It's New Orleans: Out to Lunch

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OUT TO LUNCH finds economist and Tulane finance professor Peter Ricchiuti conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Olreans. In his 15th year in the host seat, Ricchiuti’s learned but uniquely NOLA informal perspective has established Out to Lunch as the voice of Crescent City business. You can also hear the show on WWNO 89.9FM.

  1. Prosperall The Alternative

    Jun 21

    Prosperall The Alternative

    There’s a reason you’re familiar with Jack Nicholson’s character in the movie A Few Good Men yelling, “You can’t handle the truth!” Partly it’s because of the intensity of Nicholson’s performance, but mostly it’s because it’s a hard-hitting piece of universal reality: A lot of the time we’d rather not know the truth. It can be as bland as the ubiquitous, “How are you?” When you ask somebody that, you don’t really  want their verified health summary. Similarly, when someone asks, “How’s business?” the expected answer is, “Great!” If you’re on the verge of bankruptcy you might answer, “Hey we’re hangin’ in.” The problem is, “Fake it till you make it” doesn’t always work. Sometimes in business, as in other aspects of life, the only way you can change and grow is if you deal with the truth. A business consultant or a board of directors will typically only go so far in that regard. And that’s the reason David Purvis started up The Alternative Board in New Orleans. The Alternative Board is exactly what it says: an alternative to a typical board of directors. It’s more like a business support group. A business owner joins a group of other business owners They meet regularly, have honest conversations about their issues, and draw on their experiences to critique and help each other. The Alternative Board is an international organization. It’s in 22 countries. It has contributed to the success of more than 25,000 businesses over the past 30 years and members of the organization reportedly grow their businesses two-and-a-half times faster than the national average. David Purvis launched the New Orleans branch after a successful 36 year career as an engineer and executive in the oil and gas business. Even if you don’t have a business yourself, you’ve more than likely had to do business at some point with the city, or municipality you live in. Whether that’s here in New Orleans, or pretty much any other city in the country, you’ve more than likely been amazed at the apparent dysfunction and bureaucratic b.s. you have to go through to get anything accomplished. Here in New Orleans, our everyday stories are legendary about road repair, street lighting, building permits, burst water mains, boil water advisories, and the list goes on. Here’s a true story. On a street near my house, the city dug up the whole street and sidewalk and repaired and re-paved it. It was beautiful. For about a month. Then some other city contractor came along and dug up a section of the sidewalk. Now a sheet of plywood covers that bit. It’s been like that for 9 months and now the plywood’s beginning to rot. I know you’ve got a similar story. We all do. But, imagine living in a city where this kind of dysfunction doesn’t happen. That is what Sevetri Wilson Taylor’s company, Prosperall, is setting out achieve. Prosperall is an AI-driven platform that lets cities and municipalities consolidate data across departments so that disconnected systems that were never designed to talk to each other, communicate and coordinate. Sevetri Co-Founded Prosperall in 2025 and it’s already at work in 11 cities, including New Orleans. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do, or how successful you are, all of us to one degree or another believe that however well we’re doing now, we can do better. Whether it’s about making more money for yourself, or making life better for somebody else, the desire to do better - at least in the Western world - is probably one of the biggest motivators of human activity. Sevetri and David are both focused on making things better. For lots of people. David is focused on making things better for people in business. Sevetri is focused on making things better for everybody – everybody who lives and works in a city. It takes a special balance of drive and selflessness to pull off what each of them are doing. 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.

