It's Acadiana: Out to Lunch

If you’re talking to somebody and you’re discussing how far it is from here to your place, you might say “It’s a long way.” The person you’re talking to can say, “How far is it exactly?” You can tell ‘em, “Three miles,” and they can decide if they regard that as a long way or not.

Here in Acadiana, it’s equally important to have an accurate measure of heat. But when somebody says to you, “How hot is that gumbo?” what do you say? You’re left with reverting to a use of language that is more Asian than English – where the meaning of a word changes with the intonation.

In discussing gumbo, “It’s hot” has a vastly different meaning than “It’s hot.” But, although we might understand each other, you can’t communicate with anywhere near the objective accuracy you had when you were discussing how far it is from here to your place. Which is curious, because there is actually a scientific measure of spiciness. Heat, in this sense, is measured in Scovilles.

A standard bottle of Tabasco sauce is around 5,000 Scovilles. Keep that number in mind. 5,000. Because there’s a guy here in Lafayette who grows his own peppers, and he’s famous in the world of pepper-growers for breeding and growing one of the world’s hottest peppers. It’s called the Primo Pepper. The Primo Pepper is 1.5 million Scovilles. That’s hot.

The Primo Pepper is the creation of Troy Primeaux, but everybody calls him Primo.

If you want to try Pimo’s Peppers but you don’t want to risk blowing the top of your head off, you can try sensibly tempered versions of the Primo taste in various forms – in hot sauces and in The Farmer’s Daughter brand of pepper jellies. You can find these products in a number of stores across the Sate of Louisiana, and you can also find them online at the amazon.com of Cajun food, a website called CajunCrate.com.

If CajunCrate.com doesn’t have every single product with the word “Cajun” in the title, and every single food product made in Acadiana, it’s got to be close. They have everything from Nunu’s Original Cajun Seasoning to Bayhi Cajun Chili Starter, Zydeco Chop Chop, and thousands of other items. You can also get a box of assorted Cajun goodies sent to you each month in an actual Cajun Crate, if you’re a Cajun Crate subscriber.

Cajun Crate has been a successful business from its earliest days in 2016. Its creator and owner is Tara Guidry.

Photos by Jill Lafleur. And there’s more conversation about Cajun Crate and hot peppers.

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Louisiana shares the abbreviation “L.A” with the city of Los Angeles. Although that sometimes leads to some confusion on paper and online, in the real world there is very little overlap between the LA lifestyle in the desert west and the LA lifestyle in the humid South.

For example, if Aileen Bennett sitting in for Christiaan Mader was to say “burritos” you’d say Los Angeles. If Aileen was to say “poboys” you’d pick Louisiana. So, how about “skateboarding?” Naturally you’re going to say, Los Angeles. But you know this is a trick question, right?

The answer is, Lafayette native, Daniel Barousse. Daniel is an artist. A woodworker. And a skateboarder. The combination of those three traits is a company called Barousse Works, in which Daniel makes works of art from recycled skateboards.

How’s The Market Doing? No, not the stock market. The other one. On South Johnston. 

During the Covid crisis we’ve seen some changes around here. Some businesses we regraded as institutions, and others we always assumed were doing great, have closed for good. Although we all lose something when a local business closes, as consumers we manage to recover. We find another place to eat a poboy, drink a daiquiri, or buy whatever it was we used to get at what used to be our favorite place.

But, during this pandemic we have come to realize there are some institutions that are simply irreplaceable. One of them is officially known as the Lafayette Farmers and Artisans Market, in Moncus Park. If you’re from Lafayette, you know it as The Farmer’s Market at The Horse Farm. Every Saturday morning since June 2013, the Farmer’s Market has been selling everything from fresh produce to popcorn. And offering experiences from Cajun music to face painting, 52 weeks a year. Some Saturdays it’s bitterly cold. Some Saturdays it’s raining. But every Saturday the Farmer’s market is open.

Or, it was. Until it wasn’t. To catch up with what we’re optimistically calling post-covid plans for the Farmer’s Market, Alieen Bennett talks with Market Director, Mark Hernandez.

If you didn’t know this show was made in the Louisiana variant of LA, and you just heard us talking about a vibrant farmer’s market and an artist who makes pieces of sculptural functionality out of recycled skateboards, you might well assume we were talking about the second largest city in America, rather than the 4th largest city in Louisiana.

Photos by Jill Lafleur.

Catch up with Abby the Popcorn person from The Farmer’s Market.

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Writers are hustlers. When you get paid cents per word, you’ve got to write a lot of words to make ends meet. And that’s getting harder to do in a crowded market. Anyone can blog. We all learn to string a few sentences together in high school. What’s the point in paying a professional? 

In journalism, there’s actually a crisis because of that dynamic. There are as many reporters working today in the United States as there were 40 years ago. The machines that made publishing a lucrative business — actual printing presses — are rusting over. It’s not that there’s a lack of writing. There’s a lack of money to pay anyone to do it. For most folks writing for a living, that means writing whatever, whenever and however. 

Christiaan's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana both write to pay the bills — and that's not an easy thing to do. They wear a lot of hats to make ends meet and satisfy their curiosities. 

Writer Charles Garret has led a curious life himself. He’s been a firefighter, a salesman, a mixed martial artist and a poet. Coming this year he’s launching a new venture Tora Arts that will turn back the clock on the communications industry – ditching the digital age for the honest touch of snail mail. 

As a journalist, Chere Coen is a travel writer humping around the south for adventure and good eats. As Cherie Claire she’s a writer of romance novels— and a prolific one at that — publishing as many as two e-books each year. 

Whatever medium they work in — journalism, poetry, advertising — today's writers are hustlers, ready for the gig economy. 

Out to Lunch is recorded over lunch at The French Press in downtown Lafayette. You can see photos from this show by Lucius Fontenot, and more, at our website.

And here's more lunchtime conversation with Acadiana writers...

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In Acadiana, business is a tradition and tradition is a business – often the family business. There’s a long heritage of musical families around here, dynasties of fiddlers and accordion players handing down the tools and tricks of the family trade to generation after generation. Here our Acadiana musical families are household names, every bit as famous and respected for their talent as dynasties in other states maybe be revered for wealth and power.

In Acadiana, music is one of our greatest exports. Lafayette practically pumps out ranks of acclaimed Zydeco and Cajun musicians and most of them are carrying on something they learned from their parents and their parents’ parents. Throw a rock in any direction. You’ll probably hit a Grammy nominee. Throw another, you’ll hit her momma.

Christiaan’s guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana are both internationally celebrated musicians from famous Cajun families.

Virginia-born Ann Savoy married into the Savoy family of Eunice and has toured internationally with her band the Magnolia Sisters which explores the feminine side of the Cajun tradition — they’re not actually her sisters. Ann is a writer and will soon publish the second volume of her archival work Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People.

Louis Michot grew up in a big, sprawling Cajun music family. Since 1999, he’s toured internationally with Lost Bayou Ramblers, a band he started with his brother Andre 20 years ago. Lost Bayou won a Grammy for their 2017 record Kalenda. Recently, Louis launched Nouveau Electric Records, a label that puts out experimental artists rooted in Louisiana French musical traditions.

Out to Lunch is recorded over lunch at The French Press in downtown Lafayette. You can photos from this show at our website, Photos by Lucius Fontenot.

Hear more tales about Acadiana music over lunch with Wilson Savoy, Joel Savoy, and Andre Michot.

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As 2020 draws to a close, thankfully, we take a look back at Acadiana's wide world of sports.

There can be a lot of pressure to take on the family business, especially when the family name becomes synonymous with the industry they work in. Imagine what it must be like to be a Hilton or a Disney or a Manning. Everybody copes with it differently. Some embrace it. Some make their own mark on it. Some leave it all behind and do something else entirely. Christiaan’s guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana come from Acadiana’s wide world of sports.

Christian Willeford is the son of Beau Willeford, the legendary boxing coach and operator of the Ragin Cajun Boxing Club. Willeford’s dad trained scores of boxers in Acadiana over the years and brought the prestigious boxing championship, the  Golden Gloves, to Lafayette. Sadly, Beau passed away in 2019 after a brief bout with cancer. Christian recently announced that he will close the club after a nearly four-decade run but is keeping the Golden Gloves going.

Leigh Hennesy Robson first made a name for herself as a world trampoline champion. Leigh was coached by her father, Jeff Hennesy, a prominent name in competitive trampolining. For the last two decades, however, Leigh has made a second name for herself, this time in the movie business. Leigh is a stunt double and stunt coordinator. She was Demi Moore’s double in GI Jane and Lucy Liu’s in Charlie Angels. Leigh is one of only a few hundred stunt women working in the film industry today.

Out to Lunch Acadiana is recorded live over lunch at The French Press in downtown Lafayette. Photos by Lucius Fontenot.

More conversation about Acadiana sports with another remarkable Acadiana sportswoman, racecar driver Sarah Montgomery, here.

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In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes, or so Andy Warhol told us. That was pretty much a lie. But in fairness to Andy he probably couldn’t have predicted going viral. Today, people are fragmented into pockets of fame for all kinds of reasons. Celebrity isn’t just for gilded people on the coasts, it’s attainable by anyone, anywhere, anyhow, and you can get it even 30 seconds at a time. 

That, of course, comes with it’s ups and downs. Not everyone makes money being famous. Some people turn out to be the subject of envy or hate. Others get blamed for things they can’t control, like the weather. And still others simply become infamous for just trying to make a point and have a little fun along the way. 

Christiaan's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana occupy their own corners of fame. Out here, people call it "Lafayette Famous," but the idea applies wherever people make headlines or memes. 

In Sydni Dupre’s world that means being TikTok famous. Sydni, originally from Sulphur, lives in Lake Charles, and has built an audience of hundreds of thousands of followers — many around the world — who peer into a window of her life. She uses her piece of fame to be a disability advocate. She has Friedrich’s Ataxia, a neurodegenerative disorder not unlike ALS or MS. In short clips of her day-to-day life — making coffee, griping about her boyfriend — Sydni normalizes her otherwise very normal and charming life.

You can’t talk about "Lafayette Famous" without talking about meteorologist Rob Perillo. Rob's been in the business in this market for three decades and achieved a kind of metaphysical, cult fame. He’s not just famous for being on TV and controlling the weather, he’s famous for being Rob Perillo. There are all kinds of memes and tributes to him sprouting on the internet. Put another way, around here, he’s beloved, except when the weather is bad.

OK, speaking of memes and undeserved backlash, comedian John Merrifield is maybe not so much known by name than by reputation. He founded the CajUUUN Memes Facebook Page in 2016, which is a kind of exchange for off-beat, irreverent and subversive jokes about Acadiana and the Cajun experience. He’s a Lafayette native but he transplanted to New York City to work the comedy scene there. He made a big splash locally in 2020 with some satirical internet pranks designed to “make a fool of the fascists” in local government. For his service, he was sued and became equal parts anti-hero and local villain.

See photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at our website. And, if this isn't enough for you, here's some more lunchtime conversation with Lafayette comedians.

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Education was already on its way to a new normal before the coronavirus was around. Technology made sure of that. Before School 2020, virtual learning was en vogue at all levels. Of course, the pandemic accelerated the changes already in place and that came with a lot of growing pains for students, for families, for educators and for the companies that build the things that make learning in the modern era possible. 

So much of what we have learned in 2020 is likely to stick around, including new teaching methods and new technologies for delivering them. The challenges aren’t going anywhere either. That’s why they call it a new normal. 

The new normal, aka School 2020, is precisely where Christiaan's guests on this edition are doing business. 

School

Bryan MacDonald is CEO of SchoolMint, an education technology company that makes products to help schools attract, enroll, and retain students.

SchoolMint was born on the West Coast in 2013 with help from the renowned startup school and investment channel, Y Combinator. SchoolMint left Silicon Valley for Silicon Bayou in 2019, moving its headquarters to Lafayette after acquiring another EdTech firm founded here. SchoolMint products are in 19,000 schools across the country. 

After School 2020

After-school programming is also going through a sea-change these days. Allison Brandon, founder of Wonderland Performing Arts, can attest to that.

Wonderland’s bread and butter is classes in the arts, with a specialty in stagecraft. Recently, Wonderland has switched to virtual programming — connecting kids and parents with top flight talent over video platforms. In 2020, Wonderland got into the learning pod business. They offer proctored spaces for kids to do their virtual learning at regular school during the week with the added value of arts programming. 

See photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at our website. Here's more conversation about Acadiana education BC 2020 and about extra-school arts education BC 2020. 

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A good idea never really goes out of style. In the food industry, that’s because the basics have remained pretty much the same since restaurants and commercial cooking were invented. Make something tasty and deliver it to your diners with good service: it’s a universal recipe for success. That doesn’t mean it’s easy.

It’s like baking. All the ingredients can be there: the eggs, the flour, the cream. Do it right, you got a rich delicious custard. Do it wrong, you got a plate of scrambled eggs. 

Christiaan's guests on this edition of  Out to Lunch Acadiana have both been cooking it right in different ends of the industry.

Brad Sonnier, a baker by trade, is the chef and owner of The Rolling Pin Bakery. He’s a longtime pastry chef with a passion for French baking. And he’s brought that home, literally, to a commercial kitchen next to his house in Duson, just outside of Lafayette. The Rolling Pin delivers bite size morsels of French classics like mousse and macarons to catered events and to farmers markets. Brad thanks for joining me on Out to Lunch. 

Ted Kergan is the owner of the largest franchisee of Sonic Drive-in’s in Louisiana. Ted is a native of Detroit — home of the American auto giants — and he’s got a pretty giant operation himself. Kergan Brothers Sonic employs 2,000 people in 60 Sonics all around the state, including drive-ins in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles New Orleans and more.

You can find photos by Jill Lafleur from this show at our website. And here's more conversation with Ted Kergan. 

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Right after World War II, the U.S. government invested heavily in the American dream. The idea was to create a nation of homeowners. So the federal government got in to the lending business, subsidizing the building of suburban America and giving birth to a massive middle class. It created unprecedented wealth passed along from generation to generation.

The impact of those programs can still  be felt today. Especially in communities of color, who were left out of the project. 

Historians and sociologists have pointed to that exclusion — paired with widespread segregation, not just in the Jim Crow south — as the root of generational poverty still disproportionately impacting Black Americans. Without the same shot at home ownership, they have historically lacked capital or equity to start businesses or send kids to college It’s created a shortage of wealth available to Black entrepreneurs. 

Christiaan's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana have both worked to chip away at that problem.

Corey Jack consults with aspiring entrepreneurs to demystify the process of starting businesses. He also works as a contracted liaison to Black-owned businesses for One Acadiana, this region’s multi-parish chamber of commerce. Corey serves as the Executive Director of the Holy Rosary Institute, a nonprofit effort to redevelop an historic Catholic school that served Lafayette’s Black community. Once complete it will serve as a new community center for North Lafayette. 

Terrica Lynn Smith is a real estate developer and entrepreneur with a mission to build equity in Lafayette’s Black community. She’s built a portfolio of developments and clients in 22 states and launched an investment group to help people without investor-level money build wealth. Terrica is a published author and an advocate for the power of education. Her $14 million dollar Madeline Cove development will be one of the first projects financed by the federal government’s Opportunity Zone program which aims to put investor capital in distressed neighborhoods. 

Photos from this show by Jill Lafleur are at our website.

Here's more conversation about Acadiana home ownership.

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It’s a cliche now that everyone has a brand. Drawing distinct boundaries around you are, what you do — and maybe just as importantly what you don’t do — isn’t just for selling toothpaste anymore. It’s what people do. They trademark their identities. 

Branding of course has its own professional standards that vary from industry to industry. How you sell yourself as a musician is very different from how you might sell a car. The language and vocabulary are different. What matters to customers or audiences is different. 

And those languages might be different in different places...just as they are different in different industries. But now, what used to separate markets are merging together. We have the power to reach the world. But that also means we have to compete with the world. 

Like anything else. This gets even weirder in the post-Covid era. We’re all digging for gold virtually now. And for some industries that rely on personal connection — the detachment can be challenging. 

Christiaan's guest on this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana are hacking their own ways through this brave newish world, sorting out how to sell a brand in a collapsed economy and a shrinking map. 

Musician Dustan Louque has made a career for himself on the road for two decades now. His brand of artful folk has been accompaniment to a #vanlife approach to his career. Unlike many independent musicians, he’s managed to build a gainful career on top of deep connections with an audience scattered throughout the country. Since the pandemic, he’s pivoted to virtual performances to keep trucking. 

Jaci Russo is a branding strategy guru and co-owner of BrandRusso, a multifaceted marketing and branding agency based in Lafayette. BrandRusso serves a diverse base of clients from all four corners of the United States. Jaci and her husband Michael, the firm’s chief creative officer, have developed a unique approach to branding that kicks jargon to the curb and hones in on relating consumers to her clients. They call it Razor Branding and Jaci hosts a successful podcast about that strategy fittingly called — the Razor Branding podcast. 

Wilson Savoy is a Grammy winning Cajun musician, best known as leader of the band The Pineleaf Boys. Although he's reached the pinnacle of success, Wilson, like Dustan, has also turned his back on a nationwide professional music career and chooses to sacrifice the highs and lows of life as a fulltime musician to continue living in Lafayette, building houses. But Wilson is discovering that you can only turn your back on the wider world to a certain extent. Although he idyllically might want to once in a while climb down from the roof of a construction site and climb up on a stage and play accordion or fiddle or keyboard - things aren't quite that simple right now. Case in point - this year's Festivals Acadians et Creoles, which was an online virtual festival.

Photos from this show by Jill Lafleur are on our website.

Check out Wilson's previous appearance on Out to Lunch.

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