It's Acadiana: Out to Lunch

"Be yourself." It’s what we’re all taught from an early age. When you get a little older you find out the world around you doesn’t make that so easy. 

Taboos are stubborn. And even as we get more comfortable talking about sensitive or personal subjects — it can feel daunting to open up. 

That’s where the idea of “safe space” comes in. It’s maybe a more common practice in psychotherapy and counseling. But it’s emerging in public spaces too. And just in time. The world isn’t getting less complicated. And it can be confusing, particularly around questions of sex, sexuality and sexual health.  All the more so for kids. 

In Lafayette, there’s a safe space to get answers about all that. It’s called Safe Havynn. Courtney Celestine is Safe Havynn’s marketing director. 

The idea behind Safe Havynn is to give teens a place where they can talk about sex. The bedrock principle here is whether we like it or not, kids are learning about sex and acting on it. The data doesn’t lie. Louisiana ranks among the highest in the nation for rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. It’s not easy to talk about sex, especially with adults. So Safe Havynn creates a space where kids can ask questions without the weight of moralizing. 

Safe Havynn is a nonprofit and is funded by grants. Outside of its space in Downtown Lafayette, Safe Havynn works with schools and local courts. 

It’s still hard to talk about sex. And it’s still very hard to talk about mental health. We’re getting better at it, but we’ve got a long way to go. Far too many people struggling with debilitating mental health problems often wind up isolated. Here’s the problem: Isolation is about the worst thing that can happen to them. 

Enter Focus Clubhouse.

The program at Focus Clubhouse creates a working environment for folks with mental health problems to develop real-world skills and stay connected. Clubhouse members operate the clubhouse itself, helping with everything from cooking and cleaning, to outreach, intake and fundraising. 

The program is totally voluntary. It gives people a place to go, where they can be understood — and valued. 

Lafayette’s Focus Clubhouse chapter was started by Clarice Gallegos and her son Brian. Brian stabilized from a life in and out of homelessness by attending a Clubhouse in Florida. The Lafayette chapter has grown since 2020 to include 55 members. 

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded live over lunch at Tula Tacos and Amigos in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s beyond a cliche at this point to say that folks in Acadiana have a special relationship with food. Whole towns are defined by their food festivals. You’ve got your gumbo festival, your rice festival, your sweet potato festival, your crawfish festival  - in the case of Delcambre - your shrimp and petroleum festival. 

Of course, that’s thinking about food as culture or as commerce. More essentially: Food is nourishment. You can’t live without…and some might say you can’t really live with it. Think about that the next time you say you’re dying for a link of boudin. 

Another way of thinking about it: Food is medicine. It’s how we fuel and regulate our bodies. A good diet impacts how we think and how we feel. Eating right is the best way to live right. 

Daphne Olivier is a dietitian who bills herself as The Unconventional Dietitian. Her practice takes a “food as medicine” approach to helping folks deal with chronic conditions and diseases: diabetes, hypoglycemia, obesity and more. She has a tailored approach, helping clients rethink what they eat and its role in their lifestyle. 

Daphne grew up in Denham Springs began her career as an independent dietitian in 2011 after moving to Lafayette. 

Food can be spiritual medicine too.  Otherwise they wouldn’t call it soul food. Sometimes you run across a bite so good, you might say it was heaven sent — or divine. 

Lynore Harding calls her custom bakery Divine Cakes and Sweets Boutique because it was divinely inspired. Lynore has grown her business from her kitchen as home baker, teaching herself the art of specialty cakes and decoration. Since 2019, she’s built Divine Cakes through word of mouth-watering takes on southern specialties like sweet dough pies and tea cakes. 

Divine Cakes is mission-oriented. Lynore gets help from her son, who is disabled and her long-term plan for the company is to open it up as a community bakery, where people with disabilities can learn to bake and sell their goods.

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded live over lunch at Tula Tacos and Amigos in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Selling or buying a house can be a slog. And that goes for both real estate agents and folks in the market. It’s an industry ripe for revolution. Many have tried. And the results have favored one side of the transaction over the other.

The MLS — multiple listing service — added tremendous value to the role of the real estate agent. Then Zillow came along and empowered the buyer and seller.  Barret Blondeau wanted to find a way to empower both. 

