It's New Orleans: Out To Lunch

The vacuum created when NASA left the Michoud facility in New Orleans East has been filled by a range of new, innovative aero space and robotic manufacturers. Among them, Crescent Unmanned Systems and NVision Solutions. Charles Easterling, co founder and CEO of Crescent Unmanned Sytems, came to lunch with his Google Glass. While you re doing whatever it is you do on a regular day, right off of the I 10 in New Orleans East Charles and Crescent Unmanned Systems are manufacturing one of the most advanced drones available. A little further East along the I 10 at Stennis now part of the New Orleans East NASA facility Craig Harvey is Executive Vice President and COO of NVision Solutions, designing and manufacturing autonomous robots. In the Pay It Forward segment of the show Peter Ricchiuti has Craig and Charles use their expertise to weigh in on start up True See Systems, a digital healthcare company specializing in photos you won t see on Facebook and won t hear discussed over many lunches wounds.

Do you diet and exercise but don t lose weight Those days are over. And how about this for an idea going to the doctor and getting medication that works just right the first time. New Orleans DNA research companies Renaissance RX and GenoVive are changing our concept of dieting and of medication. GenoVive founder Victor Castellon joins Peter Ricchiuti on Out to Lunch to explain how specific DNA based diet and exercise programs can target your unique metabolism to be effective from the very first day you start your personal weight loss and health improvement program. Here in Louisiana most of us have heard that we're losing a football field of coastline every hour. But did you know this statistic Every 15 minutes someone in the United States dies from an incorrect dose of prescription drugs New Orleans biotech company Renaissance RX has pioneered a breakthrough DNA test that is saving lives across the country by preventing fatal doses of prescription drugs. Kory Krista from Renaissance RX explains the science

Cam Marston tells a great story that illustrates how our attitudes to parenting have changed today babies are brought home from the hospital strapped down in a rear facing car seat in the back seat of a car. In the previous generation babies were carried in mom s lap in the front seat while mom wore no seat belt and smoked a cigarette. Cam is an authority on the relationships between generations and how Boomers, X ers and Milllenials co exist in the workplace. He consults on Generational Insights with a wide range of Fortune 500 companies and is a sought after lecture circuit speaker. Lola Lass is also an expert on who gets along with whom at work. Lola s company, Adeeta Corporate Staffing, marries New Orleans employers with employees. Her insights on the relationships between NOLA Boomer bosses, X er managers and Millenial employees is fascinating.

Sure, we all know New Orleans business is doing better than it ever has, but in your wildest imaginings of exactly what that means it s unlikely you ve had any idea that "they sky s the limit" has in the last few years gone from being a visionary fantasy to an aerospace reality. While many of us are still evoking the credentials of being the birthplace of jazz and the cocktail, two extraordinary local businessmen are giving us, literally, a whole new world to brag about. Bobbie Savoie is CEO of Geocent, a technology and engineering firm whose clients range from the United States Government to the oil and gas industry. Among other extraordinary accomplishments Geocent's contribution to the aerospace industry has earned Bobbie Savoie NASA's highest honor the Distinguished Public Service Medal. Past recipients have included Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Jay Monroe is Chairman of the Board and CEO of Globalstar. Globalstar has a constellation of orbiting satellites that supply over 120 countries with mobile

New Orleans is celebrated across the country and around the world as a center of extraordinary live entertainment. Not just in the French Quarter but all over the city there's a vast amount of live music, theater, and comedy every night of the year. However, on the inside of what appears to be a thriving local entertainment industry you frequently hear the same criticism we have a lot of entertainment, but not much industry. Plenty of shows, but not enough show business. Bill Taylor is setting out to change that. Bill is the Executive Director of The Trombone Shorty Foundation and the Foundation's Fredman Music Business Institute, in partnership with Tulane University. Chris Trew is a New Orleans comedian, and a comedy entrepreneur. Chris is the creator of the nationwide Air Sex World Championships, the co creator of the Hell Yes Fest comedy festival, and the co founder of The New Movement, with comedy theaters in Austin and New Orleans. Peter Ricchiutit talks over the changing face of the biz side of New Orl

Out to Lunch is recorded each week live over lunch at Commander s Palace in New Orleans Garden District. One of the reasons Commander's has been in business for over 130 years is that each time we come here for lunch it's just as good as it was the last time. Imagine if you had to replicate that dining experience at not just one, but hundreds of restaurants. That's what a franchise is. Despite the cookie cutter, anti local New Orleans connotation of the concept of franchising, most franchise produced finances jobs, products and services stay in the local area. And beyond that, not all franchises are national chains that come to New Orleans. Some national franchises originate in New Orleans. Popeyes and Ruth s Chris are the biggest. Local company Ballard Brands is catching up. Paul Ballard and his two brothers have nearly 150 locally originated franchise locations across the country. Ballard Brands, owns PJ's Coffee and WOW Cafe. Paul joins Peter to talk franchising on today s Out to Lunch. Ted Fireman teaches

