It's New Orleans: Out To Lunch

Did you know New Orleans is America s second favorite spot for destination weddings There s a whole industry built on folks coming here to get hitched. At the heart of it are two New Orleans icons House of Broel and Harkins the Florist. John Harkins and Bonnie Broel join Peter Ricchiuti for a lunch time chat that swings from brides on their wedding day to wives doing things with floral preservative other than preserving blooms. In the Pay It Forward part of the show John offers some advice from a guy who owned a chain of flower shops to a guy who is starting up a chain of healthy fast food alternative cafes Smoothies n Things.

Latona Giwa from Birthmark Doula Collective breaks down the A B C sections of the NOLA baby biz. Angelle Missios, NOLA Birth Photographer, is there to capture baby s first breath and first Facebook post. In the Pay It Forward segment of the show Peter, Angelle, and Latona take a look at The Elmer Group s Nerium. For dessert, co founder of Birthmark Doulas, Dana Keren, joins the postpartum party.

In 4 years Lauren Thom has taken Fleurty Girl from a bedroom in the front of her house on Oak Street to 5 stores citywide. At a time when the term "T shirt shop"was synonymous with "bottom feeding scum," representative of everything that was wrong with New Orleans tourist centered economy, Lauren turned T shirt economics on its head, pitching her product at locals, with dopey tourist slogans like "I got Bourbon faced on Shit Street" with insider jokes and NOLA pride from a Kenner Bra to an Irish Channel on TV. John Blancher bought a run down bowling alley to use as a catering hall. When he started booking bands, and drinkers and dancers also became bowlers, he d accidentally created a phenomenon that he called Rock n Bowl. Today Rock n Bowl is the anchor of a small entertainment empire that includes Ye Olde College Inn and Ye Olde Bakery. In the Pay It Forward segment of the show, host Peter Ricchiuti, Lauren and John discuss Kelsey Forman s suddenly successful vegan soap biz Cake Face Soaping over lunch at C

David Darragh is President and CEO of Reily Foods. Even if Reily Foods is not a household name you probably have some of their products in your household. La Luzianne Tea, French Market Coffee, CDM Coffee, Blue Plate Mayonnaise and many more. Erik Frank is a former USA weightlifting champion who bench pressed a then record setting 462 pounds so he knows a bit about getting in shape. His recently launched company, Your Nutrition Delivered, prepares chef made personalized healthy meals and delivers them to your work or home. The company was the first prize winner in the Idea Village 2013 Big Idea competition.

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.

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.

The post Hurricane Katrina world of demolishing New Orleans buildings and hauling truckloads of rubble off to a landfill isn t a male dominated industry, it s a male only industry. At least it was until Simone Bruni came along. A party planner with no parties to plan in 2006 Simone started out with nothing more than a notion, a few pink yard signs, and a business name that would capitalize on her most unique quality in the demolition business Demo Diva. Today pink Demo Diva dumpsters are all over town. After you ve knocked a building down to the dirt, what then When swaths of buildings started being torn down Will Bradshaw saw the social, environmental and commercial good sense in rebuilding "green." Green Coast Enterprises has had a surprisingly impressive impact on both the tone and physical structure of parts of rebuilt New Orleans, most notably taking the lead in the newly restored Broadmoor retail neighborhood. In the Pay it Forward segment of today s show, host Peter Ricchiuti asks Simone and Will to le

Pres Kabacoff and his company HRI Properties have had an enormous impact on the city of New Orleans as diverse as building Beau Chene on the Northshore, pioneering inner city living by bringing back the Warehouse District, converting the Blue Plate Maynonaise factory to artist lofts and creating The Healing Center in Bywater. Pres also has a vision for the big picture development of the city. Exclusively here on Out to Lunch, check out Pres s personal take on The Transformation of Iberville and Downtown New Orleans. Rick Haase has shepherded Latter and Blum into the number one spot not just in New Orleans, but he s made the company the biggest real estate player in the Gulf South quite a feat when you consider the enormous swaths of multi million dollar real estate along the gulf to our east, in Florida. In the Pay It Forward part of the show, Peter gets Pres and Rick to use their vast real estate and property development expertise to weight in on a non profit, Youth Rebuilding New Orleans. That s Rick Haase

The film business continues to grow so quickly that the term "Hollywood South" is becoming less of a quaint marketing moniker and more literally true with every movie that shoots here. Giant productions like Jurassic Park II and The Arnold Schwarzenegger franchise Terminator numbers 4, 5, and 6 are on the way. Part of the reason for Hollywood South s growth is financial State tax credits and the other part is crew and facilities now available here. On Out to Lunch host Peter Ricchiuti explores both these areas with two of the city s leaders in film financing and film production. Peter s guests on today s show are Susan Brennan founder and CEO of Second Line Stages, the giant soundstage in the Garden District where movies like Django Unchained and The Green Lantern were shot and Lenny Alsfeld, CEO of FBT Investments and its Film and Entertainment division. But not everything in Tinsel Town on the Bayou is sparkling. In the listener questions portion of the show Susan and Lenny respond to accusations from local