Barret’s startup platform Falaya — like Atcha-falaya — tries to make real estate transactions flow smoothly like a river. The platform gives customers the cost efficiency of flat rate, which in turn gives the real estate agent the stability of a steady income — not just a one-time commission. 

Since launching the concept, Falaya has sold 210 properties valued at $50 million and saved buyers and sellers $1.5 million on typical commissions. 

A good real estate agent gets the personal touch. Think of the smell of cookies wafting at an open house. Well, Pam Flugence is all about the personal touch. Her company, Let’s Create, helps folks create custom gifts for their friends and family on their own. 

Let’s Create lets you customize anything: t-shirts, cups, koozies and crafts. Not into DIY? Well she’s got classes for that. 

Pam puts the personal touch herself, teaching customers how to make creations of their own. It’s called Let’s Create after all. 

Pam has worked for almost two decades at Lafayette jewelry manufacturing powerhouse, Stuller Inc. and is a 2021 graduate of the business incubator, Accelerate Northside, at the Moody College of Business at UL.

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded live over lunch at Tula Tacos and Amigos in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do you actually want to be in your life? As a kid you can dream about being an astronaut or brain surgeon or sports superstar. As an adult it’s not so easy to answer that question, and it's especially difficult if life has thrown you a curveball and if you’re navigating trauma or hardship. 

In that case, when you're struggling to put one foot in front of the other, "Purpose" might be the last thing on your mind. But purpose might be the thing you need most. That’s Kandice Bateast’s theory. 

By day, Kandice is a school psychologist in St. Martin Parish. But many more people know her as an author and podcast host. 

Kandice went through a tough breakup herself and found purpose of her own: helping others put the pieces back together and get right with God. Her podcast Goodbye Heartbreak, Hello Purpose helps listeners heal by finding strength from within. Kandice wrote a book with the same name that tracks with the podcast. It’s a 365-day devotional, walking listeners through the post-breakup journey. 

Sometimes your purpose is right in front of you. In Donielle Watkins’ case it was her son Logan, who has spina bifida. 

Donielle has been an accountant for 20 years and in 2007 she founded DREAMS Foundation of Acadiana. DREAMS was the first organization of its kind in the area. It focuses on disability rights and inclusion. And the concept came from Logan.

Logan asked Donielle a simple question: Mom, when can I play basketball? It struck Donielle that there wasn’t any good reason that he shouldn’t. So she organized activities for Logan and kids just like him. 

DREAMS has grown to serve around 700 people from ages 5 to 60. And it preaches self-reliance. Today, Donielle, who was born in Breaux Bridge and now lives in Lafayette, has 21 people employed in a manufacturing facility that produces Cane River Meat Pies. 

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded live over lunch at Tula Tacos and Amigos in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most customers are looking for value. They want the best product they can get at the best price. And the best price usually means the cheapest. No one haggles up. 

In the jewelry business it kind of works the other way. Diamonds aren’t just precious; they’re priceless. "Priceless" is another word for "expensive."

Consider the tradition of spending three months pay on a diamond engagement ring. The whole concept is about measuring how you love someone by how much you spend on them. In that environment, it’s unusual for a jeweler to market their products as a “value.” 

Blake and Mattie Gautreau have another approach. Their shop, Acadian Estates and Custom, can get you whatever precious stone you want, and they can do it at a good price. 

You want a 6-carat diamond? Well, they can get you that. Or they can upcycle your outdated family heirlooms.

Acadian is one of the few jewelry shops that actively buys pieces from the public, instead of on consignment. They also retrofit legacy jewelry into new fashions.

Blake and Mattie are married, and Blake comes from a family of retailers. His family owns and operates Acadian Pawn. Mattie also works as a wine sales rep. 

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded live over lunch at Tula Tacos and Amigos in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Don’t believe what they tell you. Life has a second act. In fact, some lives have three acts or four or five or maybe nine if you’re a serial entrepreneur. 

The heart of business is creativity: the desire to make something new. The twist is that you want to make money on it. But for some entrepreneurs, the goal is bigger than that. Noble pursuits are much easier to pursue if you’ve already struck gold. 

In other words, folks some folks pursue passion projects instead of retirement. And they do that because they want to give back — plus they can’t quit the hustle.

