There’s an old saying – you can never be too rich or too thin. In New Orleans you might add, “And you can never produce too much alcohol.”  If you think there are more small craft breweries and distilleries here than ever before, well, you’d be wrong. A hundred years ago there were many more. We’ve been in a bit of a slump, but we’re coming back.

On this edition of Out to Lunch, Peter Ricchiuti meets local craft brewer Mark Logan from Second Line Brewing – and local craft distiller – Gus Haik from Cajun Spirits Distillery.

By all kinds of standards Second Line may make better beer than Budweiser, and Cajun Spirits may make better rum than Bacardi, but those big guys are the reason all the small companies disappeared. And they are still who our local guys have to market against. How do you win on a playing field like that? Gus and Mark spell it out. It ain’t for the faint of heart or the lover of the straight 9-5 life, that’s for sure.

Photos at Commander’s Palace by Alison Moon.