    31 min
  2. Propeller and Friends

    Jun 14

    Propeller and Friends

    If you’ve lived in New Orleans for any length of time, you know we love to rebuild. We rebuilt the levees. We rebuilt the schools. We rebuilt the Superdome. After every storm, we rebuild thousands of roofs and hundreds of homes. After Hurricane Katrina, a small group of New Orleanians decided that the way they could make a contribution toward saving the city was to help build companies. They revived a small volunteer-run organization called Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans. Three years later they turned it into a registered non-profit and gave it a new name. They called it, “Propeller.” The idea was - Find people in New Orleans who had identified a problem in their community and were trying to build a business or nonprofit to fix it. Get these folks in a room. Teach them how to read a balance sheet, how to apply for a grant, how to write a marketing plan, how to hire a bookkeeper. Then turn them loose. It worked. Today, Propeller is a business accelerator and co-working space that has seen more than 300 ventures go through its program. Those companies have generated over $290 million in revenue and external financing, and they’ve created more than 485 full and part-time jobs in the city. The CEO of Propeller is Jessica Allen. If you happened to watch HGTV in 2024, you may have caught a series called “Bargain Block: New Orleans.” It was a New Orleans spinoff of HGTV’s Detroit-based home renovation show.  The two hosts had design ambitions. The person on the show who turned those ambitions into actual buildings, walls, and floors was a New Orleans general contractor named Charles Aponza. Charles came to New Orleans in 2012 to teach in the Recovery School District. He bought a fixer-upper, restored it himself, and then friends started asking him to help with their houses. In 2015 he turned his home building skills into a business - Brighter Horizons Construction.  Charles and Brighter Horizons came up through Propeller’s Impact Accelerator. Then there’s the other side of what comes out of Propeller. A nonprofit. In 2014, Kimberly Novod and her husband Aaron were expecting their first child. Their son Saul was born prematurely at 28 weeks. He spent 20 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. He died there. Kimberly has said publicly that the question she was left with was, “What do I do with all the love?” Her answer was Saul’s Light – a New Orleans nonprofit she founded to support NICU families and bereaved families across Louisiana. Today, Saul’s Light serves around 200 Louisiana families a year.Beyond emotional support, they provide financial assistance. And as an advocacy group, Saul’s Light has   produced two Louisiana state laws – a tax credit for stillborn children, and a requirement that health insurance, including Medicaid, cover prescription human milk. There’s a tendency, when we talk about business in New Orleans, to default to conversations about tourism, hospitality, Jazz Fest, Mardi Gras… The fun stuff. We don’t hear so much about the social justice economy: people who are building businesses and organizations to fix things that are broken. At Propeller they put that work at the center of their existence. Charles came up through Propeller and grew a construction business that builds homes New Orleanians can actually afford. Kimberly came up through Propeller and built an organization that helps 200 families a year go through one of the hardest things a person can experience. As in music, sometimes in business the silence is as powerful as the conversation. 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.

    32 min
  3. THC Tarps

    Jun 7

    THC Tarps

    There are two things we know a lot about in New Orleans: partying and hurricanes. For a long time those weren't unrelated. The hurricane party was a New Orleans institution — you'd ride out the storm with your neighbors, a case of beer, and a sense of invincibility. These days, after Katrina and Ida, hurricanes aren't quite the occasion they used to be. But there's still a connection between the two — just a more businesslike one. Now, the connection shows up after the storm, not during it. When you drive around New Orleans after a big storm, you see a lot of blue roofs. They’re tarps. When you drive around any other time, you see houses draped in tarps in other colors, covering houses that are being fumigated, mostly for termites. All of these tarps, plus many others used in places like grain ships, in transporting seafood, and for keeping ammunition weather-proof for the US military, are manufactured in Ponchatoula by a New Orleans company – J&M Industries. The Managing Owner and President of J&M Industries is Maurice Gaudet IV. After the hurricane’s blown through and you get back to partying, there’s another local manufacturer you might want to know about. The company and their product are both called Louie Louie. Louie Louie are cans of effervescent drinks, in flavors like Hurricane Punch, Ginger Cucumber and Blackberry Lemon. But it’s more than the flavor that sets these drinks apart from a regular seltzer. Louie Louie describes itself as a, “cannabis infused beverage.” Each can has 5 milligrams of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis that, when you smoke it, gets you high. And 5 milligrams of CBD, the cannabis derivative that promotes relaxation. When you drink Louie Louie it’s reportedly quicker acting and not as long lasting as eating a gummy and, according to the company’s marketing, gives the drinker “a relaxed buzz.” Marie LaFrance is a Co-Founder of Louie Louie. Anyone who has had any contact with the news media over the last decade has heard politicians from every party and at every level – federal, state, and local – talk about "manufacturing." Once you hear that word, the next part of the conversation is usually about China, Canada, the Midwest or northeast of the US. It’s very rare, if ever, that you hear about manufacturing in New Orleans. And yet, here we are. J&M Industries has been around for over 50 years and are are showing no signs of slowing down. Louie Louie has been only been around a few years and every indication is they’re just getting started. 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.

