There are people who leave high school with their whole lives mapped out in front of them. They have a career plan, and they set about executing it.

Then there’s the rest of us. Today, more than ever, many of us regularly find ourselves embarking on new jobs, and, in some cases, whole new careers.

Take Shane Mutter for example. Shane is a member of the 4th generation of New Orleans family owned business, Doerr Furniture.

Things went much as planned for Shane and Doerr Furniture. Shane went to work in the family business, learned all aspects of it, and took over as President of the company in 2014. Then, in February 2019, things took an unforeseen turn. Shane left Doerr Furniture to go work with his dad and his dad’s best friend in their second careers. As hemp farmers.

That’s the short version of how Shane Mutter gets to be National Sales and Marketing Director of Seed2System. It’s a farm-to-consumer operation that grows hemp, processes it, and sells their own brand of what is being hailed as the wonder drug of the 21st Century, CBD

Barrie Schwartz never intended the dinner parties she threw at her house to lead to one of the most unique careers in catering. But that’s what’s happened.

Barrie started out calling her home-based dinner events, My House Social. Today, My House Social has evolved into My House Events and bridges the gap between large groups who need to be fed, like conventions, and high-end creative chefs.

Normally these two things never come together. Large groups typically get fed by institutional chefs who, because of the demands of feeding a lot of people at the same time, don’t turn out the finest cuisine. But folks who come to New Orleans for an event expect the food to be great. After all, that’s what New Orleans is famous for.

So, what Barrie’s company does, is provide everything creative chefs need to cook for a large group, without these chefs having to make institutional cooking their full-time gig. This is essentially an inspired catering interpretation of the very simplest business  principle: supply and demand.

This edition of Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Commander's Palace. You can find more conversation about CBD and food over lunch here.

Photos by Jill Lafleur.

There are people who leave high school with their whole lives mapped out in front of them. They have a career plan, and they set about executing it.
Then there&rsquo;s the rest of us. Today, more than ever, many of us regularly find ourselves embarking on new jobs, and, in some cases, whole new careers.
Take Shane Mutter for example. Shane is a member of the 4th generation of New Orleans family owned business, <a href="https://doerrfurniture.com/">Doerr Furniture</a>.
Things went much as planned for Shane and Doerr Furniture. Shane went to work in the family business, learned all aspects of it, and took over as President of the company in 2014.&nbsp;Then, in February 2019, things took an unforeseen turn. Shane left Doerr Furniture to go work with his dad and his dad&rsquo;s best friend in their second careers. As hemp farmers.
That&rsquo;s the short version of how Shane Mutter gets to be National Sales and Marketing Director of <a href="https://seed2system.com/">Seed2System</a>. It&rsquo;s a farm-to-consumer operation that grows hemp, processes it, and sells their own brand of what is being hailed as the wonder drug of the 21st Century, CBD
Barrie Schwartz never intended the dinner parties she threw at her house to lead to one of the most unique careers in catering. But that&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s happened.
Barrie started out calling her home-based dinner events, My House Social.&nbsp;Today, My House Social has evolved into <a href="https://myhouseevents.com/">My House Events</a> and bridges the gap between large groups who need to be fed, like conventions, and high-end creative chefs.
Normally these two things never come together. Large groups typically get fed by institutional chefs who, because of the demands of feeding a lot of people at the same time, don&rsquo;t turn out the finest cuisine. But folks who come to New Orleans for an event expect the food to be great. After all, that&rsquo;s what New Orleans is famous for.
So, what Barrie&rsquo;s company does, is provide everything creative chefs need to cook for a large group, without these chefs having to make institutional cooking their full-time gig.&nbsp;This is essentially an inspired catering interpretation of the very simplest business &nbsp;principle: supply and demand.
This edition of Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at <a href="https://commanderspalace.com">Commander's Palace</a>. You can <a href="https://itsneworleans.com/2021/08/18/syrup-pot-n-peanut-butter/">find more conversation about CBD and food over lunch here</a>.
Photos by <a href="https://lafleurphoto.com">Jill Lafleur</a>.

OUT TO LUNCH finds economist and Tulane finance professor Peter Ricchiuti conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch at Commander’s Palace restaurant. In his 9th 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.

OUT TO LUNCH finds economist and Tulane finance professor Peter Ricchiuti conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch at Commander&rsquo;s Palace restaurant. In his 9th year in the host seat, Ricchiuti&rsquo;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.

