Podcasts about Uptown New Orleans

If you’ve got a high school kid in public school in New Orleans and your kid is interested in pursuing anything in the arts – like music, dance, theater, film, even creative writing – you find out pretty quickly, the school doesn’t have a budget for that. To put on a play, publish a newspaper, learn dance, or most other musical and artistic pursuits, the funds required generally come from fundraisers, or parents’ pockets. Now, when you get to a public high school like NOCCA – the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts – where education and excellence in the arts is the very reason for its existence – it would be impossible to expect bake sales or parents to foot the bill for those expenses. So where does that money come from? It comes from an organization dedicated to raising the funds that help power NOCCA, called the NOCCA Foundation. Adonis Rose is a NOCCA graduate who has gone on to a successful career as a jazz musician. Adonis has won a Grammy, he’s played on every stage that matters - including Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center - he’s accompanied legends like Dianne Reeves and Wynton Marsalis, and since 2024 he’s been Executive Director of the NOCCA Foundation. One of the arts your high school kid might like to study is film. If they do, maybe they’ll graduate and go to film school. And then, if they want to be in the film business they’ll have to move to someplace else where they make movies. Because everybody here seems to agree that apart from a few brief and wonderful years when we were known as “Hollywood South,” there’s no way to have a career in the film business in New Orleans. Don’t tell that to Kenny Morrison. Kenny has been making a nationwide career for himself as a New Orleans-based film-maker since 2001. He principally makes high-end and big-budget commercials – many of which you have certainly seen - for the likes of banks, shoes, hospitals and insurance companies. Kenny is what’s known in the film business as a triple threat – director, cinematographer, and an entrepreneurial film technologist, pioneering cutting-edge visual effects through his virtual-production company, Lucy XR. It used to be generally accepted that there were real jobs – like lawyers, doctors and plumbers – and then there were b.s. jobs like actors, musicians, and film makers. We don’t think so much like that anymore. Maybe it changed because an actor, Ronald Reagan, became one of the most popular Republican presidents of the 20th Century. Jay Z had a successful career as a musician before creating a music business empire. Artists have made millions of dollars selling works of art in the crypto space as NFT’s. Online content creators clean up collaborating with fashion houses and sneaker manufacturers. The demarcation line between art and business has gotten blurred. Locally, Adonis Rose and Kenny Morrison continue to demonstrate that creativity and commerce can happily co-exist. And that’s a lesson we need to take to heart here in New Orleans, perhaps more than any city in the country. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. Andrew Ward sits in hosting for Peter Ricchiuti. You can find photos from this show at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m sitting at a table with two people: Patrick and Conway. In front of me, there’s a knife. I could use the knife to cut the food on my plate. Or I could lunge across the table and stab Conway with it. If I did that, what would you say Patrick is supposed to do? He could do nothing. He could call 911 – to get an ambulance for Conway and a cop to arrest me. Or he could intervene – try and subdue me before I hurt Conway or other people. That is, in fact, more or less what Patrick Young actually does. Every day. For 3 years Patrick was the Director of Gun Violence Prevention for the City of New Orleans. In 2024 he founded 4 Social Peace. It’s the first organization in the country dedicated solely to digital community violence intervention. 4 Social Peace focuses on the links between threats and aggression on social media, real world crime, and the struggles of people trying to re-integrate after being released from incarceration. It's rooted in Patrick’s lived experience. Well, the good news is, I didn’t stab Conway Solomon, so I can tell you - he’s Co-Founder and CEO of a company called Wrstbnd. We first met Conway in 2020 when we were doing Out to Lunch on Zoom because of the pandemic and Conway had plenty of time on his hands because nobody was going to a live event where they’d be needing a hi-tech electronic wristband to get in the door. That was then. Today Wrstbnd is a real-world applied technology success story. It’s – as the name suggests - a wristband - that’s also an integrated event organization gadget and platform - kind of like a live event version of the Apple Watch or the Oura Ring. A person attending an event gets an electronic wristband that, first of all, allows people to flow into a big event in almost real time without stopping to have a ticket checked. The Wrstbnd knows whether people are VIPs or have special needs and tracks their whereabouts. It can be used for super-fast transactions – think, speeding up the lines for drinks, food or merch. Wrstbnd partners with international event promotion company AEG, one of the producers of New Orleans Jazz Fest. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

629. Chad Adams returns to the podcast to discuss his new novella, Rapacity. “A desolate young girl finds herself trapped in rising floodwaters after her little brother is tragically killed in a hit and run accident during a catastrophic hurricane. As she and her mother fight to overcome their grief and the wrath of the storm, her faceless assailant sits out of harm's way with callous disregard for their struggles.” “Born and raised in Southeast Louisiana, Chad Adams has a love for the outdoors that dates back to early childhood fishing trips with his dad along the state's beautiful gulf coast. His articles about duck hunting can be found in Louisiana Sportsman” (Amazon). Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 221 years. Order your copy today! This week in Louisiana history. June 7. 1892. Homer Plessy is arrested for taking a seat on a train that was marked "Whites Only." This week in New Orleans history. On Tuesday, June 7, 1983, the B-52's performed aboard the S.S. President steamboat river cruise. The show began at 9 p.m. for a $12.00 admission. This week in Louisiana. The Audubon Zoo 6500 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70118 Open Thursday – Monday 10AM – 5PM Last entry at 4:30PM Closed Tuesday & Wednesday (800) 774-7394 Website World-renowned Audubon Zoo is a 58-acre beautifully landscaped setting in historic Uptown New Orleans with award-winning natural habitat exhibits and a wide variety of more than 1,700 striking, rare and endangered animals representing more than 350 species of Africa, Central America, the Louisiana Swamp, and more. This AZA-accredited Top 10 zoo provides an unforgettable and authentic New Orleans experience. Cool Zoo with a lazy river, water soakers and slides is open seasonally. Postcards from Louisiana. Louisiana Book Festival Band. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook. 

New Orleans is a city of neighborhoods. 73 of them. Each one of these neighborhoods has its own flavor, its unique characteristics, and residents who can tell you about people who were brought up there and went on to do something notable. Claus Sadlier grew up in Old Metairie. It’s possible you don’t know who Claus is. If you’ve stopped at a coffee shop to grab a cup of joe to go - Claus is the guy who invented the paper cup you got your coffee in. Back in the early 90’s, when to-go coffee was still sold in Styrofoam cups, Claus created an insulated paper cup. And sold the design to Dixie Cups for $170 million. Claus went on to invent other stuff as well. Then in 2013, having conquered the world, he followed his heart back to New Orleans. He bought a home in the French Quarter and decided to use some of his good fortune to celebrate a singular New Orleans neighborhood and its claim to fame: prostitution. In September 2024, after years of research, planning and design, Claus Sadlier opened The New Orleans Storyville Museum. It’s been many years since New Orleans had a legal sex-worker district. But we’re still a city that proudly runs on our reputation for fun - from restaurants, bars, and drinking on the street, to music festivals and corporate conventions. A lot of this hospitality and tourist industry – and its allied occupations like security, sanitation, and infrastructure maintenance – is powered by people who don’t make a lot of money. As the city gets more prosperous, these folks, who are the heart and soul of New Orleans’ economy, don’t benefit from gentrification if they don’t own a house. And if they’re renting, they can end up being priced out of their neighborhood. That’s where Oji Alexander’s business, People’s Housing Plus, comes in. People's Housing Plus is a property development company. They buy land, build houses, and sell or rent them. But only to low and moderate income New Orleanians. By controlling every step of the process, from financing through construction, houses are affordable. And with a stewardship program that continues after a sale, continued maintenance is affordable too. It’s sometimes hard to describe to people who don’t live in New Orleans exactly what makes it such a unique place. Yes, it’s physically beautiful to look at, the food’s great, there’s always good music, it’s relatively affordable, and the climate is – with a few exceptions – mostly pleasant. But none of that adequately explains the actual experience of living here. The next time you’re looking for a way to explain what that’s like, you might point to this episode of Out to Lunch. You could describe it like this: “In a historic building on the most exclusive tree-lined avenue in the city, as streetcars rattle by, a successful design engineer who invented the paper coffee cup and built a museum celebrating jazz, gambling and prostitution, has lunch with a property developer building houses for low income citizens – and nobody’s in a hurry to get anywhere when it’s over.” Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You may have heard people who started up businesses talking about how they found investors. Typically, they’ll say something like, “We pitched our idea and raised X amount.” It sounds simple. But when you dig a little deeper, delivering a successful pitch to investors is not quite as straightforward as describing your business as “The Uber of dating” or “Air BnB for pets.” Financing a startup requires convincing investors or lenders they’re taking a worthwhile risk. Crafting this calculated risk into a convincing sales pitch - which can be in the shape of a business plan or a presentation known as a “pitch deck” – is a special skill. And it’s what Camille Terk does at her company, Terk Consulting. Tey Stiteler came up with her idea for a business after she and her partner bought 4 acres of land near Poplarville, Mississippi. Tey was looking for a reason to quit her desk-job and work outdoors. With absolutely no background in farming or horticulture, Tey started growing flowers. She grew a lot of flowers. And started meeting other people who grew flowers. Tey began selling her flowers at markets and pop-ups around New Orleans. Then in 2024 when she went all-in and opened a brick and mortar business on Camp Street. It’s called, The Secret Spot Flowers. There’s a question I’ve heard interviewers ask people. It’s, “If you could go back in time to when you were starting out, what would you tell your younger self?” I don't ask either Camille or Tey this question but there’s no doubt that if they, and most people, knew what roadblocks and curveballs and just downright weird, unexpected things were going to come up when they started down the path of founding and running a business, they might question their optimism and the wisdom of blind faith. On the other hand, when things work out, as they have so far for Tey and Camille, the ups and downs become a bunch of great stories. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are countless myths and reports throughout human history of places where spirits come down to earth. Where the intangible meets the material world. In the US, there are few places that better demonstrate this crossroads than New Orleans. People have tried to explain how the joy of living here triumphs over everyday things like dysfunction and potholes, with slogans like “The Big Easy,” and “The city that care forgot.” One of the locations you can witness this triumph of the spirit is the corner of Napoleon Avenue and Tchoupitoulas Street. No, not Rouse’s. Across the street. At Tipitina’s music club. Keith Spera from the Times Picayune has called Tipitina’s, “a sacred space.” Dr. John called it, “The church of the funky saints.” And Jazz Fest co-founder Quint Davis has referred to it as, “The Vatican of New Orleans music.” Tipitina’s was founded in 1977 by a bunch of young people who knew nothing about business, music promotion, running a restaurant, a bar, or a radio station – it was the original home of WWOZ. These folks just wanted a place that celebrated New Orleans musicians and gave them a stage to play on - and a guarantee they’d actually get the money that people paid to come see them. In 2018, history repeated itself when the members of the New Orleans band Galactic bought Tipitina’s. Musicians are not typically known for their firm grasp of the music business, but the doors are still open and the revenue streams have diversified, including a record business called Tipitina’s Record Club. Robert Mercurio is the bass player in Galactic, part owner of the legendary Tipitina’s music club, and Co-Founder of Tipitina’s Record Club. Besides music, there’s another strand of New Orleans where art meets commerce, and where, literally, the rubber meets the road. Motorcycle design and manufacture. It’s a lot less celebrated than our place in the history of music, but if you know a thing or two about motorbikes you’ll know my other lunch guest today, J.T. Nesbitt. J.T designed and was part of the team that produced motorcycles called The Wraith, the G2 Hellcat and The Magnolia Special, for Confederate Motorcycles, and later an electric bike, The Curtiss One. They’re all elegant works of art and powerful machines. Today, JT is designing and building a new line of bikes under the banner of his own company, Bienville Studios. Currently he’s building a bike called the Magnolia 4. We find out all about it in this edition of Out to Lunch but for now all you need to know is Jay Leno has one on order. The Tipitina’s logo with the half-peeled banana is a New Orleans icon. For locals and live music lovers everywhere it’s as recognizable as the Nike swoosh or the Mercedes hood ornament. Nike and Mercedes spend millions of dollars each year to keep their brands in front of people. Tipitina’s brand is spread mostly by people paying them – to buy a T-shirt or baseball cap. The lesson being, when you have a product people genuinely care about and cherish, it sells itself. The same philosophy can be applied to the motorbikes coming out of Bienville Studios. Robert Mercurio and J.T. Nesbitt are both at the helm of very different but equally unique and valuable New Orleans pieces of art and commerce. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the 1800’s Thomas Edison invented, among other things, the light bulb, the record player, and the first motion picture capture device which paved the way for the birth of movies. Was Thomas Edison a genius? In response to that question Edison said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Meaning, you can have a great idea, but you also have to have the tenacity and work ethic to bring it to life. So, how do you do that? New Orleans’ two most recently successful companies, Lucid – which sold for over one billion dollars, and Levelset, which sold for 500 million - were both founded with assistance from business accelerator, The Idea Village. Today, a lot of entrepreneurs owe their foundational steps, and their growth, to business accelerators and incubators. Okay, but what if you have a great idea for a business, and you don’t get accepted to a business incubator? Or maybe you live in a place where there is no incubator, accelerator, or even anyone who can give you any business advice at all. Then what do you do? Then, you ask Solomon. Solomon is an AI-powered business accelerator. But the business guidance you’re going to get from it is not generic AI advice pulled off the internet. Solomon’s business advice is drawn from the experience of real humans, who Solomon refers to as “Luminaries.” One of these luminaries is Chris Meaux. Chris is the grandfather of Louisiana startups, the founder of the revolutionary food delivery app Waitr. At Waitr Chris came up with the technology that took food delivery beyond pizza and Chinese food to all restaurants, and paved the way for a generational change in dining in. Today, Chris is Co-Founder of a company called QiMana. It’s the company that created Solomon. Peter's other lunch guest, Chuck Perrett, had an architectural inspiration. Chuck is not an architect. He grew up in a family business that printed architectural blueprints. With the advent of the internet, architects started relying less on printed blueprints and instead started emailing contractors and sub-contractors. Now, if you’ve ever tried to organize anything more complex than dinner for two by email, you know what a cluster that can turn into. So, imagine how unwieldy an email chain gets when you’re trying to communicate about construction and design issues with contractors and sub-contractors. That’s why Chuck Perrett was inspired to create Centerline, a 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. There are only so many hours in a day. You can fill them doing any number of things. You can go to work, you can come home and relax, maybe go see a movie, watch TV, write poetry, play sports... Or you could invent an online business consultancy Or reinvent architectural communication. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maybe this has happened to you. You stumble onto a great new show on Netflix - and when you tell your friends about it, everybody seems to know about it already. But for some reason you never got the memo. Peter's lunch guests today don’t have shows on Netflix, but they both have unique stories and successful businesses that maybe you know all about, but in Peter's orbit they’ve flown under the radar. Until now. Haley Saucier is the owner of Espiritu Mezcaleria and Cocina. It’s a Mexican restaurant. But it’s Haley’s focus on Mezcal that sets her business apart - not just from other New Orleans restaurants but from bars and restaurants everywhere. With over 100 types of Mezcal and tequila, Espiritu offers a specialty Master Mezcal Certification program that’s the only school of its type recognized outside of Mexico. It’s so legit that if you take the Mezcal course at Espiritu you get Mexican college credits. And that’s just one aspect of Haley Saucier’s intriguing business and life story. Danielle Smith has an equally intriguing story and business. Danielle is the owner of Elektra Cosmetics. The company specializes in glitter. Danielle was working in healthcare when she bought Elektra Cosmetics for $5,000 off a person she met at a burlesque conference. That was 2016. When Danielle moved to New Orleans she started selling glitter to burlesque performers and cheerleaders. Then she realized she’s living in a city where women don’t quit glitter when they age out of shopping at Claire’s. Today Danielle calls Elektra Cosmetics, “glitter for grownups” and her average customers are women from 30-60, including soccer moms and sports fans. Elektra Cosmetics has over 100 different types of glitter gels. They’ve supplied glitter to corporate clients like Nike, Crown Royal, and Dr Pepper. And, probably needless to say, Danielle has left her career in healthcare to dedicate herself to brightening the world with glitter. People have various explanations for why things happen the way they do. Haley was kind enough to cover a couple of bar shifts for a friend - and that led eventually to her becoming an authority on Mezcal and owning Espiritu. Danielle's unplanned encounter with a person who was selling a glitter company led her away from a life in healthcare and into a career in cosmetics. Whether you put these inciting incidents down to the Universe having a plan for you, sheer chance, or simply a series of bold decisions, there’s no doubt that the hard work that both these entrepreneurs have put in since starting down these paths is what has turned these intriguing ideas into booming businesses. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m going to hit you with some statistics. About women. Here’s the first one: Around 50% of the population in the US are women. You probably knew that one. Here’s another one. Women-owned businesses. According to the National Association of Women Business Owners, 42% of existing US businesses are owned by women. So, pretty good. Right? Now, we move on to entrepreneurs. This one’s not so good. Of all the people who start up and run a new business – only 20-25% are women. So, now we get to - the percentage of venture capital invested in those startup businesses. What percentage of venture capital goes to women startup entrepreneurs? You’re probably picking up on the trend here: downward. We’ve gone from around 50%, to 42 to 25. So, if this downward slide were to continue steadily, you might expect women entrepreneurs only receive 15% of all investment capital in the US. That would be pretty dismal. Wouldn’t it? Given that they make up 25% of the startup population. The actual statistic is 2%. As extraordinary as it may seem going into the second quarter of the 21st century, women entrepreneurs in the United States receive merely 2% of all venture capital. That’s why, here in New Orleans, Jane Cooper and her colleagues run an investment company called Flamingo Funders. Flamingo Funders are a group of women investors who invest in women founders. They started in 2022 and so far they’ve invested close to quarter of a million dollars in 6 companies. Tiffany Langlinais started her business, Freret Napoleon, in 2014. Back then Tiffany was making handmade jewelry out of oyster shells. She went from selling a few, to getting featured in several fashion shows, and soon her jewelry was available in 55 stores across the country. Tiffany figured if she could take her own product and market it successfully, she could probably do the same for other people’s products too. That’s why today Freret Napoleon is a marketing firm that offers a wide range of services and boasts an impressive list of clients as interesting as Cane River Pecan Company and Piety & Desire Chocolates, and as diverse as Brennans and The Bulldog. The namesakes of Tiffany's company, Freret and Napoleon, were both men who had an impact on New Orleans. William Freret was mayor of New Orleans in the 1800’s, and Napoleon was… well, without the Louisiana Purchase who knows what the fate of New Orleans may have been? Throughout the history of New Orleans there have also been a number of significant women, including Marie Laveau, Ruby Bridges, Mahalia Jackson, and in business the colorful Norma Wallace. Flamingo Funders may well find and fund the next successful woman to come from New Orleans, and Freret Napoleon may well get to represent them. That would be a certain kind of poetic justice. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People typically get invited onto shows like this because they’re successful. So, it will come as no surprise to you that my two guests on Out to Lunch today have success stories. What might surprise you, is the magnitude of their success. Cathy Deano is the founder of Painting With a Twist. It’s a pretty simple concept: you get one or two friends together, you go to a Painting With A Twist studio, you get given a canvas and paints, and with the gentle guidance of the resident artist, you sip wine and paint a painting. Cathy lives in Mandeville and founded the company in 2007. When her local studios started getting popular, Cathy started franchising the concept. Today, there are over 230 Painting With A Twist franchises, in 38 states. Over 5 million people have created over 10 million paintings. 86% of Painting With A Twist customers have gone more than once, and 51% have visited 6 times or more. Painting With A Twist is a genuine franchise success story. And its corporate headquarters is still in Mandeville. Sami Khan is a graduate of Tulane Business School, and the creator of an online game called Atlas Earth. The world is divided into two kinds of people. Those who say, “Wow, Sami Khan is here?” And those who say, “What the heck is Atlas Earth?” If you fall into the latter category, Atlas Earth is the number-one ranked, top-grossing gaming app in its category in the United Sates - and in every other country where it has launched. It’s a digital re-creation of the real world in which players buy digital real estate that corresponds to real estate properties on earth. You can’t buy just anything though, you have to be in actual real-world proximity to what you’re buying. Players buy and sell properties using digital currency called “Atlas Bucks,” which they can also earn by buying real-world products at participating vendors like Sonic, Popeyes, and Jimmy Johns. Atlas Earth is a hybrid digital-real-world experience, like Mark Zuckerberg was envisaging when he launched Meta. Except Atlas Earth has over 850,000 monthly users, three times more than Meta’s Active Universe had at its peak. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you’re a visual artist and you have an idea for something you want to create, there’s not much standing between you and making your vision a reality. Maybe just a piece of paper and a pencil. However, if your idea for a new creation is a business, well, things are a bit more complex. If you grew up in a community or a family who were not business-people, or you didn’t get a business education, you might have little idea of what is even required to launch a business. On top of that, if you’re a member of a minority community you may find there are other layers of difficulty that present even more obstacles. And this is where a New Orleans organization called Camelback Ventures comes in. Camelback Ventures describe themselves as “a rigorous venture accelerator, providing capital, coaching and community for innovative entrepreneurs.” Because, they say, genius is equally distributed, but opportunity is not, they’re here to right the balance. The CEO of Camelback Ventures is Shawna Young. Once you’ve got your business up and running, a big problem you come up against is growth. You need to hire people. You need to pay them. And you need to keep them happy, so they don’t leave. Each one of these steps is more challenging than you might think at the outset. Hiring requires finding the right people, and knowing how to interview them, so there are no surprises later. Paying employees requires complying with a maze of taxation and accounting procedures. And holding on to good employees requires knowing something about incentivizing a workforce. You probably didn’t get into business to do any of this. And if you don’t want to deal with it you can turn to a local payroll and HR company, called Crescent Payroll and HR. The founder and president of Crescent Payroll and HR is Sanders Offner. There’s a difference between a great idea and, well, everything that follows. Getting married is a great idea. Being married is a whole other thing. Similarly, starting a business, though far from simple, is largely exciting and fun – it’s a challenging process of discovery. Running a business, on the other hand, is an exercise in constant problem-solving that ranges from coping with the mundanity of office supplies to the grand vision of growth. Shawna is focused on starting businesses. Sanders is focused on running them. These two processes are inextricably interdependent in a manner that’s best expressed by Frank Sinatra and lyricist Sammy Cahn: “You can’t have one without the other.” Andrew Ward sits in for Peter Ricchiuti on this edition of Out to unch, recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You can do a lot with money. After you’ve spent it on necessities like food, housing, and education, if you’ve got money to spare you can buy stuff. Or, you can use your excess money to make more money. There are fundamentally two ways of doing this. Investing. And gambling. There are people who will argue that those two are actually the same. It’ll be interesting to see if my lunch guests today draw any similarity between their two occupations – which are, investing and gambling. On the investment side, Mike Eckert is Chairman of an organization called Gulf South Angels. The word “angels” refers to angel investors. These are people who put money into very early-stage businesses where there might be little more to invest in than a concept, a business plan, and an enthusiastic founder. The last time we met Mike was 2014. At that time he was launching a New Orleans angel investment group called NOLA Angel Network. That was to become the nucleus of the current, much larger organization. Gulf South Angels network is spread across 12 states. There are around 135 angel members. And to date they’ve invested over $20m in a diverse range of companies, from aerospace to pet food. And so, to the other method of using your surplus capital to generate more money: gambling. If you’re a certain age you may remember a time when there was no legalized gambling in the state of Louisiana. The state legislature eventually figured out a way to compromise between the anti-gambling faction and the pro-gambling folks, by allowing gambling, without actually allowing it. They achieved this seemingly impossible feat by permitting gambling only on riverboats, not on land. But they also allowed riverboats to tie up to a dock, and didn’t require them to actually sail anywhere. One of these gambling vessels was the Treasure Chest Casino Riverboat, tied up to a dock in Kenner. Well, as they tend to, times change. Somehow, the non-gambling folks were won over and today Louisiana has a number of what we still call, “land-based casinos.” In June 2024, just over the levee from the riverboat, a much bigger, land-based casino and entertainment center, called The Treasure Chest, opened in Kenner’s Laketown neighborhood. The Director of Marketing at Treasure Chest Casino is Rodney Miller. In the 1980’s, a book about deal-making called “Getting To Yes” popularized the concept of “win win” – conflict resolution in which both parties feel they have benefited, rather than one side winning at the expense of the other. This same feeling - that everybody benefits - is the core belief of both casinos and angel investors. At the casino, the theory goes, even if you don’t come out ahead financially, you’ve had a good time. And, like any other pastime, hopefully you only spent discretionary capital, not your rent money. With angel investing, the theory goes, you’re risking your own money by sinking it into somebody else’s dream - but if it works out, everybody wins. Whether this is how you think the world works, or whether you’re more of a cynic with less of a Pollyanna perspective, there are always going to be people with discretionary income looking for a way to invest it. Whether that’s gambling or angel investing, for Mike and Rodney it’s win-win. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chinese cooking has been a part of the American dining scene since the mid-1800s and remains an integral aspect of the industry today. This week, we take an in-depth look at the Chinese restaurant tradition from a variety of perspectives. For decades, the parking lot was always full at the little red building just across the parish line from New Orleans. Inside, a packed house of diners could be found happily munching on dim sum and other Cantonese dishes at Royal China Restaurant. In 2021, after forty-plus years in business, Shirley Lee and her husband Chef Tang Lee decided to retire. But now they are back with their new restaurant, Miss Shirley's on Magazine Street in Uptown New Orleans. That hostess with the mostest and her daughter who helps run the business, Carling Lee, visited our studio to tell us how restaurateurs-turned-retirees turned restaurateurs again. Next, we talk to Curtis Chin, who came of age in Detroit at a Chinese restaurant run by multiple generations of his family. Like many immigrant families, Curtis' parents worked long, hard hours running their business with time for little else. But they made sure that their children were exposed to the wider world and all it had to offer. Curtis reflects on the lessons he took from that childhood experience in his memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. Finally, Chef Andrew Lu joins us. Having grown up in Lafayette, the child of immigrants from China, Andrew is truly an Asian Cajun. And nowhere is that more apparent than in the name of his popular pop-up restaurant – Get Your Mom and Dim Sum. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

Chinese cooking has been a part of the American dining scene since the mid-1800s and remains an integral aspect of the industry today. This week, we take an in-depth look at the Chinese restaurant tradition from a variety of perspectives. For decades, the parking lot was always full at the little red building just across the parish line from New Orleans. Inside, a packed house of diners could be found happily munching on dim sum and other Cantonese dishes at Royal China Restaurant. In 2021, after forty-plus years in business, Shirley Lee and her husband Chef Tang Lee decided to retire. But now they are back with their new restaurant, Miss Shirley's on Magazine Street in Uptown New Orleans. That hostess with the mostest and her daughter who helps run the business, Carling Lee, visited our studio to tell us how restaurateurs-turned-retirees turned restaurateurs again. Next, we talk to Curtis Chin, who came of age in Detroit at a Chinese restaurant run by multiple generations of his family. Like many immigrant families, Curtis' parents worked long, hard hours running their business with time for little else. But they made sure that their children were exposed to the wider world and all it had to offer. Curtis reflects on the lessons he took from that childhood experience in his memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. Finally, Chef Andrew Lu joins us. Having grown up in Lafayette, the child of immigrants from China, Andrew is truly an Asian Cajun. And nowhere is that more apparent than in the name of his popular pop-up restaurant – Get Your Mom and Dim Sum. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

We use numbers to measure all kinds of things. Inches, pounds, degrees, birthdays… Numbers that denote height, weight, and temperature, are culturally neutral. Numbers that measure years are not. We give select numbers of years special significance. 18, you can vote. 21, you can buy alcohol. 65 you can collect social security. We regard numbers that measure decades as milestones. One hundred is the big one. 50 years - half-way there – and 25 years - a quarter-way there - are big deals too. So, when 2025 rolled around we went looking for businesses for whom this quarter century point was significant. We found two. Café Reconcile was founded in 2000. Their 25th birthday is 2025. They’re a restaurant and a workforce development program. They hire kids aged 16-24 who are at risk or might have already made regrettable decisions. They train these young people in all aspects of the hospitality industry, with the goal of graduating them into careers in New Orleans restaurants, hotels, and other places of employment beyond hospitality. And talking of the significance of the number 25, Café Reconcile has been recognized by no less than the New York Times as one of New Orleans’ 25 best restaurants. Our other business for whom 2025 is a significant milestone is a small Mid City ice cream store and bakery with a giant reputation and massive following, simply named after its founder, Angelo Brocato. Angelo opened his store in 1905, making 2025 the business’s 120th birthday. Today, Angelo’s grandson, Arthur, owns and runs the business. If you had $10 for every time someone said, “New Orleans is known for its food” you’d be able to pay for a lot of meals at Café Reconcile and buy a lot of Angelo Brocato’s ice cream. But that sentence is a little misleading. If you live here, you know it’s not our food we’re known for. It’s the history, the culture, the time, the love, and the intangible elements that create this unique city that somehow find their way into the food. It's not the catfish at Café Reconcile or the Mint Chocolate Chip gelato at Angelo Brocato’s… Well, okay it is that – but it’s also people like Kheri and the quarter century of caring at Café Reconcile, and like Arthur, his family and 120 years of joy at Angelo Brocato’s that make New Orleans New Orleans. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Not too long ago, people who had an office job talked about “being chained to a desk.” Today, a desk job is the most liberating of all employment options. Your desk can be at your house, in a coffee shop, in your van, or at what’s come to be called a “co-working space.” Co-working spaces are typically modeled after the re-imagined office that was born back in the day when Google and Facebook were startups. It’s a mashup of an office, coffee shop, private club, and event space. And the best part is, the boss is never going to walk in – because there is no boss. You rent the desk yourself on an annual or monthly basis. Peter's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch both have co-working spaces – one on the Northshore in Covington, the other in New Orleans, in the Arts District. In Covington, Bradley Cook is Co-Founder of Palette Northshore, modeled to some extent after sister Palette co-working spaces in Florida and New York. In New Orleans, Hugh Breckenridge is Community Manager at The Shop Workspace in The Contemporary Arts Center on Camp Street. The Shop also has locations in Salt Lake City and Brooklyn, New York. If you listen to podcasts and radio shows about business, or keep up with the finance punditocracy on TV, you’ll hear people pontificate about “The Future of Work.” Like everything else about the future, nobody knows anything. Not for sure, anyway. What we do know, though, is the tyranny of the office cubicle is a relic of the past. Multiple studies find a significant majority of white-collar workers prefer some form of remote work, and over 30% say they would quit a job if they were compelled to show up at the office every day. This demand for the freedom to work out of the office will more than likely ensure the popularity of co-working spaces well into any foreseeable future. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In most cities in the US, after you’ve blown it out on New Year’s Eve, if you want another socially approved excuse to party you have to wait a bit. Memorial Day is 5 months away. At best you might be able to get away with Spring Break – that’s about 4 months. Here in New Orleans, you have less than a week till the next round of society-sanctioned excessive eating, drinking and socializing begins. January 6th is 12th night, the official beginning of Mardi Gras. That’s when the first parades begin. And, traditionally, when bakers start selling king cake. Since 2019, it’s also opening day of a king cake lover’s paradise: King Cake Hub. King Cake Hub is Jennifer Samuels’ 2-month a year business. It’s a single location where you can get practically every variety of king cake available in New Orleans. Currently there are 80 of them. They’re baked by 25 different bakers. And the King Cake Hub collection is curated - meaning Jennifer tastes and approves every king cake. New Orleans - a city on the banks of the Mississippi River - takes its name from Orléans, a city on the banks of the Loire River, in France. We can argue about who New Orleans’ most famous citizen is – probably Louis Armstrong - but undoubtedly Orléans’ most famous citizen is The Maid of Orleans. Her name was Jeanne d’Arc and she became known to the English-speaking world as Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc’s birthday is January 6th. Which is also, as I mentioned, 12th night, the first night of Mardi Gras. It was that fact, and the feeling that 12th night wasn’t being celebrated with enough inclusive diversity in New Orleans, that led Amy Kirk Duvoisin to found the Joan of Arc Project. The flagship activity of the Joan of Arc Project is the Joan of Arc Parade, on 12th night. It’s a walking parade set in Joan’s era, the 1400’s, with medieval costumes, music, characters on horseback, and roving entertainers like jugglers and stilt walkers. The paraders have Medieval throws – and king cake. If you don’t know anything else about New Orleans, you know we’re the home of Mardi Gras – the biggest, rowdiest, annual street party in the country. If you live in New Orleans, Mardi Gras is more than just a party. It’s more than just a whole lot of parties. It’s part of the fabric of the city – from our culture to our economy. And, like other aspects of culture and economics, it’s not static. It changes. And evolves. These evolutions are mostly the result of innovations that come from the creative minds of New Orleanians, like Jennifer Samuels and Amy Kirk Duvoisin. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve long known, in the US, that our global economic advantage rests on an educated workforce. To that end, a couple of generations ago, America was virtually alone in providing free, readily available high school education. As knowledge-based industries have grown, so has the demand for a higher-educated workforce. Today, over 60% of US high school graduates go on to college. That’s almost twice the number of other OECD countries including Japan, Germany, and France. This has created a segment of the finance industry that loans money to students. Students who then graduate with debt significant enough to prevent them from doing other things, like buying a house. At the same time, we have a housing crisis in the US. According to NPR’s reporting, right now we have a shortfall of up to 7 million houses. Education, debt-distribution, and the housing shortage might seem like huge, intractable macro-economic issues. But, locally, right here in New Orleans, Aaron Frumin is doing something to correct them. Aaron is founder and CEO of unCommon Construction. It’s a construction company that builds houses. And it gets a significant portion of its workforce from high schools. High school students spend 100 hours each semester as apprentices, learning all aspects of construction, from swinging a hammer to team leadership. We first met Aaron back in 2018, when unCommon Construction was just getting rolling. Today, unCommon Construction has filled 500 apprenticeship positions, distributed over half a million dollars in scholarships, and over 80% of kids who graduate from their work-skills program go into the construction industry. Also back in 2018, we first learned about an atypical property development company, Alembic Community Development. Alembic partners with non-profit organizations, or like-minded for-profits, to develop real estate in typically disadvantaged communities. In other words, they build houses, community and commercial properties, in neighborhoods that are unattractive to most investors. Starting out in New York, Alembic opened its doors in New Orleans in 2007. In 2008 Mike Grote joined the company as Director of its New Orleans office. It’s a position Mike still holds today. There are a lot of things in New Orleans that are different from most other cities in the country: Gumbo, Bourbon Street, second-lines, muffulettas, Mardi Gras, the list goes on. But our much-vaunted fun-first lifestyle doesn’t immunize us from the problems that afflict the rest of the country - especially around the issues of affordable housing, and alternatives to debt-laden college education. While the public image of New Orleans focuses on frivolity, and while Aaron and Mike enjoy Mardi Gras and live music as much as any other New Orleanian, they’re both making significant contributions to solving serious, nationwide problems. We're always happy when Out ot Lunch can shine a light on New Orleanians like Aaron and Mike and businesses like unCommon Construction and Almebic Community Development whose contributions to our city and country are overshadowed by the brighter lights of food and fun. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Orleans has given the world all kinds of music. We refer to ourselves as the birthplace of jazz. We’re one of the principal breeding grounds of funk, bounce, and brass band music. And then there’s a style of piano playing that’s so identifiably from here it’s simply called, “New Orleans piano.” Generations of legendary New Orleans piano players became identified with the places they played. Fats Domino at the Dew Drop Inn. Professor Longhair at Tipitina’s. James Booker at The Maple Leaf. Today you can hear masters of New Orleans piano like Jon Cleary, Tom McDermott, Joe Krown, and others at clubs around town, like Chickie Wah Wah, The Bon Temps, and Buffa’s. Or, you can hear them at your place. You can have an A-list New Orleans piano player show up at your place - with a grand piano - and play your birthday party, wedding, or just a random Friday night, thanks to Jacques Ferland’s business, Piano On A Truck. Piano On A Truck is pretty much what it sounds like. It’s a grand piano on the back of a yellow, 1972 International pick-up truck.And it comes with, or without, a piano player. In our seemingly never-ending attempt to place order on a chaotic world, we like to categorize things into twos - either/or. Tall or short. Black or white. On the rocks or straight up. Today, for a lot of white-collar occupations, the either/or distinction is either working in the office or working from home. Well, like so many things in life, it turns out there’s a 3rd way. Billy Schell describes himself as CEO, owner and van driver of an apparel company called NOLA Shirts. NOLA Shirts designs and manufactures New Orleans themed Polo shirts, T-shirts, and hats, and sells them online or at various brick-and-mortar stores around New Orleans. The “van driver” in Billy’s job description is a reference to the company’s headquarters which are also Billy’s living quarters – a Mercedes Sprinter van that’s been his principal home and office since 2021. Around 5,525 years ago - it was probably a Thursday - in ancient Mesopotamia, the wheel was invented. To say it was a revolutionary invention is not just a bad pun, it’s also the understatement of several millennia. And just when you think every possible use of the wheel has already been thought of, along comes the 21st Century - and hashtag-van-life and Piano On A Truck, two New Orleans entrepreneurs discovering yet more places the revolutions of a wheel can take us. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you’re not a musician, you might occasionally think how great it would be to be a musician. If you are a musician, you might occasionally think how great it must have been to be in The Beatles. New Orleanian Bruce Spizer is not a musician. He’s a lawyer and an accountant. But, not only has he occasionally thought how great it must have been to be in The Beatles, he’s written 16 books about them. Bruce is a world-renowned Beatles expert. He’s been a guest on practically every major American TV news show. He’s made countless TV appearances around the world. He’s a Beatles consultant for Universal Music Group, Capital Records, and Apple Corps – the Beatles’ own label – and he wrote the questions and answers for The Beatles edition of Trivial Pursuit. In case you’re wondering why any of this would make Bruce Spizer a guest on a business show, his book sales alone have earned over $3m. One of his books is selling on Amazon for over $4,000, and there are more books in the works. If you live in New Orleans and you like festivals and live music – and if you don’t, you’re probably planning on leaving – you’ll be familiar with the work of Stephen St. Cyr. If you’re trying to place his name and wondering what band he’s in, or whether he’s maybe a celebrity chef, nope, it’s none of that. Stephen is President of a company called Vivid Ink. Vivid Ink makes visual artwork for festivals and events – like stage banners, sponsor signage, practically everything that’s not food or music, at events like Jazz Fest, Sugar Bowl, Hogs For The Cause, Tales of the Cocktail and a long list of others. There are two branches of Stephen’s company – a Baton Rouge office that works with corporate clients, and the more fun New Orleans division - a big building on Poydras Street where a staff of 29 creates all the live event stuff. It’s kind of nice at this point in their respective careers to talk with Stephen and Bruce about the extraordinary successes they’ve both accomplished. But none of this success was handed to either of them. Their own creativity and hard work has made all of this happen. And it doesn’t look either of them are taking their foot off the gas any time soon. Their future achievments may turn out to be as notable as their histories. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi, it's Peter Ricchiuti. I’ve got a scenario I want to run by you, and I want your opinion. Here’s the situation: It’s morning. I get ready to leave the house. I pick out an outfit, get dressed, I look great. Then my wife says, “You can’t go out looking like that. That shirt doesn’t go with those pants. That tie is hideous. And 1998 called and wants its jacket back.” So, here’s my question. If I think I look great, do I look great? Or is there such a thing as objective, universally agreed style, and could I, in that case, actually look terrible? Not just to my wife, but to everybody. What do you think? On this edition of Out to Lunch, I put that question to Tracee Dundas. Tracee is founder and Executive Producer of New Orleans Fashion Week. She’s the Fashion Correspondent at WVUE-TV, Fox 8, she’s the Program Coordinator at Dress For Success, and for the past 22 years has worked as a freelance fashion writer and editor at Renaissance Publishing. Tracee also produces fashion shows and other fashion events for regional clients, including Essence Festival.If you’re a woman of color with larger breasts, and you want to wear certain fashion-forward clothes you see in stores, or on Instagram, you might run into a snag. And that is, getting your breasts to work with that dress. You can do it - but a bra is not going to work. You’re going to need something called boob tape. There’s a good chance you already know what boob tape is. If you don’t – it’s tape. That holds breasts in place. It looks a bit like duct tape. But when you’re done with it, it peels off your breasts without peeling your skin off with it. When Kaelin Bass went looking for boob tape, all she could find was tape that was too small to do the job for her breasts. And it was all made to match skin tones that weren’t hers. So Kaelin created her own boob tape. And in 2020 she started her own company, KM Boobies. Today you can find KM Boobies Boob Tape all over, including on Amazon and at Walmart. Kaelin is selling up to 4,000 rolls of boob tape a month. In business – like pretty much everything in life – you enjoy the greatest security when things are predictable. When you know what’s coming around the corner, when you know what tomorrow’s going to look like, you can plan for a known future. Well, fashion is the exact opposite of that. The only way fashion moves forward is by changing. And the only way to stay relevant in the fashion business is to stay ahead of the trend and embrace the unpredictable. It's not a business lifestyle for the faint of heart. Tracee and Kaelin are both carving out successful careers in this world: they're both creating businesses and products that weren’t there before they came along. And they're both doing it from here in New Orleans. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you're talking with someone and they want to know what final conclusion you want them to draw from your conversation, they might ask you, “What's the bottom line?” The origin of the term, “the bottom line,” is business accounting. It refers to the literal bottom line of a financial statement - a company's profit or loss. This literal bottom line is what we typically regard as the sole point of a business: the bigger the profit, the better the business. But today there are also businesses we refer to as Triple Bottom Line. These companies have three equal categories of success: profit, people, and purpose. Both of Peter's guests on Out to Lunch today have founded triple bottom line companies here in New Orleans. Along with his partner, Charon Flowers Maple, Spencer Davis co-founded Bypass Lines in 2020. Bypass Lines works with local restaurants, caterers and retailers. It promotes them to customers who support non-profit causes. Each time Bypass Lines delivers food or products to these customers, they give a portion of the proceeds to the customer's chosen charity. As of right now, Bypass Lines report they've supported over 100 catering businesses, delivered over 1,000 online food orders, and over $1m has been processed through their platform. Lauren Darnell founded her company, Porch & Okra Consulting, in 2023. Porch & Okra's clients are mainly restaurant owners and other hospitality industry leaders looking to expand diversity, and improve conditions for employees in the hospitality and restaurant business - one of the most vital sectors of the New Orleans economy.  How many of us care enough about other people to devote our professional lives to helping them? Not many. Spencer, Lauren and their companies, Bypass Lines and Porch & Okra Consulting, are exceptions to the rule. Making other people's welfare the focus of a business - and putting people and purpose on an equal plane as profit - is ambitious. It's hard work that requires multiple levels of planning and execution. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When we text each other we use acronyms and abbreviations like OMG and LOL to convey meaning and emotion. And then there's IRL – In Real Life. We use that to signal that we know the difference between the digital universe and reality. Online, you can play a first-person-shooter game with other people. In real life, you can join the US military and learn to use an M4 assault rifle. It's the standard issue weapon designed to shoot and kill enemy combatants. It doesn't get much more IRL than that. Right? Well, not exactly. You see, it turns out that buying guns and ammo to train soldiers for combat is expensive. Training soldiers on simulated weapons is cheaper. And you can hook up a simulated weapon to digital equipment that gives trainers all kinds of information about the trainee's performance. Here's the thing, though. You can make a fake gun that looks, feels and makes a noise like a real assault weapon, but it doesn't actually perform like an assault weapon. Because when you fire it, it doesn't kick back. Or at least it didn't, until Hahnville High graduate Kyle Monti invented and wrote the patent for the Electromagnetic Recoil System. This technology now forms the basis of Kyle's New Orleans company, Haptech. Haptech creates warfighter training technology. In 2023 the company was awarded an $11m contract to develop weapon simulators for the US Army and Marine Corps. The entertainment industry also seems determined to blur the line between the digitally delivered universe and IRL. In the movie theater, and in what we now call home theater, visual effects and sophisticated sound systems are designed to give us an immersive experience. The creators of the content and the hardware want to make us feel like we're really there - whether that's on a football field or another planet. It hasn't always been this way. If you're old enough, you might remember going to Blockbuster and renting a movie on videocassette, which you'd bring home and play on a small TV with a single small speaker. If you were immersed in anything back then, it was the fun you were having watching the movie with your friends or family. Eden Chubb is trying to bring that kind of immersive experience back. Her Garden District store, Future Shock Video, has over 2,000 titles on VHS and DVD that you can rent by the week. Kyle's digital weapons business and warfighter training technology might tempt us to say, “This is not your grandfather's New Orleans.” But, actually, Haptech's office is on Andrew Higgins Boulevard. Whether that's coincidence or intentional, it makes the point that New Orleans is no stranger to innovative military design and manufacturing. And when we're talking about Eden's movie rental business, there's no doubt - it's intentionally your grandfather's New Orleans. These two folks couldn't be in much more unrelated types of businesses, but they're both making equally unique contributions to the economy and lifestyle of our unique city. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The common wisdom we're taught when starting up a business is, “Solve a problem that needs solving.” But the truly exceptional success stories of our time have not followed this advice. When Coca Cola came along, nobody who was enjoying a long, cool glass of lemonade was clamoring for a sweet, syrupy, brown drink. When Uber came along people weren't fantasizing about getting into a car with a total stranger. And when Jeff Bezos started selling books online, nobody in their right mind would give their credit card number to a person they didn't know on the world wide web. At the end of the day, it wasn't Bezos' ability as a salesman that convinced people to trust Amazon, it was the invention of a piece of software called “encryption” that made it safer to give your credit card to Amazon than to a server in a restaurant. Today there are other online companies poised to capitalize on the next technological change to e-commerce. One of those is a local startup called Cucuron, an online art gallery based in New Orleans, founded by Megan Manning.  You might ask, “How many people are going to pay $2,000 for a piece of artwork based on a photo on a phone?” Maybe not a whole lot, but… When augmented reality and virtual reality become a part of our device's operating system – which they definitely will at some point – looking at a piece of art online will be exactly, in every way, like looking at a piece of art on the wall in a gallery. Whether or not Cucuron becomes the Amazon of art is unknowable. But it's building the architecture ready for the day when buying art online is as second-nature as buying the shoes, furniture, and mattresses people at one point said they would never buy online. Over 55% of e-commerce shoppers say the reason they buy online is, “home delivery.” Maybe it's the legacy of the pandemic, maybe it's the influence of Gen Z., but more of our lives these days seem to be home-centric. Very few New Orleanians know more about the many notions of “home” than Kristin Palmer. Kristin was Executive Director of an organization called Rebuilding Together. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Kristin led over 10,000 volunteers who rebuilt hurricane-damaged structures so New Orleanians could come home. In 2010 Kristin was elected to the New Orleans City Council. She represented District C which includes the French Quarter, the Marigny, Treme, Bywater and Algiers. In 2014 she founded Bargeboard, a home renovation and restoration company whose goal is to keep Old Algiers affordable and accessible through historic renovation, recycling and reuse. Bargeboard is a culmination of a lifetime of Kristin's New Orleans-centric personal and professional passions. In the 1940's, Abraham Maslow, a psychology professor, came up with a pyramid-shape explanation of human existence which has come to be known as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. On the bottom level of the pyramid are the most basic needs, including shelter – a home. At the top is something Maslow called Self Actualization, which includes creativity, like producing art. Maslow's interpretation of human existence has become a foundational teaching in understanding human motivation and behavior. But, if any place on earth was to challenge Maslow's conventional wisdom, it would be New Orleans. Here, our homes are of course vital, but an equally vital part of our lives - that makes New Orleans New Orleans - is music, beauty, and art. So, although both Megan's and Kristin's businesses – Bargeboard and Cucuron – theoretically represent the extreme poles of human existence, our lived experience here in New Orleans rates them as equally essential to our everyday lives. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is fear? Fear is a natural response to a perception of danger. All creatures on earth have it. We use fear to spur us into action - to run or take other steps to save our lives. There are many studies listing specific fears of different societies. Believe it or not, here in the United Sates, one of our greatest fears is public speaking. In numerous studies, the fear of public speaking ranks number one – higher even than the fear of death. I'm not a psychologist, sociologist or neuroscientist so I'm not about to embark on an exploration of why that is, but I do know there are ways to conquer this fear. And it is worth conquering. The inability to express yourself when you have something to say can severely impact your career. In New Orleans, Chris Trew is an improv comedian who, alongside his comedy career, has turned his talents toward teaching communication skills. Chris conducts workshops for people in business. His goal is to help a business person become a better communicator, a better leader in their field, and to learn to embrace and enjoy attention rather than fear it. In the world of New Orleans comedy, comedian Nicolo Giardina is known as “Pickle.” The name was inspired by a rap song and cemented by fellow inmates when Pickle spent time in jail, the result of a decade-long career in sales - in the drug business. Today, rather than sit around and wait for the phone to ring to be booked at a local comedy club, Pickle has crossed over to the other side of the microphone and produces comedy shows. These shows are principally called Roast Beefin'.  Roast Beefin's are comedy roasts where two comedians battle each other in a kind of cutting competition. You can see Roast Beefin' mostly at the Hi Ho –Lounge - where it's been anchored since 2020. Although producing comedy shows in what is principally a music venue and bar in St Claude might sound like a fun way to make a living, Pickle describes the local comedy industry as “competitive and ruthless.” In 1946 a show opened on Broadway called Annie Get Your Gun. A number of songs from that show have survived to this day. Maybe the most well-known is a song called “There's No Business Like Show Business.” On the one hand the song is a love letter to the world of live performance. And on the other, it's a wry observation of the kind of addiction behavior that seems to underlie the world of entertainers. This verse might say it best:“Even with a turkey that you know will foldYou may be stranded out in the coldBut still you wouldn't change it for a sack of goldLet's go on with the show” Chris and Pickle, as producers of comedy in New Orleans, have both chosen a tough path. But although it might sound trite, it's true – somebody has to do it. We need comedy, and comedy demands comedians.  Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you have a business that sells a product, you have two choices. You can try and sell it to everyone earth, like Coca Cola, or you can concentrate on a more targeted market. The Coca Cola model is called Mass Marketing. The targeted approach is called Niche Marketing. Sometimes businesses say they have a niche market as a euphemism for the fact that very few people are buying their product. But there are businesses whose products are legitimately very niche. Like, for example, human breast milk. Human breastmilk is intended to be consumed orally by human offspring. But it also has other applications. For example, it can be an ingredient in medicinal soap. When Shay Franklin had a baby, she discovered she was an over-producer of breast milk. When her 4 month of old daughter, Nova, was diagnosed with psoriasis and eczema, Shay used her surplus supply to make breastmilk soap. The soap worked miracles for baby Nova's skin condition, and Shay started selling her bars of soap to other people in need, on Tik Tok and at local farmer's markets. But even an over-producer only has so much breast milk. So, Shay came up with other recipes. Today her company, Shay's Organics, has a line of skincare products including soaps, scrubs, cleansers, body butter, and more. It seems popular these days for people who care about their diet to eat what is called a “plant-based diet.” If there's a growing number of people who predominantly eat plants, in a sort of horticultural revenge, there's also a growing interest in plants who eat meat. Beyond the well-known Venus Fly Trap, there are in fact a whole range of carnivorous plants. And there's a niche market of folks who love and care for them. Locally, these folks shop at a business called, We Bite Rare & Unusual Plants. The owner of We Bite is Carlos Detres. One of the knocks against living in a small city like New Orleans – compared to, say, Los Angeles or New York - is the limited range of goods and services available in a smaller place. The logic is, with a smaller population you have a smaller market to sell to. At some point the scale just gets too small to sustain a business for products that aren't in great demand. But when your whole reason for existing at all is a niche market – say, Black and Latina women with discerning organic skincare tastes, or self-identifying strange and peculiar people looking for carnivorous plants and fellow travelers – traditional market logic ceases to apply. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you've lived in New Orleans for any length of time, you've experienced your share of natural disasters. We even measure time here by hurricanes. We put events in context by describing them, for example, as “Before Katrina” or “After Ida.” After each one of these disasters, affected homeowners make a claim with their insurance company. Now, I don't like to generalize, and I don't have any statistical information to back this up, but I'm pretty sure you'll agree with me on this… Even though insurance companies are technically in competition, the ones who are still writing policies in Louisiana seem to have adopted increasingly sophisticated justifications for reducing the amounts of money they pay out after a disaster. Most of us who make claims and get denied throw up our hands and say, “What can you do?” But Jonathan Frazier is not taking “denied” for an answer. Jonathan is Co-Founder of Forefront 360, a company created by a team of former insurance adjusters whose aim is to provide tools and services to property owners to get their property insurance ducks in a row before a storm hits. So that when it comes time to make a claim, the insurance company doesn't have a way to wriggle out of it. When we're not dealing with the preparation for, or aftermath of, a disaster, we New Orleanians are justifiably well-known for our propensity to celebrate the pleasures of life.  One of those pleasures is going out to eat. When it comes to your favorite restaurant, you might be familiar with who owns it, the names of the chefs, bartenders, and your favorite servers. But one question you probably can't answer is, “Who built the kitchen?”  There's very little more vital to the operational success of a restaurant than it's kitchen. In New Orleans - and around the country too - a company called The Kitchen Guys has been designing and building commercial kitchens for 50 years. One half of their nationwide business is here in New Orleans, so there's a pretty good chance The Kitchen Guys had a hand in building the kitchen at your favorite restaurant. The President of the Kitchen Guys is Dustin Bennett. In most places, people like to categorize things into groups of two. Black or white. Tall or short. Rich or poor. And so on. In New Orleans, we have our own pairs of things we use to bracket life here. But you'll notice we don't use the word “or” to differentiate elements. We use the word “and” to amplify them. Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. The Marigny and The Quarter. The Saints and The Pelicans. Although it might seem slightly less obvious, two other significant, quintessential New Orleans experiences are hurricanes and restaurants. Although one is something nobody wants to experience and the other is something we all love to experience, they're both woven into the fabric of life here. Living in New Orleans means at some point in your week you'll be considering a restaurant, and at some point in your life you'll inevitably be affected by a natural disaster. So it's good to know Dustin and Jonathan have our back. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Head football coach recaps the 45-10 win over South Florida to open conference play and the step forward from his defense. Head golf coach Andrea Kaelin and freshman Francesca Pompa stop by to break down the season so far, and what brought the two-time Italian champion to Uptown. Then, defensive end Gerrod Henderson and linebacker Sam Howard look back at Saturday's win over the Bulls, which garnered Henderson conference defensive player of the week honors. And, Howard looks forward to playing ball in his hometown of Birmingham Saturday.Join us all fall for The Current, presented by Bryan Subaru, LIVE from New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood in Uptown New Orleans! Our next live taping is Monday, October 14th at 7p CT!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Send us a textToday we welcome Author Tripp Friedler to talk about his immensely powerful memoir about a father dealing with his son's crippling disorder- in a world that doesn't even understand it. The Tunnel is a father's memoir about a family's odyssey through the world of serious mental illness. It is a story about the battles Friedler's son Henry fought with his parents, with various authority figures—including schools, teachers, and the police— and most importantly, the battles Henry fought with his own mind. Henry's story takes place for the most part in the distinctive air of Uptown New Orleans. He came from a well-educated and prosperous Southern family, the only son between two sisters. I highly recommend everyone read this book. Tripp thank you for sharing your story with us. You are allowing the world to better understand what Bi-Polar disorder is and how we can learn to better accept it. Then Later we welcome New Orleans Restauranteur, Cara Benson! Cara owns many spots across the city that are loved by all! What started with the French bistro, Tartine, located under the gorgeous Live Oaks off of Broadway, Uptown then gave way to the unforgettable Brunch gems like, French Toast in the French Quarter, Toast on Gentilly Blvd, and then Toast in Gretna! This particular location is my kids' all time favorite restaurant because of the amazing vibes and fantastic playground for the littles to play on while you wait to be seated! Recently, Cara wanted to create another restaurant that caters to specially made breads and dishes with no gluten! Hen House is just that! She wanted to create a space that would welcome guests that have dietary restrictions, so that they may experience a Brunch that everyone can love!What makes this restaurant even cooler is that when Mardi Gras season comes, The Hen House closes and becomes a KING CAKE FACTORY that rolls out the BEST KING CAKE that New Orleans has to offer. I stand by my statement! Cara's King Cake is unlike anything that I have ever had! During the Carnival season you can find these delicious cakes at all of her places. Listen to how it all happened! Thank you to our family of amazing sponsors! Ochsner Hospital for ChildrenWww.ochsner.orgRouses MarkersWww.rousesmarkets.comSandpiper VacationsWww..sandpipervacations.comZak George's Dog Revolution! The Law Firm of Forrest Cressy & James Www.forrestcressyjames.comComfort Cases Www.comfortcases.orgNew Orleans Ice Cream CompanyWww.neworleansicecream.comReal Estate with Steph & Berkshire Hathaway www.realestatewithsteph.comAudubon Institute www.auduboninstitute.orgThe Gift of Adoption FundGiftofAdoption.org

Head football coach Jon Sumrall recaps the 41-33 victory over Louisiana and where his team sits heading into conference play. Former women's basketball coach Lisa Stockton prepares for her induction into the Tulane Hall of Fame. Then, safety Jack Tchienchou on his pick six, and tight end Reggie Brown on his increased role in the Green Wave offense.Join us for 'The Current, presented by Bryan Subaru, LIVE from New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood Company' each week during the football season! Our next recording is Monday, September 30th at 7p CT inside the 4141 NOLA Lounge at 4141 St. Charles Avenue in Uptown New Orleans!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the course of childhood, we have innumerable experiences. We spend a portion of our adult lives trying to recover from the ones that scar us. But there are also positive experiences. Joyful times and meaningful relationships stay with us. They come to define happiness. For Brittney Hawkins Dobard, one of her happy-place emotional touchstones was with her grandmother in her kitchen, baking cookies. As a kid, Brittney called her grandmother, “MoMo Gerald.” As an adult, Brittney was in car sales. When you're a car salesperson, your customer spends a bunch of time waiting around. To make the wait less painful, Brittney started bringing her customers homemade cookies. Like MoMo Gerald used to bake. In 2019, Brittney realized her cookies were so popular - and she enjoyed making them so much - that she quit selling cars and started up NOLA Cookie Co. Today NOLA Cookie Co cranks out up to 800 cookies a week. They sell them from their website, ship them across the country, and supply the Virgin Hotel with 300 cookies a month. Margie Tillman Ayres called her grandmother, “Granny.”  But she started out following her in grandfather's footsteps, as a jewelry designer. It was only when Margie was struggling and out of necessity took a job in the art department at Jazz Fest that she discovered how much she enjoyed recreating her childhood days with Granny, painting, making sculptures and puppets. In 2014 Margie made it official – she become an artist, muralist and illustrator, starting up her own company, Margie and The Moon. You'll see Margie's work all over New Orleans – from murals at places like the restaurant Mr. Mao and music venue The Broadside – to her scenic work in movies and TV shows that are shot here. You've probably also seen her commercial work as an illustrator and her graphic designs for companies as diverse as Pyrex and Trader Joe's. Margie's style is immediately recognizable. It's a unique whimsicality executed with realist perfection. Margie is currently committing this style to canvases as she moves away from illustration and toward selling her pieces as fine art. When you're a parent or grandparent, you know that your kids or grandkids are constantly observing you. And absorbing everything. At least until they're teenagers, when that totally flips. But when they're young kids you never know what seemingly inconsequential thing you say or do is going to stick with them and resonate through their lives. And maybe even form the basis of an entire career. Brittney and Margie's grandmothers, MoMo Gerald and Granny, might be  surprised at the influence they've had on their grandaughter's lives and careers, but they'd certainly be proud.  Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Head football coach recaps the loss at Oklahoma, and how the defense responded after losing a key piece. Head swimming & diving coach Amanda Caldwell and junior Andrea Zeebe get ready for the upcoming season and Andrea's incredible skill set, in and out of the pool. Then, safety Kevin Adams and offensive lineman Josh Remetich on getting back on track and playing an in-state foe this Saturday in Lafayette.Join us every Monday night for 'The Current, presented by Bryan Subaru, LIVE from New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood Company' in Uptown New Orleans! Our next recording comes your way September 23rd at 7p CT. Don't miss another episode at 4141 St. Charles Avenue!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