    31 min
  4. Kitchen Closet

    May 24

    Kitchen Closet

    Although each of us is free to believe whatever we want, when it comes to our personal finances, we tend to operate with a number of shared beliefs. One of these is the belief in the benefit of ownership. For example, it’s better to own your own business than be an employee. Financially, that benefit is not necessarily true. Many startup business owners go for years before they even pay themselves at all. And many employees make a lot of money. Emotionally and psychologically, though, it’s a different story. Because happiness is, by definition, how you feel – owning your own business can be the greatest thing ever - if you feel good about the inevitable challenges it brings. Both of Peter's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch have taken the leap from employee to owner. And both of them have businesses that are dependent not just on their business acumen, but also on their singular talent and taste. Sue Zemanick started her career in New Orleans in 2003 as a chef at Commander’s Palace. By 2005 she was Executive Chef at Gautreau’s in Uptown New Orleans. In 2013 Chef Sue won a James Beard Award for “Best Chef, South.” In 2019 she opened her own restaurant in Mid City, called Zasu. In 2025, Zasu earned the Olympic Gold Medal of hospitality, a Michelin Star. Zasu is one of only a handful of restaurants to earn Louisiana's first-ever Michelin stars — and the only one run by a woman. Margaret Sche came to New Orleans from Los Angeles where she had been a fashion stylist, merchandiser and trend forecaster. Margaret was surprised to find there wasn’t a women’s fashion store here that was truly reflective of the style of the city, and the flair of its female fashionistas. She corrected that gap in the market with a store, called The Saint Claude Social Club. Today, the store is called The Closet by Saint Claude Social Club, and it has a whole different business model. It’s a fashion rental store – a real-world version of online fashion rental businesses like Rent The Runway and Nuuly, but with a local-focus. It has a curated collection of fashion ranging from Mardi Gras ballgowns to vintage finds that Margaret picks up in Paris. When you start your own business making widgets, you hope to eventually get to a point where the widget factory rolls along and keeps making money even when you’re at Disney World. But when you start a business that depends entirely on you – like your own restaurant or a curated fashion boutique - you’re not just making widgets. You’re creating experiences for other people. People don’t eat in a Michelin Star restaurant just to get enough carbs to get through the next 8 hours. And they don’t go to a curated fashion boutique to find clothes just to keep warm. The types of businesses Sue and Margaret are running demand the same kind of business skills as it takes to run a widget factory, and a whole lot more. Their businesses wouldn’t exist without their particular talents, creativity, and imagination. 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.

    32 min
  5. Visible and Invisible New Orleans

    May 17

    Visible and Invisible New Orleans

    I want to start out today by running through a few notable New Orleans landmarks:The new terminal at Louis Armstrong Airport. The U.S Custom House.The gold/copper skin on the Superdome.The Civic Theater.The W New Orleans French Quarter Hotel.The Xavier University Dormitories. There are a whole lot more on this list too. If you’re wondering what the link is between all of them, it’s the construction company that built them, or in some cases re-built them. It’s a 50 year old family firm, called Gibbs Construction. Gibbs Construction was founded in 1976, by Larry Gibbs. 43 years later, In 2019, Larry’s daughter, Lauren, took over as owner and CEO of the company. Now, here’s a list of other New Orleans buildings. See if you can tell me what these have in common:The LaLaurie Mansion on Royal Street.The Hermann-Grima House.Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop.The Andrew Jackson Hotel.The Old Ursuline Convent. If you’re a New Orleanian, you’re probably saying, with as much nonchalance and more confidence than you have in today’s weather forecast, “Oh yeah, they’re all haunted.” Along with the French Quarter, fabulous food, and live music, the supernatural vibe that is a natural part of New Orleans is an element of the city people come here to experience. Most tourists – and locals by the way – learn about our haunted history courtesy of the oldest and largest ghost tour business in New Orleans - a company called, Haunted History Tours. Haunted History was co-founded in 1994 by partners Sidney and Kalila Smith. Today, Kalila is the sole owner of the company. Kalila is a leading authority on the subject of supernatural New Orleans. She’s the author of multiple books, including New Orleans Ghosts, Voodoo & Vampires, and Tales From The French Quarter. Her many TV appearances include CNN, Fox News, The Today Show, The Travel Channel and Discovery. She was a contributor to Sony's PlayStation II game Ghosthunter, and produced a PBS documentary on Southern hauntings. Visible & Invisible A lot of businesses have a lot in common. But some don’t. About the only way anybody could run a complex, multi-million dollar construction company is by having years of experience in the industry, which in Lauren's case she got to some degree by growing up in it. On the other hand, what’s made Kalila's business successful is the very opposite of continuity – it’s the ability to do something nobody had done before she came along and created it. Lauren and Kalila are wonderful examples of the multi-dimensional tapestry of our unique New Orleans economy, and vastly different but equally important contributors to it. 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.

    32 min
  6. After The Revolution

    May 10

    After The Revolution

    If you’re under 30, and you have any kind of original, innovative ideas, you might not know that before you were born people like you generally left New Orleans and went to places where forward-thinking was appreciated. Then, in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina had knocked the city to its knees, the river of intellectuals and social activists started to flow in other direction. All kinds of smart people with new ideas started coming here. Two of them were young guys who arrived as part of the revolution in education. Jonas Chartock was CEO of an organization called Leading Educators. Matt Candler was CEO of an organization called New Schools For New Orleans, and then Founder of an education startup called 4.0 Schools. Like pretty much everything else in New Orleans at the time, our schools and our entire education system was in ruins. In a period we can now look back on as something of an Enlightenment, Jonas, Matt, and a generation of educators completely re-imagined our education system and built what was both an education laboratory and beacon for the nation. In 2016 Jonas and Matt were guests on Out to Lunch. They were fired up about the education revolution they were a part of leading. Today’s Out to Lunch is a reunion. Ten years and some-odd on, Jonas and Matt are still revolutionaries. Matt is building electric motorbikes under the banner of Night Shift Bikes. And he’s helping build a number of other battery-based companies as General Partner of an investment fund called The Batteries Included Fund. Jonas is CEO of The Childrens Bureau of New Orleans. It’s a non-profit that provides primarily mental health support for children who have experienced a traumatic event. That support is in the form of immediate crisis intervention, and longer-term, evidence-based therapies for children and families impacted by trauma. people come and go out of your life. You’re friends for a while, maybe you were even close friends or partners – but things change, life goes on, and one way or another you drift apart. That person might not be a central part of your life any more they way they were, but your relationship with them had an affect on you, and when you run into them these days it’s still good to see them. It can even be like old times and you pick up right where you left off. It’s kind of the same for the City of New Orleans’ relationship with Matt and Jonas. They might not be the central revolutionary savior figures they were when you first rolled into town, but they’re still here. Their contributions to the education revolution continue to ripple through the system in various ways, and their current contributions to the city are not insignificant either. 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.

    34 min
  7. The Best Of All Possible Worlds

    Apr 26

    The Best Of All Possible Worlds

    In the mid 1700’s, a French author, Voltaire, wrote a biting satire that has remained a classic piece of literature ever since. The novel, Candide, is about a student who is continually beset by all kinds of horrific disasters. It’s basically a buddy comedy in which the kid’s super-upbeat tutor keeps encouraging him, by saying, “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” It’s kind of today’s equivalent of advising a kid in a disadvantaged public school to, “follow your dreams and anything is possible.” The fact is, if you’re a high school kid from an economically disadvantaged background, and you’re in a not-so-great public school, it’s going to take a lot more than a positive attitude to succeed after you graduate. That’s the harsh reality that drives a ground-breaking New Orleans organization called YouthForce NOLA. YouthForce NOLA partners with every public school in New Orleans to form a bridge between the schools and local businesses. They provide kids with internships that give them real world experience. Kids and business owners, who wouldn’t normally know each other existed, get to meet and mutually benefit from their association. YouthForce NOLA can quote all kinds of statistics that explain why its operating model is spreading across the country, but this one set of numbers tells the story: since 2015 around 2,000 young people have earned over $3 million in paid internships - and 99% have continued on to college or a career. The Founder and CEO of YouthForce NOLA is Cate Swinburn. Along with YouthForce NOLA, there are a lot of organizations whose sole purpose is helping people. These organizations are generally grouped under the banner, “non- profit.” A non-profit business doesn’t have to pay federal taxes. They’re mostly exempt from property taxes. They have access to grant funding. They can receive donations that are tax deductions for the donor. And there are a whole bunch of other benefits too. But, - and there’s always a “but” when it comes to what looks like easy money – these non-profit business have to jump through a bunch of bureaucratic hoops and comply with all kinds of regulatory requirements to retain their legal definition of a 501(c)3 business. Other purpose-driven organizations that raise and spend money for reasons other than making a profit – like foundations and public entities – also have unique requirements. Here in New Orleans there’s a company whose business is maximizing the efficiency of all these types of organizations. It’s called Trepwise. It’s Founder and CEO is Kevin Wilkins. Kevin brought the original incarnation of Trepwise to Out to Lunch in 2016. The Bottom Line The term “the bottom line” is derived from accounting. It refers to the last line of a balance sheet in which you’re left staring at an incontrovertible fact – you’ve either made money or lost it. Over the last few years we’ve come to know businesses that deal in what’s called a triple bottom line. The three P’s of the triple bottom line are, Profit, People, and Purpose. In other words, there can be more to business than making money. Cate Swinburn and Kevin Wilkins are great examples of people who have proven skills in making profits, but who choose to add people and purpose to their professional 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.