Common sense is difficult to define. In business, people with unique and quirky ideas can run into a lot of negativity based on common sense. A few years ago it was the stupid idea of putting a camera in a phone. Common sense said it would never work people who want to make a phone call don't want to buy a camera. Then there was the idiot idea of fancy coffee. Who's going to pay 5 for something with a stupid name like Frappucino How about the guys who decided that, at a time when newspapers are going under all over the country when New Orleans one remaining paper couldn't get enough advertising to sustain itself they're going to launch a brand new daily newspaper in New Orleans. That newspaper is The Advocate. Its editor, Peter Kovacs, who was canned by the Times Picayune in its realignment, is Peter s guest on this episode of Out to Lunch. Opening a business is unimaginably difficult. Most people do it once, maybe twice, in a lifetime. Colin Grussing is doing it once a week. Colin's company, 52 Businesses, i

When people visit New Orleans and drive in from the airport, they assume they're in New Orleans from the minute they figure out how to get on the I 10 till they get to their French Quarter accommodation. If you live in New Orleans, you wouldn't say you were in New Orleans till you got to... well, where exactly In business, the Orleans Jefferson connection can be somewhat murky too. On this edition of Out to Lunch Peter Ricchiuti sorts it all out with the President of the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, Todd Murphy. Weighing in on the Orleans side of business alliances, is Denise Berthiaume, owner of Le Mieux Galleries and President of the New Orleans Arts District Association. The matchup is not as David and Goliath as you might think. New Orleans cultural economy is big business in fact there's only one sector of the local economy that's bigger and that s hospitality. The photos on this page were taken at Commander s Palace restaurant by Ashley George.

The national movement away from bad eating habits has swept into New Orleans. In the town that cholesterol forgot we ve started demanding to know more about what s in what we eat and take more care in selecting what we prepare at home for ourselves and our families. Seth Hamstead opened full service butcher Cleaver and Co to source locally grown meat from producers he can go meet. From a location that is not exactly a realtor s dream in a less traveled part of Uptown, Cleaver and Co has a loyal and growing clientele of carnivores. Tess Monaghan came to New Orleans from Yale and dragged some classmates with her to open online farmer s market Good Eggs. Sourcing fresh, organic fruit and veggies from local growers, and artisinal foodstuffs from pies to puree, Good Eggs is not only a farmer s market, it s a farmer s market in your house they deliver

There are a lot of great reasons to live in New Orleans, but making money is not typically at the top of the list. Even though the business climate is undeniably better here now than we've seen in decades, money is not what drives most of us. But of course, we can't live without it. So thankfully there are New Orleanians who devote themselves to looking after money, and two of them are Peter s guests today on Out to Lunch. Suzanne Mestayer is CEO of Thirty North Investments. Suzanne is an investment and financial adviser for businesses and individuals and in her spare time she's on the New Orleans branch of the Board of the Federal Reserve. Marianne Van Meter is founder and Managing Director of Legacy Capital. Marianne specializes in investment and financial strategies for private companies. You know what they say Money talks. In this edition of Out to Lunch we're talking about money.

Last year Americans spent over 55 billion dollars on their pets. To put that in some sort of perspective, that's more than most countries in the world spend on their military. In New Orleans, Zeus Place is one of a number of 21st Century pet boarding and day care facilities where pets are treated somewhere between kindergarten kids and rest home residents, with activities, walks, naps and even their own apartment. Michelle Ingram, founder and owner of Zeus' Place, sits down with Peter Ricchiuti to talk cats, dogs, daycare, webcams and pet apartments named for vacation spots where the pet s human owners have gone after dropping their pets off for days of fun, pampering video surveillance. In the US and specially in New Orleans, we keep spending money on our pets even after they're dead. Heaven's Pets is a post life pet care business a joint venture with Stewart Enterprises, the largest provider of funeral and cemetery services in the United States. Based at Lake Lawn Cemetery in Metairie, Heaven's Pets will ar

"Do something you re passionate about" is tossed about so often as the key to starting up an entrepreneurial business that it s become all but a cliche. This episode of Out to Lunch will restore your faith in the place of passion in business, and if you ve ever thought about starting up your own business, in 30 minutes you ll be inspired to run out and do it Amanda Dailey was in real estate in Texas when her New Orleans friend Julie Araujo invited her to go check out Julie s mom s house in Portugal and advise her mom on selling it. On the trip Amanda fell in love with cork. So much so that Julie starting referring to her as "Queen of Cork" from which the nominal contraction and business "Queork" was born. Starting with cork dog collars, Amanda, Julie and Queork branched out to include handbags, shoes, cell phone cases and much more. Above is a roll of cork fabric and a cork man s wallet on our lunch table in the wine room at Commander s Palace. Based in New Orleans French Quarter, Queork is now one of the onl

Drew Bevolo is the current torch carrier of his family firm, Bevolo Gas and Electric Lights, founded in 1945. Burt Benrud is the current head the family business Cafe du Monde which started up in the 1860 s. These two standard bearers of New Orleans enduring icons talk about the present, the future, and entrepreneur NOLA Pie Guy.