No matter which side of the political fence you're on, there's probably one thing you and your friends on the other side agree on. And that is, you can't believe anything you see, read, or hear in the news anymore. At least, you don't believe anything on the channels they subscribe to. And they don't believe anything anyone says on your side. Wouldn't it be great if there was an organization that researched issues and published unbiased facts, without ideological partisanship or a devotion to page-views or ratings? Well, guess what? There is! And it's right here in New Orleans. It's the Bureau of Governmental Research. The name might not have the zing of an exciting-sounding operation, but BGR's reporting has a multi-million dollar impact, in New Orleans and beyond. BGR's President, CEO, and current Samuel Zemurray Chair in Research Leadership, is Rebecca Mowbray. It's hard to overstate the amount of time each of us spends doing research these days. We've shortened the term “research” to simply “search” and, if you're like most people, you search e-commerce sites; you search restaurants to go out to eat, or delivery services to order in; you search for a plumber, you search the news, the weather, and the list scrolls on… This is mostly time you spend alone. But when you look up from your computer or your phone, maybe you'd like to discuss your opinions with another person. Or, maybe you'd like to learn from an expert – an actual human - whose knowledge comes from education and experience, beyond the internet. If you're a woman in New Orleans, there's a place where you can do all of this. It's called Salon22. Salon 22 is a professional women's club and idea hub, co-founded by 4 women - one of whom is Salon 22's CEO, Fay Kimbrell. Because in our regular lives most of us tell the truth most of the time, we tend to believe other people are telling us the truth most of the time, too. But, when it comes to news or information sources, it's a different story. According to Pew Research, 86% of Americans get at least some of their news online. But only 7% of us trust that what we're seeing is true. So, the cliché complaint, “Nobody believes anything anymore,” is actually pretty accurate. Here's another interesting statistic. Do you know what the most trusted online news site is? The Weather Channel. So, if you want trusted, reliable information, other than the weather, where do you go? One answer is, the Bureau of Governmental Research. And if you're looking for a place to sit and absorb this information, or people to network with, to learn from and discuss things with, you can go to Salon 22. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

LIVE from New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood Company in Uptown New Orleans, head football coach Jon Sumrall recaps the tough loss to Kansas State and the challenging road trip to Oklahoma. Jordana Price is back from leading her Tulane volleyball program out west and now gets prepped for their home opening weekend on Freret Street. Then, offensive lineman Rashad Green and defensive lineman Angelo Anderson on returning to Norman and seeking a big-time bounce back effort. The Current, presented by Bryan Subaru, LIVE at New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood Company allows you the opportunity to meet and mingle with the people who make the Green Wave roll! Join us all fall inside the 4141 NOLA Lounge on St. Charles Avenue! The next live taping takes place on Monday, September 16th at 7p CT.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Before the advent of e-commerce, the only way you could buy something was to go to a store.  Manufacturers wholesaled products to retailers, and retailers added a profit margin, which became the price consumers paid. When e-commerce came along, some manufacturers realized they could cut out the middleman - and the term “direct to consumer” was born. Because consumers are used to paying retail, manufacturers who sell direct-to-consumer charge retail prices - substantially increasing their profit margin. If this model works for furniture, electronics, and sports shoes, why couldn't it work for art? Artists typically get paid nothing at all for their work, until their artwork sells, at which time they give the retailer – typically a gallery owner – 50% of the sale price. New Orleans artist Amanda Stone Talley is rewriting that business model. She cuts out the retail middleman by having her own gallery. And she's built a website with an e-commerce function that offers a direct-to-consumer experience that's as easy as shopping on Amazon.  If you don't like business as usual, start your own business, and do it your own way. That was Michael Newcomer's response to moving to New Orleans. He was planning on working as an actor in what he thought was going to be a thriving, well-paid theater scene. When he got here - after being an actor in Los Angeles and New York - Michael found the New Orleans theater scene was neither thriving nor well-paid. So, in 2022 he co-founded, and today is Executive Director of, Crescent City Stage. The company bills itself as Louisiana's first fully professional regional theater, offering paid Theatrical Union jobs. In the early days of the mostly tech-driven entrepreneurial renaissance of the early two-thousands, we heard a lot about “disruption.” Ride-sharing disrupted the taxi industry. Streaming disrupted the music industry. Food delivery services disrupted the restaurant industry. When entrepreneurs went looking for financial backing back then, if investors didn't see a potential for disruption, they didn't see potential for success. Today we don't hear much about disruption. Not so much because everything has been disrupted already, but because this kind of up-ending, innovative business thinking has become normalized. So, when people like Amanda set about disrupting the commerce of art, or Michael set sabout disrupting the landscape of local theater, we no longer look at it as revolutionary. But, actually, it is revolutionary. And it takes the same level of vision and courage as it always has to forge a new path. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Message Us In this special live recording of "This Is Hard," Rocky and Vic bring their signature mix of humor, raw emotion, and unfiltered storytelling directly to you! This episode was recorded in The Mushroom, a record store and smoke shop in Uptown New Orleans. 'Night Cap' captures the vibrant energy of a night filled with real stories and genuine connections. From Vic's deeply personal poem to Rocky's hilarious recounting of a memorable wrestling mishap, the evening is a perfect blend of laughter, introspection, and community spirit. Join us for an unforgettable night where the stories are real, the emotions are raw, and the connections are genuine. This is "This Is Hard" at its most intimate and engaging—delivered straight to you! If you need support, please reach out. General SupportCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 Self-harm Prevention 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline LGBTQ+ Youth Support Substance Dependency Support Substance Abuse and Mental Health Helpline PTSD SupportNational Center for PTSD: Veterans Sexual & Domestic Violence RAINN: 800.656.HOPE National Domestic Violence Hotline: Text START to 88788 Child AbuseChildhelp Hotline: Text SUPPORT to 800.422.4453

When you start a business that sells a product, the first thing you have to do is resolve a contradiction. On the one hand, you want to sell a product everybody needs. On the other hand, if it's so vital that everybody needs it, they've probably already got it. What you have to do is convince a consumer that when they need to replace whatever-it-is, they need to try your product. Because your product is different. This difference is what's called “differentiation.” Pretty simple. And obvious. It's what differentiates your hopefully ubiquitous product from everybody else's. When it came to Jacob Lawson's flooring company, he decided that what makes his, mostly industrial, polished concrete flooring different from everybody else's is, his floors are extraordinary. That's why he changed the name of his company from Big Jake Affordable Flooring, to Extraordinary Flooring. That was in the early two-thousands. If I was to read the names of companies Extraordinary Flooring has made floors for, it would take up half of this show. Suffice to say, if you live in New Orleans, or even visit here, you've almost certainly walked on an Extraordinary Floor. Here are just a few examples: The Superdome. The Convention Center. The World War II Museum. Hilton Hotels. Ochsner Hospital. Touro Hospital. Rouse's Supermarkets. French Truck Coffee. New Orleans Original Daiquiris. Southern University. Lockheed Martin Stennis Space Center… You get the idea. Jacob Lawson is also the author of the how-I-did-it book, “Make It Extraordinary: 27 Life Changing Lessons That Will Elevate You Beyond The Ordinary." Now we're going to apply this same differentiator principle to women's underwear. I'm not going to presume to be an authority on this statistic, but I'd hazard an educated guess that most women wear underwear. So, that seems like a good place to start if, like Mindy Christie, you're going to start up a new lingerie business. Mindy launched her lingerie business in New Orleans in 2020 under the brand name, Furious Viola. In 2023 she re-branded, as undergoodies. (The all-lower-case spelling is a marketing decision.) The undergoodies differentiator is, these undergarments don't look like anything you see at Victoria's Secret. They're not skimpy thongs - nor are they designed to necessarily disappear and be invisible under clothes. They're not in traditional white, neutral or black - they're brightly colored. A generation-or-two ago these styles of lingerie were known as pettipants and pettislips. Undergoodies are retro, with updated designs that make them current fashion. People are buying them in stores in 11 states and online at the undergoodies website. Mindy and Jacob are at very different points on the timelines of their businesses. Jacob is able to talk - and write - about the extraordinary successes he's had with Extraordinary Flooring. Mindy is in the building phase of undergoodies, but extraordinary success doesn't seem to be too far away. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In New Orleans we pride ourselves on our extensive array of live entertainment. According to music media company, Off Beat, and tourist authority New Orleans & Company, on any given night we have, on average, 100 places to hear live music. If New York City had the same per capita number of live music venues, they'd have 800. In fact, they have 1,100. Ok, so we're not beating New York, but we're in the same ballpark, and that's impressive for a medium-size city. How about live theater? If, per capita, we had as many options to go see a play in New Orleans as they do in New York, we'd have 142 live theater stages. In fact, we have fewer than 20. So, what's up with that? In a city whose Mardi Gras parades are among the biggest live street theater events in the world, why do we have so little traditional theater? Rob DeViney might be able to shed some light on that question. Rob is Executive Director of Jefferson Performing Arts. In New Orleans there's a long-running intersection of theater and business – in the person of larger-than-life characters who own or represent businesses. Folks like, Al Scramuzza from Seafood City. The Special Man from Frankie & Johnnie's Furniture. Restaurateurs Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse. Ronnie Lamarque the crooning car salesman. Al Copeland. Chris Owens. Morris Bart. The list goes on. The newest addition to it, is Bougie Man Bourgeois. The Bougie Man is an import from Cajun country where he developed his meat product, Bougie Bologna. Unlike other bologna, which is apparently made from the cuts of meat discarded from traditional butchering, Bougie Bologna is made from 100% pork shoulder. The slogan summarizing this differentiation was originally, “Butthole free.” Apparently, the USDA frowned on that, so now Bougie Bologna is described somewhat more prosaically as, “no mystery meat or byproducts.” The Bougie Man is the alter ego of Ross Brown, who is also the creator of Bougie Bologna. In New Orleans business, like the rest of New Orleans, we're no strangers to contradiction. The same local companies will sponsor the health-driven Crescent City Classic road race, and the Red Dress Run, an athletic event that's also an alcohol-fueled celebration of cross-dressing. We don't think it's unusual for a CEO of a serious business to also be an active member of a seriously fun-centric Mardi Gras krewe. A great deal of our city's revenue comes from tourists who come here to party. But we're also on reputable entrepreneurial lists as one of the best cities to start a business. In this New Orleans tradition of occupational antithesis, Rob and Ross are great representatives of both the business of theater, and the theater of business. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are a number of ways of becoming a New Orleanian. You can be born here. You can marry someone from here. You can go to high school here – that's a uniquely New Orleans badge of belonging - and then there's a phenomenon called Magnetic Migration. That's a term I coined to describe how certain people are inexplicably drawn here. You know these folks when you meet them. They're so obviously New Orleanian, you can't imagine them living anywhere else. Like Brent Houzenga and Jensen Reyes. Pop Art Brent moved here from Des Moines, Iowa. He was such a larger-than-life character there, they made a documentary about him. Although to be fair to Des Moines, he'd make a good subject for a documentary anywhere, even here. Brent is best described as a pop artist. You may have seen his work driving around. And by that, I don't mean his murals or street art – although you can see those too - I mean you'll see his art, literally, driving around. On cars. All kinds of cars. Painted with layers of colored squiggles, straight lines, polka dots, and stenciled faces. At first glance these cars look like they've been randomly graffiti-ed. But when you look more closely, you see there's definitely an artist's hand at work. It's this kind of sly intelligence hiding in a punk rock aesthetic that runs through a lot of Brent Houzenga's work. Yarn Jensen Reyes was living in Seattle. She worked as a hair colorist. And took up knitting as a hobby. When she moved to New Orleans in 2020, Jensen was able to combine both those skills. She started a business called Sugarplum Circus. Jensen called it that so it would be a vague enough umbrella to cover any kind of creative output. Sugarplum Circus has turned out to be a micro-dyer. The company makes dyed-to-order fine yarns. You can buy their hand-dyed yarn at their website, and exclusively at a store in the French Quarter called The Quarter Stitch. The Quarter Stitch is a destination for people from across the country looking for fashion yarn. And online there's a population of millions of yarn users – many of them are young women who make their own clothes and congregate around #MeMade. In this universe, Jensen and Sugarplum Circus are stars. You might remember, back in 2015 there was an online viral phenomenon called “The Dress.” It was an image of a dress, and there was a massive debate as to whether this dress was white and gold, or blue and black. What we learned from that was – if you'll pardon the expression – color is not black and white. It's not objective. It's subjective. And can be uniquely personal. Whether it's the color of a piece of clothing made from yarn Jensen has dyed, or the colors of a painted car or piece of artwork Brent created, our responses to color, and to works of art, can shape our day, our mood, and even our sense of well-being. And they and their businesses certainly brighten up our city.  Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Drew Brees was The Saints' quarterback he was regularly out and about in New Orleans. If you ran into him, you couldn't help noticing that for a guy who had such a dominating presence on a football field, there didn't seem to be anything physically exceptional about him. But when he played the game, Drew had an ability to size up what was happening, and he could see opportunities that other players couldn't.  There are similar types of people in business. Seemingly regular guys who are looking at the same business landscape we're all looking at, but somehow, they see multiple opportunities most of us don't. And they create multiple successful businesses in a way most business-people can't. For example, Jayson Seidman and Alex Pomes.  Jayson Seidman is founder and Principal Managing Partner of a company called Sandstone. With offices in the Texas hill country and New Orleans, Sandstone principally develops boutique hotels and commercial mixed-use properties. They have hotels in Texas, New York, New Orleans, Costa Rica, and Australia. Here in New Orleans, their properties include The Drifter, The Hotel Saint Vincent, The Frenchmen, and Columns – till recently known as The Columns Hotel – which is where Peter, Alex, and Jayson had lunch while recording this podcast.  Jayson's mother is from New Orleans. His dad went to Tulane. Jayson grew up in Houston, where he was a child actor at Theater Under The Stars, which calls itself “Houston's home for musical theater.” Alex Pomes is also a one-time musical theater actor turned entrepreneur. Alex is a New Orleans native who graduated from NOCCA in musical theater. His first taste of business was cinnamon. In 2010, Alex was hired as website manager, social media point person and Brand Ambassador for a then small whisky company, called Fireball.  Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that the marketing of Fireball Whisky is one of the most successful alcohol marketing campaigns, ever. In 2011 Fireball had under $2m in sales. By 2014, sales were $800m. That experience gave Alex the confidence to launch his own alcohol label, Ghost Tequila. It's tequila that's actually made in Tequila Mexico, infused with Ghost Peppers. Alex is also the founder of a local marketing company, RAPJAB, that specializes in creative campaigns for breweries, bars and events. And Alex is the co-founder of NOLA Underground Pickleball, the no-frills community-driven pickleball league whose sponsors range from White Claw to Walmart. If there's one thing we're not short of in New Orleans, it's people with a story to tell. Whether you're at a music festival, waiting for a parade to roll by, or just in line at the supermarket, the New Orleanian next to you is happy to talk to you. And - often without much encouragement - they'll more-than-likely tell you something fascinating. But, even in this city of storytellers and stories, it's hard to beat the variety of tales and business ventures from Jayson and Alex.  Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you walk into just about any interior space in the US – from the biggest office building to the smallest apartment – you're almost certain to find art hanging on the walls. And not just one piece. From your doctor's waiting room to your sister's bedroom, you'll typically find multiple works of art. Sure, they're not all paintings, some of them are posters or prints, but at some point, each one had to be created by an artist. Only around 1% of the US workforce are artists. So, with limited availability and high demand you'd expect artists to be highly paid. Most of them, though, are not. The reason might be something to do with the business model by which visual artists get paid. In the film business, actors, directors, and writers pay agents a commission of 10% of their income. Musicians pay booking agents 10% of their income. Directors of commercials pay their business representatives 18% commission. If you're a visual artist, you'll pay your business representative – typically a gallery owner – a commission of 50% of the sale price of your artwork. How does an artist survive in this kind of financial setup? That's what we're asking Anastasia Pelias. Anastasia is a New Orleans born-and-raised visual artist whose paintings and sculptures are in museums and in private and public collections across the country and around the world. In New Orleans you can see Anastasia's paintings in the permanent collections of The New Orleans Museum of Art, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art and The Newcomb Art Museum. You can see her sculptures in St. John Park in Lake Terrace, and on Poydras Street as part of the Helis Foundation's Poydras Corridor Sculpture Exhibition. In case you're thinking all 50% commission art gallery owners must be hard-hearted blood-sucking mercenaries, meet Marguerite Oestreicher. Marguerite owned an art gallery in the heart of New Orleans' art district on Julia Street, until Hurricane Katrina closed it down. In part, Marguerite credits the skills she picked up running her art gallery with her ability to perform her current job as Executive Director of New Orleans Area Habitat For Humanity. NOAHH, as it's commonly known, has 65 full-time employees and builds around 25 homes a year. Their stated mission is, “To responsibly build communities where families can thrive in homes they can afford.” For whatever reason – maybe because it helps bring order to a chaotic world - human beings like to divide by 2. We like to put things in one category, or another. Republican or Democrat. Employed or unemployed. Artist or Businessperson. Renter or Homeowner. Marguerite's mission at Habitat For Humanity is defined by categories: moving people from one to another. From renter to homeowner. To survive as an artist, like Anastasia, you have to defy the categories of art versus business – you need to keep one foot in each world. Across all these categories, the one thing most of us have in common is, we like to live in an affordable home where we can hang our art on the walls. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Blake Langlinais at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When somebody suggests going out for a beer, you know what that means. Or, rather, you know what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean meeting up for a single beer. And after you've had a few beers at whichever place you decided to meet, at some point somebody will suggest moving on and going to get another beer – or two – at someplace else. The problem with this plan is, nobody should be driving a car at this point. And ride-sharing isn't as cheap as it used to be. That's why Elizabeth Bates launched her business, Beer Bus. Beer Bus is a hop-on-hop-off bus line that serves New Orleans craft breweries on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. It's been running since the end of 2023 and when you pay your $10 – or $30 for unlimited rides – you can check the Beer Bus website to see where the bus is and when it will be by if you want to hop on and try another brewery. Elizabeth Bates is not just the founder of Beer Bus, she's also the bus driver. If you've spent any time in the UK or around British people, you'll be familiar with the sentence, “What you need is a nice cup of tea.” Whether there's been a death in the family, your car broke down, or maybe you've gotten a giant bill you don't know how you're going to pay… Whatever the calamity that's befallen you, the default old-fashioned British remedy is, “a nice cup of tea.” Well, it turns out, like many pieces of folk wisdom, there's actually some truth to the healing power of tea. That's the basis of Portia Cooper's business, NOLA Botanical Tea. Portia makes specific concoctions of various strains of tea to treat particular physical ailments. There's ginger root, elderberry, chamomile, hibiscus, and others that Portia says will remedy stress, reduce inflammation, boost your immune system, boost your energy, and much more. Normally if we say we're going around in circles, we're implying we're doing the same thing over and over again and getting nowhere. But when going around in a circle is a ride on the Beer Bus - taking us from one New Orleans craft Brewery to another - we may physically end up where we started, but the ride has been anything but unproductive. On the other hand, if you have a recurring medical complaint that's not life threatening but never seems to totally go away, you really do feel like you're going around in circles. Maybe adding medicinal tea to your treatment would help. Whether you're drinking New Orleans beer or New Orleans tea, it's a triple bottom line – good for the mind, body and local business.   Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Blake Langlinais at itsneworleans.com.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the conundrums about being human is, we strive for happiness, but when something makes us happy we grow accustomed to it and, usually sooner than later, we're looking for something else to make us happy. Whether it's your income, your appearance, your career, or anything else in your life that can be improved, we're trapped on what social scientists call The Hedonic Treadmill.  It's why we buy new clothes, try new diets, take up new hobbies, why we travel, drink, take drugs… and you can list a bunch of other things that make you happy. Until they don't. Well, what if you could get off the hedonic treadmill? What if you could find something you liked so much – say, a piece of jewelry – that makes you feel so good that you can commit to wearing it forever. That's the concept behind a jewelry business on Magazine Street called Love Weld.  They sell what they describe as “permanent jewelry.” In the store, a customer designs a bracelet, necklace, anklet, ring, or charms, and the people at Love Weld fit it and weld it, so it's on forever. The Sudio Lead at Love Weld is Sarah Sylve. If permanent happiness sounds ambitious, a little further down from Love Weld on Magazine Street you can make yourself feel better for an hour - and for days after - at NOLA Massage. NOLA Massage specializes in therapeutic massage, and you can also get a bunch of other treatments including detoxifying body wraps, a salt scrub, cryo treatments, and cupping. The owner - and one of 4 massage therapists at NOLA Massage - is Amy Nicole Stewart. Like a lot of things in New Orleans, it's hard to put your finger on exactly what's so special about Magazine Street. Basically, it's nothing more than a relatively narrow street, not especially well landscaped, lined with stores. But, somehow, the street has a unique energy and a charismatic charm. It's a street where locals shop, and tourists get a genuine taste of New Orleans and New Orleanians. Anyone can open a store on Magazine Street. But not just anyone does. The street seems to attract store owners who manage to combine individual flair with general functionality. Amy's and Sarah's businesses, NOLA Massage and Love Weld, are two of the most recent to have opened on Magazine Street. They both make a unique contribution to the street's rich retail mosaic. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com. Check out Amy's children's book about Shotgun Kitties, a bunch of musical New Orleans cats, in their debut outing, Bill Bailey Please Come Home.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's a term in theater called “meta.” It's used to describe a scenario where actors call attention to the fact they're performing. For example, the play within a play in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Except for the name of the company that used to be Facebook, we don't have a similar term to “meta” in business. But we do have a similar concept. We have businesses that make other businesses do better business. And we have businesses that help individuals conduct business better. One of the most common business contracts most of us navigate in everyday life is a rental or lease agreement - for a house or apartment. Signing a lease is a seemingly simple act of appending a signature. But it is in fact deceptively difficult, both for the renter and the manager of the rental property. It gets especially problematic at the end of the rental period when the renter wants their deposit back and the manager claims they can't refund it because of the damage the renter caused to the property during the term of the lease. This is precisely why Marco Nelson and his partner created RentCheck. RentCheck is an app that a rental agency, a landlord, or a renter can use when they sign a new rental agreement. It records the rental details and, probably most importantly, photos of the property which can be compared to photos of the property when the rental period ends. There is definitive proof - in the date-stamped, cloud-based app - of what damage was there when the renter moved in, and what wasn't. Marco and his partner founded RentCheck in New Orleans in 2019.  