Tulane finance professor Peter Ricchiuti conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch at Commander's Palace restaurant.

It's New Orleans: Out to Lunch

OUT TO LUNCH finds the country's most entertaining finance professor Peter Ricchiuti conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch. Each week Peter invites guests from the New Orleans business world to join him, sometimes for fine dining others for pizza. From CEO's to startups, managers, musicians, biomed needle-movers, Silicon Bayou success stories and entrepreneurs of all stripes put aside the elevator pitch and the talking points and actually enjoy themselves. It's business, New Orleans style. 
You can also hear the show on WWNO 89.9FM.

OUT TO LUNCH finds the country's most entertaining finance professor <a href="https://freeman.tulane.edu/faculty-research/finance/peter-ricchiuti">Peter Ricchiuti </a>conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch. Each week Peter invites guests from the New Orleans business world to join him, sometimes for fine dining others for pizza. From CEO's to startups, managers, musicians, biomed needle-movers, Silicon Bayou success stories and entrepreneurs of all stripes put aside the elevator pitch and the talking points and actually enjoy themselves. It's business, New Orleans style. You can also hear the show on <a href="https://www.wwno.org/show/out-to-lunch">WWNO 89.9FM</a>.

CBD Chefs

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.

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 &amp; Noble bookstore. The owners of the bowling alley retained a retail space in the New Barnes &amp; Noble building. They called their new store Paradise Cafe &amp; 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<a href="https://phinashop.com/"> Phina</a>.
Next, they opened two more Phina stores – one on Metairie Road and another on Harrison Avenue. In 2023 they bought a company called <a href="https://thebasketry.com/">The Basketry</a>, 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, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lookatthisfuckinstreet/">Look at This Effin Street</a>. (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 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lookatthisfuckinstreet/">Look at This Effin’ Street Instagram account</a> 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,<a href="https://www.inkmule.com/"> InkMule</a>, 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 <a href="https://thecolumns.com/">Columns on St. Charles Avenue </a>in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by <a href="https://www.popupproducer.com/">Blake Langlinais</a> at itsneworleans.com.

A Tale of Two Parishes

In the world of American coffee culture, 1971 changed everything. That was the year Starbucks was born. For much of the country, Starbucks was the first coffee shop in their town.

In New Orleans, our first coffee shop opened in The French Market - in the late 1700’s. For a city not known for being on the cutting edge of business, we were 200 years ahead of the coffee game.

Today, we’re the country’s second biggest coffee importer, after New York City. In part that’s because we’re the home of coffee giant, Folger’s. But New Orleans has always been – and still is - a hub of green coffee markets.

Green coffee is raw, unroasted coffee beans. It’s the world’s second-largest traded commodity, second only to oil. One of the major players in the green coffee market is International Coffee Corporation. Besides importing and shipping beans, they do something called Q-Grading. Q-Grading is a specialized skill performed by people trained in the art of coffee tasting. People like Drew Cambre.

As Sustainability Manager at International Coffee Corporation, on an average day Drew will sample and grade 20- 40 different coffees. 

We drink a lot of coffee in the United States, but we drink around three times as much beer. The reason we drink all this beer is partly because it tastes good, but it’s also for the feel-good effect alcohol has on our brain.

Well, now, there’s another drink that’s competing with beer for both taste and mood-altering, and it’s not alcohol. It’s cannabis. THC to be exact. THC - tetrahydrocannabinol - is the chemical in cannabis that gets you high.

One of the country’s fastest growing manufacturers of THC sodas is a New Orleans company called Crescent Canna. Crecent Canna was already manufacturing and selling THC-based products when it launched its drinks division in 2022 - and saw its fortunes radically improve.

Today, Crescent Canna has a lab and brewery in North Carolina, a head office in New Orleans, sales in over 1,000 locations in 20 states, online sales in all 50 states, and the company’s CEO, Joe Gerrity, says the company is negotiating with major distributors with the goal of becoming the Budweiser of THC drinks.

Few of us have advanced degrees in medical science, but we all know that for survival, human beings have to stay hydrated. We could conceivably just drink water, but we long ago abandoned mere survival as the benchmark of human success. And that’s why we have flavored drinks.

Hundreds of years ago New Orleans was one of the earliest American cities to import and sell coffee. Today we’re becoming one of the earliest American cities to manufacture and export THC infused sodas.