    30 min
  8. The Road Less Traveled

    Apr 19

    The Road Less Traveled

    If you think it feels like things are speeding up and change is coming faster than ever, well, you’re right. It took us hundreds of thousands of years to get to a worldwide population of 3 billion. We got there in 1927. From there, it only took about 70 more years – one lifetime – to get to a population of 6 billion. Back at the 3 billion mark, fewer Americans lived in urban areas. When they needed to shop for necessary supplies they’d talk about “going to town.” “Town” was often a single street. A commercial corridor. A “Main Street.” Here in New Orleans, over the 300 years of our existence we’ve had a number of main streets. Canal Street. Dryades Street. Magazine Street. Recently we’ve added Freret Street. The current incarnation of Freret street as a commercial district began with the re-birth of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. One of the first outposts of resurrection was a then audaciously high-end, hip, cocktail bar and restaurant, called Cure. Cure would go on to win all kinds of awards, including the Oscar of hospitality - a James Beard Award for “Outstanding Bar Program” - and the company behind it, CureCo Bar & Restaurant Group would go on to open Val’s, also on Freret Street, and other establishments, including Cane & Table on Decatur Street. Neal Bodenheimer is a Co-Founder and the Managing Partner of these ventures, as well as a partner in Dauphine’s in Washington DC, Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Tales of the Cocktail Foundation, and author of the book, Cure, New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ‘em. Tourists who visit New Orleans will often check out Freret Street and Magazine Street, but mostly they want to see The French Quarter. Typically, they’ll stay in a hotel in the Quarter, or at an Air B’nB in a neighborhood. There’s another local accommodation option too. It’s just west of the city. It sits on 7 and a half acres. It’s staffed by 12 employees, 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and has a full concierge desk. There’s a shuttle service to the French Quarter, and to special events like Saints games and Jazz Fest. The concierge will arrange any tour you want to go on. And they have a souvenir shop where everything is intentionally priced lower than downtown.  So, what is this place? It’s the KOA campground in River Ridge. There are 100 RV sites, 4 tent sites, and 3 deluxe lodges. The owners of KOA Campgrounds New Orleans are husband and wife team, Mike and Deborah Dunn. Yes, we have Big Ass Beers and Pat O’Briens, but we also have craft cocktails and Cure. And, yes, we have hotels on Bourbon Street and Air BnB’s Uptown, but we also have KOA Campgrounds in River Ridge. There is, as they say, more than one way to skin a cat. According to AI, the origin of that saying is unknown, but it’s thought to refer to the various solutions to the tricky business of cleaning and preparing catfish. Which is entirely appropriate for this part of the world, and for today’s conversation, referring, as it does, to various ways of achieving the desired result of enjoying a long life or a short stay in New Orleans by taking the road less traveled. Whether its locals who have turned Cure into an institution or visitors who have discovered the benefits of urban camping, all of us appreciate the unique ways both Deborah Sunn and Neal Bodenheimer are helping retain New Orleans’ reputation as a city that defies easy definition. 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.

    32 min
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OUT TO LUNCH finds economist and Tulane finance professor Peter Ricchiuti conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Olreans. In his 15th year in the host seat, Ricchiuti’s learned but uniquely NOLA informal perspective has established Out to Lunch as the voice of Crescent City business. You can also hear the show on WWNO 89.9FM.

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