Today they have 24 employees. RentCheck is used by 700 property managers in the US and Canada, and manages a total of 500,000 properties. Marco and Peter first spoke in 2020 when RentCheck was getting rolling and we were doing Out to Lunch on Zoom because of the pandemic. Kristen Dufauchard grew up in New Orleans - and left for 20 years. During the time she was gone, Kristen was Associate Director of Communications for New York University and Global Marketing Lead for the market measurement company, Nielsen, where she focused on DEI and multi-cultural consumer trends. Kristen moved back to New Orleans in 2022 and discovered there are a bunch of folks back home who could use the kind of expertise she'd picked up over the previous two decades. So, she founded a corporate marketing, event planning, and training firm called aKrewe NOLA – krewe is spelled the New Orleans way – and a networking platform called The Business Exchange, where diverse professionals can make new connections, exchange ideas, and support each other. In a statistic that might make the point about how much New Orleans changed while Kristen was gone, The Business Exchange has 1,500 members – entrepreneurs, creatives, and innovators who identify as Black, Brown, LGBTQ+, or women. There was a time in New Orleans, and not so long ago, when the term “entrepreneurial ecosystem” sounded about as exotic as lobster rolls or bubble tea. Now you can get lobster rolls and bubble tea every day in New Orleans, and we most definitely have a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem. RentCheck is a great example of the type of nationwide success that's grown out of our entrepreneurial community, and helped shape it. And aKrewe NOLA and The Business Exchange are building on the city's first-generation entrepreneurial foundation, taking it to more places and including more people. Thanks to the efforts and talents of people like both Marco and Kristen and the success of their companies, New Orleans is continuing to be a great place to start and grow a business. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you're a theater kid in high school and decide that's what you want to do with the rest of your life, you're familiar with the moment you tell your family you're taking out college loans to major in theater. Even your most supportive parent can't hide a fleeting grimace as they think, “You may see yourself becoming a great writer or actor but the only role you're writing for yourself is a person whose actual career will be waiting tables.” Jenni Jenni Daniel started down this path. In fact, she went a long way down it. Jenni has an MA in Theater, from the University of London. Before she got too far into table-waiting, Jenni got another post-graduate degree. This one was an MBA from the A.B.Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. Today, Jenni is Vice President of Institutional Advancement at the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. In an organization of 29 staff members who work to financially support access to arts, culture, education and history in Louisiana, Jenni's responsible for private and corporate fundraising. And she manages the marketing team. Jenna Dr. Jenna Winston, went to Tulane too. Jenna had the foresight to study a subject that leads to a professional career. She earned a Ph.D in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. When Jenna graduated from college, what did she do? She went into theater! Jenna is the founder of New Orleans Youth Theater, made up of theater kids between the ages of 4-18. And it's a rare type of theater company – nobody has to audition to get in. Any kid who wants to attend is accepted. If they can't afford the approximately $400 per semester tuition, the theater will help with a needs-based scholarship. Jenna founded New Orleans Youth Theater in 2022. Members of the company learn voice, dance and acting, and perform full-length musicals. And, despite what you might assume, New Orleans Youth Theater is not a non-profit. It's a legit, for-profit business that makes legit theater. Louisiana Chronicles The relationship between New Orleans and Louisiana is unique. In most other cities in the US, people naturally append the name of the state to the name of their hometown. Austin Texas. Miami Florida. Denver Colorado. You very rarely hear anyone here describe our city as anything other than, simply, New Orleans. That's because, if there is a typical Louisiana city, New Orleans isn't it. Actually, it's hard to put your finger on what a typical Louisiana city or town would be. The lifestyles and culture in places like Alexandria and Shreveport are vastly different from other communities, like Eunice or Venice. Celebrating these differences and weaving them into a commonality among all of us in the 64 parishes of Louisiana is what the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities is all about. And celebrating the differences among a vast array of New Orleans kids and melding them into a common purpose of artistic expression is what New Orleans Youth Theater is all about. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr Nicolas Bazan is a world-renowned neuroscientist with a research lab in Stockholm Sweden and another here in New Orleans. When Dr Bazan was a guest on Out to Lunch, he pointed out that, compared to other fields of medicine, treatment for conditions of the human brain are at a primitive stage. For example, the current standard of care for Traumatic Brain Injury is “rest.” Part of the reason there's no medication for neurological conditions like dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinsons is the way pharmacological research is conducted. For obvious reasons, there are rigorous controls on the development of neurological drugs before they're allowed to be tested on humans. The only new medications that are allowed to be trialed by humans are ones that have proven safe in trials on animals. But an astounding 94% of these neurological drugs fail - because preclinical results on animals can't predict results in humans. It's with this is mind that Lowry Curley founded his revolutionary biomedical research company, AxoSim. AxoSim simulates brain cells, so drug developers can try out a drug on a human brain without having an actual human being attached to it. We last talked to Lowry when this was all just getting off the ground, in 2016, a couple of years after the company was founded in New Orleans. Today, AxoSim has two laboratories, 30 employees, 3 separate research divisions, and a bunch of industry-leading patents. The human brain is a delicate organ. That's why it's housed in a hard case: the skull. But there are some activities where even the skull and a protective helmet aren't enough to prevent the brain from getting injured. One of those activities is military combat. Veterans who lose limbs in combat have established pathways to recovery. But veterans with brain injury, spinal cord injury, or other neurological conditions can go undiagnosed. Veterans who struggle with these issues find themselves isolated and lonely – part of the reason for the high rate of veteran suicide. Here in New Orleans a program called Headway is setting out to solve these issues by placing affected veterans in a purpose-built housing development, called Bastion Community of Resilience. It's a $14m, five-and-a-half acre neighborhood of homes in Gentilly in which veterans with neurological wounds live among other veterans, and volunteers. We spoke with the founder of Bastion, Dylan Tete, back in 2016 when the site was under construction. Today Bastion is a living neighborhood and we're joined by it's Executive Director, Jackson Smith. For a medium-sized city in the south of the United States, New Orleans gets a lot of publicity. Most of it - even when it's generated by our own city and state agencies - focuses on what a great place New Orleans is to eat, drink, and listen to music. And, it is. But we're so much more than that. One of these days maybe we'll also be recognized for being the home of AxoSim, a company that's revolutionizing neurological medical research, and the Bastion Community of Resilience, pioneering healthcare and the welfare of military veterans. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Louisiana Eats takes you to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where there's always an abundance of music, food, and art. We've got you covered on all fronts. We begin with longtime vendor Greg Arcenaux, whose artisan woodworking is a perennial favorite in Jazz Fest's Louisiana Marketplace. Greg gives us a crash course in what sets his work apart from the rest. Then, we take you on a mule-drawn ride with the Roman Candy man. On many an afternoon in New Orleans, you'll find Ronnie Kottemann on his 109-year-old cart on the streets of Uptown New Orleans. You can also visit Ronnie and his wagon every Jazz Fest, parked inside the fairgrounds near the Gentilly gate – the same spot he's occupied since the 1970s. We also have a visit with our own house band, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, who perform at the festival each year. Members of the ensemble share some of their Jazz Fest gig memories with us, along with the meals they enjoy off and on the stage. Finally, Steve Armbruster joins us in the studio to tell the tale of how the first Food Heritage Stage came to be and the key role his vintage Volkswagen played in those early years. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

The city of New Orleans is in Orleans Parish. For reasons that are mainly economic and infrastructure-related, Orleans and neighboring Jefferson Parish are inter-dependent.  The two parishes are very different. The rivalry between them isn't on the scale of the Saints and the Flacons, but it's definitely real. If you live in Jefferson Parish, the basic perception is, “Sure, New Orleans has great restaurants and music clubs but it's dangerous, dirty, and dysfunctional.” If you live in New Orleans, the perception is, “Sure, everything works in Jefferson Parish, but it's sterile and soulless.” Nothing illustrates the real-world differences between the parishes better than the business stories of this editon of Out to Lunch's two guests. The Tale In Jefferson Parish, the heart of the retail economy is Veterans Boulevard. There used to be a bowling alley on Veterans, called Paradise Lanes. In 1995 it was knocked down and replaced by a Barnes & Noble bookstore. The owners of the bowling alley retained a retail space in the New Barnes & Noble building. They called their new store Paradise Cafe & Gifts. 21 years later, in 2016, two of the owner's granddaughters, sisters Jenny McGuinness and Jessica Woodward, along with their mom, Linda Dalton, transformed the store into a home accessories and gift shop, and called it Phina. Next, they opened two more Phina stores – one on Metairie Road and another on Harrison Avenue. In 2023 they bought a company called The Basketry, that specializes in personal and corporate gift baskets. Today the combined companies have 50 employees and business is booming.  Our story from Orleans Parish is equally successful. It's based on a single word. A word that, if you live in Orleans Parish, has enormous practical and symbolic meaning: Potholes. Nothing typifies the perception of the dysfunction of the city of New Orleans like the pot-holed state of our streets. In 2019, an anonymous person started an Instagram account illustrating the sorry condition of our streets. The name of the account is the sentence many New Orleanians say or think as they drive or bike around town, Look at This Effin Street. (On Instagram "effin" is the f-word. Because none of our podcasts are explicit we're sticking with "effin" to avoid the bot-police.) The Look at This Effin' Street Instagram account was an instant success. People started contributing photos of New Orleans streets and today the account has over 120,000 followers – including by the way, The City of New Orleans. How do you monetize this kind of social media success? You can't exactly sell potholes. But you can sell merch about potholes. And that's what the anonymous founder of Look at This Effin Street did. He contracted with a local merch company, InkMule, to make stickers, baseball caps, T-shirts and other pot-hole merch. The anonymous business-person behind this successful social-media driven venture is still anonymous. On this edition of Out to Lunch we referring to him as Effin Street. Two Parishes Next time you're driving along Veterans Boulevard, Harrison Avenue, or Metairie Road, you might notice one of the three Phina stores. But you probably won't think anything at all about the street you're driving on. If you keep driving east from there on surface streets, you'll cross the parish line into Orleans Parish. At that point you may well find yourself remarking, “Look at this effin' street.” Jenny and Effin Street's respective experiences are model examples of the differences between Orleans and Jefferson parishes. But their histories and businesses are also representative of the synergy that exists between the two parishes and the people who live, work and play in both of them. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns on St. Charles Avenue in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Blake Langlinais at itsneworleans.com.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

565. Catharine Cole, Louisiana journalist. Louisiana Studies Conference presentation. Stephen & Bruce give their presentation about Catharine Cole, one of Louisiana's first women journalists. Catharine was best known from visiting every parish in the state at that time, writing articles on each one that reached every corner of Louisiana and beyond. "Martha Reinhard Smallwood Field (May 24, 1854 – December 19, 1898), known as Mattie Field, was an American journalist. She usually wrote under the pen name Catharine Cole. She was one of the earliest professional women newspaper reporters in New Orleans, Louisiana. A champion of women's education and social justice, she also founded the city's first circulating library and helped found a number of other civic institutions." Wiki. This week in Louisiana history. March 16, 1806. Norbert Rillieux, inventor of sugar refining, born 1806-1894. This week in New Orleans history. Musician Leon Joseph Roppolo (nicknamed "Rap") was born on March 16, 1902 in Lutcher, Louisiana. His family, of Sicilian origin, moved to Uptown New Orleans about 1912. Young Leon's first instrument was the violin. He was a fan of the marching bands he heard in the streets of New Orleans, and learned to play clarinet. This week in Louisiana. March 20-24, 2024. Website Schedule Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival A New Orleans affair for readers, writers, & theatre lovers! We're excited to present our 38th Annual TWFest, including writer's craft sessions, literary panels, theatre events, author interviews, literary walking tours, culinary & cocktail events, and music events. And don't forget our Stella Shouting Contest kicking it all off on Sunday, March 17! Join award-winning writers, historians, scholars, journalists, actors, musicians, and cultural experts for five days of literary revelry in the lush Bohemia of New Orleans. Postcards from Louisiana. John Joyce at the dba. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook.