a crime, to stop crime BEFORE it's committed. Lex and some of his computer science buddies created Crimer in 2018 while they were still students at LSU. In the years since, they've gotten a lot of attention with their software, which pulls data from a variety of sources, feeds it into an A.I. system, then it spits information predicting where crime will happen. You may remember Lex's name: he was a guest on this show in 2020, during the height of the COVID lockdown when we recorded remotely. Since then, Lex has gone on to form two spinoff companies – Vigilus, a startup that specializes in web and app development for businesses, and Griffin Games, a tiny startup that does video game development.  Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find Photos from this show at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.