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.

In the world of American coffee culture, 1971 changed everything. That was the year Starbucks was born. For much of the country, Starbucks was the first coffee shop in their town.
In New Orleans, our first coffee shop opened in The French Market - in the late 1700’s. For a city not known for being on the cutting edge of business, we were 200 years ahead of the coffee game.
Today, we’re the country’s second biggest coffee importer, after New York City. In part that’s because we’re the home of coffee giant, Folger’s. But New Orleans has always been – and still is - a hub of green coffee markets.
Green coffee is raw, unroasted coffee beans. It’s the world’s second-largest traded commodity, second only to oil. One of the major players in the green coffee market is<a href="https://www.iccnola.com/"> International Coffee Corporation</a>. Besides importing and shipping beans, they do something called <a href="https://www.coffeeinstitute.org/certification/people/q-graders">Q-Grading</a>. Q-Grading is a specialized skill performed by people trained in the art of coffee tasting. People like <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-cambre-396933158/">Drew Cambre</a>.
As Sustainability Manager at International Coffee Corporation, on an average day Drew will sample and grade 20- 40 different coffees. 
We drink a lot of coffee in the United States, but we drink around three times as much beer. The reason we drink all this beer is partly because it tastes good, but it’s also for the feel-good effect alcohol has on our brain.
Well, now, there’s another drink that’s competing with beer for both taste and mood-altering, and it’s not alcohol. It’s cannabis. THC to be exact. THC - tetrahydrocannabinol - is the chemical in cannabis that gets you high.
One of the country’s fastest growing manufacturers of THC sodas is <a href="https://www.crescentcanna.com/">a New Orleans company called Crescent Canna</a>. Crecent Canna was already manufacturing and selling THC-based products when it launched its drinks division in 2022 - and saw its fortunes radically improve.
Today, Crescent Canna has a lab and brewery in North Carolina, a head office in New Orleans, sales in over 1,000 locations in 20 states, online sales in all 50 states, and the company’s CEO, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-gerrity-1ba91261/">Joe Gerrity</a>, says the company is negotiating with major distributors with the goal of becoming the Budweiser of THC drinks.
Few of us have advanced degrees in medical science, but we all know that for survival, human beings have to stay hydrated. We could conceivably just drink water, but we long ago abandoned mere survival as the benchmark of human success. And that’s why we have flavored drinks.
Hundreds of years ago New Orleans was one of the earliest American cities to import and sell coffee. Today we’re becoming one of the earliest American cities to manufacture and export THC infused sodas.
Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at <a href="https://thecolumns.com/">Columns in Uptown New Orleans</a>. You can find photos from this show by <a href="https://www.lafleurphoto.com/">Jill Lafleur</a> at<a href="https://itsneworleans.com/2024/04/10/coffee-and-cannabis/"> itsneworleans.com</a>.

Coffee and Cannabis

There are sayings in the English language that employ literal terms but have no literal meaning. For example, when we describe something as “black and white” we mean it’s obvious, not that there’s literally a black object and a white object.  When we say something’s “open and shut” we’re suggesting it’s inarguable, not that anything is literally open and shut – which, when you think about it, is physically impossible.

It’s the same with “above and beyond.” When we say someone has gone above and beyond, we mean they’ve exceeded our expectations. Whether or not my lunch guests today, or their businesses, exceed your expectations will depend on your personal expectations, but what makes them unique is that they literally go above and beyond.

Let’s start with above.

One of the many things tourists – and a few locals – do in New Orleans is, go on a swamp tour. This typically entails sitting in a boat that chugs through the swamp with a tour guide who tosses bits of chicken or marshmallows overboard to attract alligators.

Tyler Richardson took a look at an 8 acre block of Maurepas swamp near LaPlace and decided to go above it. Tyler built the world’s first and only fully aquatic swamp zipline. It’s called Zip NOLA. It’s a half mile, 90 minute zipline journey on 5 separate ziplines, over 2 suspension sky bridges tethered to 100 year old cypress trees.

Ernie Foundas is co-owner – along with his partner Adrienne Bell – of Suis Generis. Suis Generis is a Latin term, meaning “in a class of it’s own” but in this case it’s a restaurant in the Bywater.

What puts Suis Generis in a class of its own is that it stretches beyond the walls of the restaurant, beyond the city of New Orleans, and beyond the state of Louisiana, into Pearlington Mississippi.

In Pearlington, Ernie and Adrienne have a farm where they use a German horticulture technique that layers logs, twigs and leaves on the forest floor to create a rich soil in which they grow crops for restaurant ingredients.

Back in the Bywater, the Suis Generis kitchen is organized around a culinary philosophy called Food Evolution. It’s a technique that uses every single piece of an ingredient – using the byproduct of one dish to create another. For example, using discarded crawfish shells to make bisque, and then using the byproduct of the bisque to make fish sauce.

New Orleans is not a big city. It’s not unusual to run into someone you know at the drug store, or discover your neighbor went to school with your  co-worker. In that way, New Orleans has a kind of small-town feel.

And then you discover there are things going on here you had no idea about. Like a Zip Line out in La Place, or an avant garde restaurant in the Bywater.

Zip NOLA is a departure from the typical tourist trek around the French Quarter and Suis Generis is a departure from the established eateries locals typically gravitate to.

Tyler and Ernie make New Orleans a more colorful and interesting place to visit, and live in.

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at NOLA Pizza in the NOLA Brewing Taproom. You can find photos by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.

There are sayings in the English language that employ literal terms but have no literal meaning. For example, when we describe something as “black and white” we mean it’s obvious, not that there’s literally a black object and a white object.  When we say something’s “open and shut” we’re suggesting it’s inarguable, not that anything is literally open and shut – which, when you think about it, is physically impossible.
It’s the same with “above and beyond.” When we say someone has gone above and beyond, we mean they’ve exceeded our expectations. Whether or not my lunch guests today, or their businesses, exceed your expectations will depend on your personal expectations, but what makes them unique is that they literally go above and beyond.
Let’s start with above.
One of the many things tourists – and a few locals – do in New Orleans is, go on a swamp tour. This typically entails sitting in a boat that chugs through the swamp with a tour guide who tosses bits of chicken or marshmallows overboard to attract alligators.
Tyler Richardson took a look at an 8 acre block of Maurepas swamp near LaPlace and decided to go above it. Tyler built the world’s first and only fully aquatic swamp zipline. It’s called <a href="https://www.zipnola.com/">Zip NOLA</a>. It’s a half mile, 90 minute zipline journey on 5 separate ziplines, over 2 suspension sky bridges tethered to 100 year old cypress trees.
Ernie Foundas is co-owner – along with his partner Adrienne Bell – of <a href="http://www.suisgeneris.com/">Suis Generis</a>. Suis Generis is a Latin term, meaning “in a class of it’s own” but in this case it’s a restaurant in the Bywater.
What puts Suis Generis in a class of its own is that it stretches beyond the walls of the restaurant, beyond the city of New Orleans, and beyond the state of Louisiana, into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearlington,_Mississippi">Pearlington Mississippi</a>.
In Pearlington, Ernie and Adrienne have a farm where they use a <a href="https://www.permaculturenews.org/2010/08/03/the-art-and-science-of-making-a-hugelkultur-bed-transforming-woody-debris-into-a-garden-resource/">German horticulture technique that layers logs, twigs and leaves on the forest floor</a> to create a rich soil in which they grow crops for restaurant ingredients.
Back in the Bywater, the Suis Generis kitchen is organized around a culinary philosophy called Food Evolution. It’s a technique that uses every single piece of an ingredient – using the byproduct of one dish to create another. For example, using discarded crawfish shells to make bisque, and then using the byproduct of the bisque to make fish sauce.
New Orleans is not a big city. It’s not unusual to run into someone you know at the drug store, or discover your neighbor went to school with your  co-worker. In that way, New Orleans has a kind of small-town feel.
And then you discover there are things going on here you had no idea about. Like a Zip Line out in La Place, or an avant garde restaurant in the Bywater.
Zip NOLA is a departure from the typical tourist trek around the French Quarter and Suis Generis is a departure from the established eateries locals typically gravitate to.
Tyler and Ernie make New Orleans a more colorful and interesting place to visit, and live in.
Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at <a href="https://nolapizzaco.com/">NOLA Pizza </a>in the <a href="https://www.nolabrewing.com/">NOLA Brewing Taproom</a>. You can find photos by <a href="https://www.lafleurphoto.com/">Jill Lafleur</a> at<a href="https://itsneworleans.com/2024/04/02/above-and-beyond/"> itsneworleans.com</a>.

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