It's New Orleans: Out to Lunch

As Out to Lunch prepares to go back to hosting live lunches, for inspiration we're taking a look at some of our pre-Covid shows. Here's an Out to Lunch Best of: Rent a Car or Wedding Flowers. Sure, you're familiar with renting a car on line. How about wedding flowers? That might sound crazy but it wasn't all that long ago that renting a car online was a novel idea too. Think about the last time yo...

As Out to Lunch prepares to go back to hosting live lunches, for inspiration we're taking a look at some of our pre-Covid shows. Here's an Out to Lunch Best of: New Orleans Fashion Models. When we talk about the creative community in New Orleans we're usually referring to musicians. But there are other creative communities in the Crescent City, including New Orleans fashion, models, actors, and a...

This is a special edition of Out to Lunch: New Orleans At The Crossroads . We’ve been at the crossroads before. If we wanted to list every economic boom and bust cycle in New Orleans, we could go back to the very first flood. In 1719. When Bienville was still building the first settlements. We survived that one. And we’ve survived other attempts at devastation. Most recently, after 200...

As Out to Lunch prepares to go back to hosting live lunches, for inspiration we're taking a look at some of our pre-Covid shows. Here's an Out to Lunch Best of: Louisiana Alligators. Alligators In Louisiana alligators are everywhere. From Bourbon Street T-shirts to bowls of rice and sauce piquant in Lafayette. Although the alligator isn’t the official emblem of the state, if you own a car in...

Wherever you live in Louisiana, or anywhere in the US for that matter, you might have noticed something has changed in your local supermarket, in offices, and even in airports and hotels. That something is, Plexiglass. Those giant sheets of plexiglass that now stand between you and the person on the other side of a counter are called Sneeze Guards. Have you wondered where they suddenly all came fr...

If you had to list two of the pillars of American existence you might choose Liberty & Justice. Or, maybe Equality & Opportunity. Well, how about Rent & Beef? Rent The pandemic has forced us to confront a number of economic issues that were due for examination. One of them is the rental market. Even without the added stress of reduced pay or a lost job, renting can be a strained relati...

Back when we first started making Out to Lunch in New Orleans, one of our earliest guests was a young woman by the name of Amy Chenevert. Amy had gone to a football game and realized that all the guys were wearing fan fashion, but there was nothing fashionable for women to wear on game day. So Amy started up a company that made gameday apparel for women sports fans. That was back in 2007. During t...

"Everything is changing" is a phrase we don't get to use often about describing society. But living through 2020 we know it's pretty accurate right now. Things that were simple and fundamental, like going to the doctor and interacting with co-workers, are no longer so simple. On this edition of Out to Lunch we're looking at changes in how we visit doctors and digital distancing. Digital Distancing...

On this edition of Out to Lunch, Peter Ricchiuti, Stephanie Riegel and Christiaan Mader meet at the nexus of the Latinx Hub City Pang Wangle. Okay, let's unpack that: LatinX There’s no two ways about it – this is a tough time to be in business. There is help available to get through this rough patch – in the form of business loans, and even grants. Some are through Federal a...

On this edition of out to Lunch, Peter Ricchiuti and Christiaan Mader discuss the daily ritual of deleting email, but not dog dating email. Email You Don't Want to Delete Opening this segment of Out to Lunch, Peter says, "I’m always wary of hosts of shows like this who start off a story with, “If you’re like me…”  But I’m willing to go for it right now, be...

Although most businesses in the US and around the world are hurting as a result of the global pandemic, some businesses are booming as a direct result of the lock-down. Yes, there is an upside to Covid 19. Pang Wangle Before a previous disaster, Hurricane Katrina, blew Stephanie Riegel and her family to Baton Rouge, Stephanie was a journalist and news anchor at WWL TV in New Orleans. One of Stepha...

Whatever else has happened to you over the past few months, you’ve more than likely been keeping up with everything that’s going on, by checking the news. Along with NPR, some of Louisiana’s most reliable news sources are the local New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Acadiana editions of the daily newspaper, The Advocate . Both in print and online. The Publisher of all of the editions...