Sherry LaTour was never supposed to own her business. She was raised to believe women shouldn’t work at all. Instead, she bootstrapped her way from the accounting department at a trucking operation in Houston to running a multi-million dollar oil and gas company. 

Instead of retiring early, Sherry took on a new venture: mentorship. She bought Tops Appliances and Cabinetry in Lafayette and added “business incubator” to the company’s suite of services. 

Tops houses dozens of small businesses that Sherry advises. She’s also carved out time to run a consulting business for oil and gas firms. Think of her like a mentor-preneur. 

Second acts in business take an open mind. Bob Luke wants his third act to be cast with free thinkers. 

When he’s not working as General Manager of Tiger Safety Rentals, Bob is working on his passion project: Cafe Detente. It’s part coffee shop, part think tank and part retreat for free thinkers. It’s also his front yard. 

Cafe Detente has a give-some take-some ethos. Members sign up to be baristas or brewers. Brewers host custom workshops on topics of interest, and baristas sign up to attend. There’s a lofty goal here: bridging divides and finding common ground. The name "Detente" captures the vision: an easing of hostilities. 

In a past life, Bob owned and operated a bar and grill. 

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded live over lunch at Tula Tacos and Amigos in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show at itsacadiana.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here’s a not-so-fun fact: A family of four wastes $2,200 worth of groceries every year.  Fortunately, there’s a tasty way to solve that problem. Leftovers. 

Leftovers put the Thanksgiving turkey in your turkey sandwich, or the Chinese takeout in your fried rice. Well, how about making a burger out of yesterday’s gumbo? Wait, what?

Susanne Duplantis describes this as “Thinking outside the icebox.” 

Susanne is a blogger and cookbook author who reheated her career in the restaurant industry into a brand new dish. Her blog, Makeover My Leftover, walks readers through fun and easy-to-follow transformations of everyday foods. 

Susanne baked that concept into a cookbook, Lagniappe Leftovers, that serves up leftover fare with a Louisiana flare.

Susanne was born and raised in New Orleans and now lives in New Roads. 

Even a good plate of leftovers began life on a farm somewhere. If fresh is your preference, then the Lafayette Farmer’s & Artisans Market at Moncus Park is the place for you. 

Mark Hernandez has been the director at the Moncus Park market since the day it launched in 2013 with 45 vendors. Today, the market features 70 vendors every Saturday, attracting around 1500 patrons each week. 

Mark is a farmer himself. He and his wife have operated a 7-acre urban farm since 2002, growing blueberries, figs and herbs. Today, they are restoring the land as Cajun prairie. 

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded live over lunch at Tula Tacos and Amigos in downtown Lafayette. You can photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com.

Our regular host, Christiaan Mader gives the host seat to Jan Swift for this episode of the show. When she's not filling in for Christiaan, Jan is host of her own Acadiana podcast, Discover Lafayette.

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Acadiana isn’t really known for barbecue. What you get from your Sunday plate lunch joint is what barbecue purists would call “grilling.”  Or better yet, you’ll find pork steaks baked in a sticky syrup of barbecue sauce. Not exactly barbecue. But it’s delicious. 

It’s sort of weird to be purist about barbecue. It’s a way of cooking that springs from necessity. But it’s become an art form. Something people spend years mastering. And you can’t have masterful barbecue without a masterful sauce. And the sauce is where regional feuds are born.

Around here, we can stay out of the fight. Grab whatever sauce suits your palate: Texas smoke, Kansas City sweet or — if you’re reaching for a local bottle with a Carolina tang you could grab a bottle of Leonard's Carolina Barbecue Sauce.

The Leonard on the label is Chris, a North Carolina native who moved to Louisiana for a job in the oil industry. Chris used his pandemic downtime to bottle up batches of his dad’s (Dan "Diesel" Leonard) sauce recipe: a thin, tart marinade and finishing sauce in the Lexington style. 

The sauce took off. And today Chris sells it at meat markets around Acadiana. It’s even been known to find its way into crawfish dip. 

Though Acadiana doesn’t have a dog in the sauce fight, we’ve got plenty of dogs looking for a bite of something decadent. 

Dogs might eat shoes, but they also like a taste of the good life from time to time. And Jennifer Decoux is here to indulge them. 

