It’s New Orleans: Out to Lunch

Hosted ByPeter Ricchiuti

Tulane University A.B. Freeman School of Business finance professor Peter Ricchiuti holds court over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. Peter's lunch guests are New Orleans business people, from startups to CEO's, from artists to tech entrepreneurs, musicians to movers-and-shakers. New Orleans is on everybody's list as a great place to party but it's also on many lists of the best place to start a business. Peter's deeply knowledgable and equally levity-laden approach to business conversation neatly makese sense of the Crescent City's contradictions.

bra strap ‘n shades – Out to Lunch – It’s New Orleans

Just when you think there s nothing new under the sun, along comes Lisa McKenzie and Oohla Bra, her NOLA company that turns underwear into outerwear. Oohla Bra has over 65 designer bra straps strings of pearls, beads, and sparkling delights that switch places with the regular strap on your convertible or strapless bra, transforming your everyday bra strap into a work of art. Lisa s sparkling straps are in more than 300 stores nationwide and on the shoulders of women all over the country. From our brief survey at Commander s Palace over lunch, every woman who sees one wants one. Even the chef at Commander s was enchanted and couldn t keep his hands off Lisa s bra strap. As an Out to Lunch listener you get 20 off a bra strap by entering the code “Out To Lunch” when you check out at OOhla Bra. Stirling Barrett is undaunted by the dark glasses overlords that are Rayban, Persol and Sunglass Hut. In defiance of mass production and marketing, Stirling, a visual artist, founded Krewe du Optic, a New Orleans sunglass company. Stirling designs the glasses in New Orleans, giving them locally inspired names like Toulouse, LGD, and The Fly. The glasses are manufactured in Italy using high end lenses and frames and shipped around the world. In the Pay It Forward segment of the show Peter, Lisa and Stirling weigh in on the bug business, namely Jeff Addison s Pied Piper Pest Control.

Realtor Tracey Moore