New Orleans annual Entrepreneur Week is a week long throw down of entrepreneurs and the men and women who love them. Resembling a melange of New York s Fashion Week, TED talks, and Cirque du Soleil of business, classes and seminars fill out the day around the star events where NOLA entrepreneurs get to pitch their Idea Village labeled "crazy ideas" in front of venture capitalists and the general public in return for steroidal strength networking, free coffee, sports drinks, and ultimately the lure of 50,000 in prize money. With the assistance of the Idea Village s Cameron Adams in orange, next to the empty dresser waiting for the wood repair person to show up Peter Ricchuiti trades lunch at Commander s Palace for a bag of pretzels at Gallier Hall, covering the Idea Village s 2014 Entrepreneur Week with this special edition of Out to Lunch. But seriously... On this stroll down Entrepreneur Lane, Peter Ricchuiti first nabs Victoria Adams. Victoria is Network Manager of The Idea Village and the fastest speed tal

We talk a lot in New Orleans about the "rebirth" of the city but before the city was re born it was born. The architects of what we all agree is our remarkably beautiful city were just that architects. The major architects of today s New Orleans are renaissance men and women. An eye for beauty and an ability to translate that into an engineerable design, once thought to be a singularly rare talent in itself, is today is just the beginning of far more complex procedure that involves knowledge of the law, investment skills, management ability and more than a passing knowledge of community dynamics. Angela O Byrne is President of Perez, a 100 woman and minority owned architecture and development company. Angela s stewardship has grown the New Orleans company into 14 offices nationwide, from Los Angeles to New York. Locally, among myriad other projects, Perez has reimagined public housing, is designing terminals for the new airport, and creating a blueprint for the rebirth of West End. Marcel Wisznia is President

Sure, we all know New Orleans business is doing better than it ever has, but in your wildest imaginings of exactly what that means it s unlikely you ve had any idea that "they sky s the limit" has in the last few years gone from being a visionary fantasy to an aerospace reality. While many of us are still evoking the credentials of being the birthplace of jazz and the cocktail, two extraordinary local businessmen are giving us, literally, a whole new world to brag about. Bobbie Savoie is CEO of Geocent, a technology and engineering firm whose clients range from the United States Government to the oil and gas industry. Among other extraordinary accomplishments Geocent's contribution to the aerospace industry has earned Bobbie Savoie NASA's highest honor the Distinguished Public Service Medal. Past recipients have included Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Jay Monroe is Chairman of the Board and CEO of Globalstar. Globalstar has a constellation of orbiting satellites that supply over 120 countries with mobile

Hubig's isn't what the rest of the country thinks of as pie. It's a single serving deep fried envelope of home made pastry and pie filling, sealed in a wax paper bag. And it's not sold in bakeries, but in all kinds of stores all over town. After Katrina, the return of Hubig's Pies was heralded as a milestone in our recovery. And so it was a community tragedy on July 27th 2012 when Hubig's factory burned down. Co owner and manager of daily operations Drew Ramsey is facing his century old company s challenge of a lifetime, rebuilding after a devastating fire destroyed Hubig s Pies. Tortillas account for 38 of the bread business in the United States. There are only 3 states who don't manufacture tortillas Mississippi, Wyoming and Louisiana. Today you can cross Louisiana off that list. Rod Olsen jumped ship from Zapp s to launch Hola Nola Foods, La s first and only tortilla makers. In the Pay It Forward segment of the show Peter, Rod and Drew discuss Shop Local Style an online marketplace bringing Magazine Street

Ocean front property is desirable, unless the ocean is meant to be hundreds of miles from your front door. Webster Pierce Jr is the inventor of a hunk of plastic called the Wave Robber. Anchored off the coast of rapidly disappearing Louisiana land, it upends the natural process of waves washing away land by robbing them of their power, but unlike a traditional breakwater, siphons the silt out of the wave to create land. Sarah Mack is a pioneer in the field of business and governmental cooperation to save the wetlands. In the kind of public private financing model that property developers have employed to rejuvenate urban wastelands, Dr Mack marries carbon credits with the carbon saving properties of wetlands to create a win win financing model to pay for massive scale wetland remediation. In the Pay It Forward segment of this show, our two water works pioneers and Peter discuss another local revolutionary land saving business NanoFex. In a Out to Lunch first, David Culpepper, founder of NanoFex offers a truly

Would you like an article about yourself in the New York Times Betsie Gambel can make that happen. Would you like to own Mardi Gras Josh Mayer will take care of that for you. Peter, Josh, and Betsie delve into PR, branding, marketing, advertising, NOLA Mad Men and Women, and lend their substantial skills to startup business Clear the Clutter.

New Orleans is a city torn between upholding traditions and embracing change. In this Tale of Two Jonathans, Jonathan Bertuccelli s Studio 3 creates centuries old papier mache art in the form of elegant Mardi Gras floats while Jonathan Schudmak s NOLA 3D Printing creates our plastic future. In the Pay It Forward segment of the show Peter, Paper Jonathan, and Plastic Jonathan weigh in on how best to expand the already successful promotional product company Safeguard. It was a total boys club upstairs at Commander s Palace today