Jennifer is the owner and operator of Chow Bella Dog Bakery, a one-stop-shop for canine confections. Rice crispy treats, cake bones, fruit roll ups, brownies, chicken strips, fries, nuggets and custom cakes. These are just a few of the treats Chow Bella churns out for pups — most with fewer than five ingredients and none with salt and sugar. 

Jennifer was born in New Orleans and raised in Lafayette. You can find her and her Chow Bella range of canine cuisine most Saturdays at the Moncus Park farmers market.

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded live over lunch at Tula Tacos and Amigos in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holy guacamole! We’re not at Tula Tacos for this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana. We’re a few blocks down Jefferson Street, at Amis Grocery store. 

If you’ve followed Downtown Lafayette development over the last few years, that’s kind of a big deal. 

There’s always been this chicken and egg kind of thing happening with residential development and grocery stores Downtown. Developers wouldn’t build apartments because there wasn’t a grocery store. And grocery stores wouldn’t come because there weren’t people living here. 

Into that quagmire stepped Christiaan's lunch guests, Bradley Cruice and Rachel Brown, who opened their first grocery store: The Handy Stop in 2020. It had a good run but ultimately closed in 2022. 

Bradley and Rachel did not stay out of the game long. They’re back with Amis Grocery. It’s a pared down shop. Looking around, it’s got upscale bodega vibes. You can grab a deli sandwich or some home goods. 

And the timing this time, ahem, seems better? Downtown has enjoyed a good bit of residential development since Bradley and Rachel’s first stab at a Downtown grocery store. 

Now a bit about our guests. Bradley grew up in the grocery business. His family operated a store in the New Orleans area. Bradley is a registered nurse and has been heavily involved in community health initiatives. 

Rachel Brown is actually Dr. Brown: the principal of Lafayette High School. She was a not-so-silent investor in the Handy Stop, where she fell in love with the grocery game. Dr. Brown is also a sign language instructor and interpreter. 

Out to Lunch was recorded live over a deli lunch at Amis Grocery. You can see photos from this show at itsacadiana.com. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the mid-20th century, neighborhoods on Lafayette’s northside looked a lot like neighborhoods communities are trying to build now. In places like McComb, Veazey and Fightinville, families could live, work and play on their blocks. 

The communities were stitched together by schools, churches — and businesses. Entrepreneurship was a big part of the fabric of the community: the family grocery store or barber shop. A restaurant or even a zydeco club. 

Fast forward to the 21st century and many of those businesses have vanished. And opportunity left with them. 

But the spirit of entrepreneurship is still very much alive. And organizations like the Lafayette Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Center at UL see an opportunity to revive Lafayette’s Northside with that spirit. 

Kevin Guillory grew up on the Northside — of Lake Charles that is. And that community tells a similar story. Growth and prosperity moved southward in Lake Charles, leaving older neighborhoods behind. 

Kevin got his MBA from UL and moved to Texas, thinking he’d never look back. But look back he did. He landed at UL in 2014 as an admissions counselor and works today as the LEED Center’s Office Coordinator. 

Kevin’s behind the scenes work is essential to the success of the LEED Center’s Accelerate Northside program, which offers workshops and training for entrepreneurs. That program kicked off in 2021 and has kept growing ever since. 

Accelerate Northside was modeled after a successful program offered by the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. And one of the guys responsible for importing the idea was Kevin’s colleague, Jonathan Shirley.

Jonathan grew up in Abbeville and has long family ties to economic development. His mom used to run the Chamber of Commerce and his dad was an extension agent with Wildlife and Fisheries. Jonathan has been the LEED Center’s Program Manager since 2020. 

In that role, Jonathan has overseen the launch of Accelerate Northside and its “head and heart philosophy.” The idea is they don’t just teach you how, but try to understand the why of your business. 

Even if you have a great idea for a business and the drive to give it everything you've got, if you don't come from a business background or grow up around entrepreneurs it can be tough to know essential business basics, and especially how to avoid making mistakes you don't need to make.

You can check out graduates from Accelerate Northside on previous episodes of Out to Lunch - especially The Williamses and Creole Nutcracker - and see for yourself the significant difference Kevin and Jonathan's program is making. You can see photos from this show and a whole lot more at itsacadiana.com.

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded live over lunch at Tula Tacos and Amigos in downtown Lafayette. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.