There was a time in what feels like the distant past – a few months ago – when it was more-or-less optional for a business to be a member of a business organization, like the Chamber of Commerce. But since the arrival of the pandemic and the economic disaster that’s come with it, there’s now so much uncertainty and so much red tape to navigate through – from Federal l...

Just a few weeks ago, the idea that we’d all stop our lives on the same day and be self-imprisoned in our homes might have seemed like the implausible plot of a dystopian series you’d see on Netflix. But since it really happened, it provided us with an un-imagined opportunity. Self-reflection. Now that things are starting back up, do you want to jump back into the exact same life you w...

As we head toward the beginning of real Summer here in South Louisiana - you know, the day you wake up and it's H-O-T - we might typically have vacation and hurricane season as top-of-mind issues. But this year things are different. Who knows if you'll be able to take a vacation? With all of our Covid anxieties do we have the capacity to worry about hurricanes as well? Plus we have a whole range o...

If you're a certain age or a fan of British comedy, you might remember the standard introduction to any number of bizarre sketches on the 1970's TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus was, "And now for something completely different." On this edition of Out to Lunch we're taking a break from unrelenting weeks of disturbing or just downright bad economic news to look at three businesses who are conti...

From the US perspective, there are two predictable economic pillars we have always relied on: Oil and The Fed. We look at the price and supply of oil to calibrate our economic position in the global economy, and we rely on The Fed to insure our economic security. In the past 2 months we have had the pillar of oil completely yanked away from the foundation of our financial institution. Is another p...

As Louisiana and parts of the rest of the country begin to re-open, there's a question about the economy that everyone is asking: What's going to happen to education, real estate, and retail? On this edition of Out to Lunch Louisiana we're asking local experts in each of these areas to tell us. Retail With apologies for the medical metaphor, retail was already on life support before Covid-19 shut...

The journey we are on is leading us down a path that none of us have been on before. As individuals, as family members, as bosses or as employees, none of us know with any certainty what we're doing or where we're going. As a state we're in the same position. On this edition of out to Lunch, we're asking, Where To Now, Louisiana? The Covid-19 pandemic has changed so much about our lives, it’...

As this pandemic unfolds, we’re hearing about how it’s affecting the global economy here at home. Although that might sound like an oxymoron, and “the global economy” might feel far removed from your daily life, for all three guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Louisiana, the global economy here at home is an integral part of their lives. As the state’s second-high...

New Orleans might not have invented the concept of partying, but the city has certainly perfected it. Before the onset of this Covid Economy and before it became an alleged virus incubator, Mardi Gras in New Orleans was one of the most celebrated parties on earth. There are free parties every single night on Bourbon Street, and Frenchmen Street. Even in the business world, New Orleans is known for...

It's the second week of Out to Lunch host Peter Ricchiuti linking up with Out to Lunch Acadiana host Christiaan Mader and Out to Lunch Baton Rouge host Stephanie Riegel for a statewide look at our business and financial life in Louisiana in what has become this unprecedented Covid Economy. New Orleans' last total economic collapse wasn’t all that long ago. In 2005 Hurricane Katrina brought t...

Out to Lunch is  linking up with Out to Lunch Acadiana and Out to Lunch Baton Rouge for a statewide examination of our businesses and personal finances as we deal with the national public health crisis that is Coronavirus in Louisiana and life in the Covid Economy.  Isolated in their respective homes, Peter Ricchiuti co-hosts the show along with New Acadiana host Christiaan Mader and Bat...

Whether you're making custom furniture or building a hotel, when you ask people the secret to success in business, there are two schools of thought. On the one hand, you’re given this advice: Pick one thing that you understand, that you’re good at, and specialize in that. And then there’s the other school of thought. It says, because all markets are unpredictable, the only w...

We’ve known for some time that we have an obesity problem in America. We're constantly on the search for foods that taste great and have zero calories. You probably never thought the solution to this quest would come from, of all places, New Orleans. Over the years, we’ve come up with diets of every type and flavor you can imagine. But as a nation, we’re not getting slimmer or he...