Chris Schulz's [Voodoo Ventures][link1] is an angel investor and founder of NOLA IT-central [Launchpad][link2]. Once you're up and running McKenzie Coco's [FSC Interactive][link3] will get you noticed. As will your hip sunglasses from [Krewe du Optic][link4]. [link1]: http://www.voodooventures.com/ [link2]: http://lp.co/ [link3]: http://www.fscinteractive.com/ [link4]: http://www.kreweduoptic.com/

What kind of business person looks at the New Orleans landscape and decides we need more booze? Kirk Coco from [NOLA Brewing][link1] and Jed Haas from [Atelier Vie][link2], that's who. Plus, what next for Idea Village prize winning biz, [Your Nutrition Delivered][link3]? [link1]: http://www.nolabrewing.com/ [link2]: http://ateliervie.com/ [link3]: http://yournutritiondelivered.com/

Jerry Strahan has been wrangling [Lucky Dog][link1] vendors for nearly 40 years and has the stories to prove it. Amy Wendel carries on the family tradition of [Hove][link2], the French Quarter's French Creole perfumery. Amy and Jerry pay it forward with online marketers[Ember Networks][link3] . [link1]: http://www.luckydogs.us/ [link2]: http://www.hoveparfumeur.com/ [link3]: http://www.getwithember.com/

Seth Hamstead from full service butcher [Cleaver and Co][link1] and Tess Monaghan from online farmer's market [Good Eggs][link2] lead the local revolution back to the future of good, old fashioned, locally grown, seasonal and sustainable food. And they deliver. [link1]: http://cleaverand.co/ [link2]: http://www.goodeggs.com/nola

At either end of the energy spectrum, Robert Suggs from [South Coast Solar][link1] and Todd Hornbeck from [Hornbeck Offshore Services][link2] are in very different worlds. But they do have a few ideas in common about [NOLA Bikinis][link3] [link1]: http://www.southcoastsolar.com/ [link2]: http://www.hornbeckoffshore.com/ [link3]: http://www.nolabikinis.com/

Drew Bevolo's family founded and has owned [Bevolo Gas and Electric Lights][link1] since 1945. Burt Benrud's family business, [Cafe du Monde][link2], 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][link3]. [link1]: http://www.bevolo.com/ [link2]: http://www.cafedumonde.com/ [link3]: http://www.nolapieguy.com/

Latona Giwa from [Birthmark Doula Collective][link1] breaks down the A B C-sections of the NOLA baby biz. Angelle Missios, [NOLA Birth Photographer][link2] is there to capture baby's first breath and first Facebook post. Angelle and Latona pay it forward with [The Elmer Group's Nerium][link3]. [link1]: http://birthmarkdoulas.com/ [link2]: http://www.nolabirthphotographer.com/ [link3]: http://www.nerium.com/default.aspx?ID=nola

Drew Ramsey is facing his century-old company's challenge of a lifetime, rebuilding after a devastating fire destroyed [Hubig's Pies][link1]. Rod Olsen jumped ship from Zapp's to launch [Hola Nola Foods][link2], La's first and only tortilla makers. [Shoplocalstyle][link3] brings Magazine Street to the world. [link1]: http://www.hubigs.com/ [link2]: http://www.holanolafoods.com/ [link3]: http://shoplocalstyle.com/

Investor John Koerner's bet on Barq's Root Beer paid off when he grew the company big enough to sell to Coca Cola. Charles Allen's local sports supplements venture, [BQuick Nutrition][link1], is following in Barq's footsteps. Koerner and Allen Pay It Forward to online wellness startup [Get Healthy][link2]. [link1]: http://www.bquicknutrition.com/ [link2]: https://gethealthy.com/

Hansel Harlan minces up nutria and feeds' em to the dogs as super healthy [Marsh Dog][link1] biscuits, treats, and jerky. [Arthur Matherne zips around the swamp on an airboat][link2], occasionally with superstars and sometimes shooting alligators. [link1]: http://www.marshdog.com/ [link2]: http://www.airboattours.com/

Jerry Strahan has been wrangling [Lucky Dog][link1] vendors for nearly 40 years and has the stories to prove it. Amy Wendel carries on the family tradition of [Hove][link2], the French Quarter's French Creole perfumery. Amy and Jerry pay it forward with online marketers[Ember Networks][link3] . [link1]: http://www.luckydogs.us/ [link2]: http://www.hoveparfumeur.com/ [link3]: http://www.getwithember.com/