It’s New Orleans: Out to Lunch

Hosted ByPeter Ricchiuti

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.

Fleurty Rock’n – Out to Lunch – It’s New Orleans

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 Commander s Palace.