Biz New Orleans January 2016

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January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

Editor’s Note

New Beginnings A

s I stood waiting for my bags at the carousel, having just arrived in my new home of New Orleans, my six-month-old daughter caught the attention of a friendly local. The woman came over and, hearing that I was a brand new transplant, began regaling me with the wonders of her city.

“New Orleans is incredible because people think of it as a big city, but it’s actually more like a small town,” she said. “It’s really tight knit and family oriented, but we also really know how to have fun.

You’re going to love it here.”

Almost five years later, her words came to mind as I was putting together this issue. Inside, we take a closer look at two big businesses: Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts and Plush Appeal.

Each focuses on one of the great loves of New Orleanians: food and Carnival. They are also both family businesses. Together they perfectly encompass this city’s passion for food, family and fun.

It’s no wonder they’ve found success.

Being that this month heralds the start of Carnival season, Biz also took the chance to spend some time with Ed Muniz, the force behind the creation and continued success of Endymion, known for both our city’s largest parade and after party. This year Endymion celebrates 50 years of throws and thrills.

In a fun example of how everything and everyone seems connected here, Endymion will debut a new float this year, Club Endymion, a replica of the Superdome. And who is responsible for the incredible ever-changing lighting at the Dome? The Solomon Group, our choice for Great Offices this month.

Finally, as this new year dawns, ’tis the season for resolutions.

Whether yours is to eat better, make better financial decisions, improve your etiquette or finally get a company website up and running, we’ve got you covered.

And if you’re looking to try and win back some of the money you spent over the holidays at Harrah’s, check out our back page where we give you a sneak peek at where your dealer was trained.

Happy New Year and Happy Reading,

Kimberley@BizNewOrleans.com 4

January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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January 2016 | volume 2 | issue 4

Publisher Todd Matherne Editorial Editor-in-chief Errol Laborde Managing Editor Kimberley Singletary Art Director Antoine Passelac Photographer Cheryl Gerber Web Editor Kelly Massicot Assoc. Multimedia News Editor Leslie T. Snadowsky Contributors Wendy Dolan, Robert Edgecombe, Steven Ellis, Suzanne Ferrara, Rebecca Friedman, Pamela Marquis, Lucie Monk Carter, Chris Price, Peter Reichard, Kim Roberts, Jennifer Gibson Schecter, Keith Twitchell, Melanie Warner Spencer, Bonnie Warren advertising Vice President of Sales Colleen Monaghan Sales Manager Maegan O’Brien Maegan@BizNewOrleans.com (504) 830-7219 Account Executive Caitlin Sistrunk Caitlin@BizNewOrleans.com (504) 830-7252 Account Executive Courtney Andrée Courtney@bizneworleans.com (504) 830-7225 PRODUCTION Production/Web Manager Staci McCarty Production Designers Ali Sullivan, Monique DiPietro, Traffic Coordinator Jessica DeBold administration Chief Executive Officer Todd Matherne President Alan Campell Executive Vice President Errol Laborde Vice President of Sales Colleen Monaghan Director of Marketing & Events Cheryl Lemoine Event Coordinator Margaret Strahan Administrative Assistant Denise Dean Distribution Manager John Holzer Subscriptions Manager Sara Kelemencky Subscriptions Assistant Mallary Matherne

110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005 (504) 828-1380 Biz New Orleans is published monthly by Renaissance Publishing, LLC, 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005; (504) 828-1380. Subscription rate: one year $24.95, two year $39.95, three year $49.95 — foreign rates vary call for pricing. Postage paid at Metairie, LA, and additional mailing entry offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Biz New Orleans, 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005. Copyright 2016 Biz New Orleans. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. The trademark Biz New Orleans is registered. Biz New Orleans is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos and artwork, even if accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. The opinions expressed in Biz New Orleans are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the magazine or owner.

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January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Contents

80

46

38

Features

From the Lens

38 Creole Cuisine

72 Great Offices

The Ammari brothers have taken New Orleans by storm with their wide range of culinary offerings.

46 Plush Appeal

Those stuffed throws everyone clamors for — chances are they came from

this family-owned local business.

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January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

The Solomon Group

80 Why Didn’t I Think of That?

Your Nutrition Delivered

88 Behind the Scenes

Harrah’s Casino

On the Cover The brothers behind Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts stand in one of their new restaurants, Boulevard American Bistro in Metairie. From left to right: Richy Ammari, CFO; Zeid Ammari, COO; and Marv Ammari, CEO. Photo by Jeff Johnson

Contents

24 76 20 Columns

18 NOLA By the Numbers

The recession caused a hit to the birth rate, both locally and nationally.

20 Dining Biz

The hidden side of fine dining

22 Tourism Biz

Tips for travelers to New Orleans

24 Sports Biz

A look at the Saints’ salary cap

26 Film Biz

The craft of craft services

28 Entrepreneur Biz

Need help with city planning?

30 Biz Etiquette

Tips for being a better boss

32 Tech Biz

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Cyber security: How best to protect your business.

January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

Perspectives

News

54 Banking & Finance

16 Calendar

Financial resolutions: How to make them a reality.

58 Healthcare

Anticipated trends for 2016

64 Maritime & Ports

Making a mightier Mississippi

68 Guest Viewpoint

Tips for creating a website

Upcoming events not to miss

34 Biz Bits

Industry news

76 Biz Person of the Month

Ed Muniz, captain of Mardi Gras superkrewe Endymion

86 Around Town – Events

Industry gatherings

BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Publisher’s Note

Truly Honored For the past year, I have had the honor and privilege to serve as the chairman of the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce.

At the organization’s annual meeting on January 26, I will pass the gavel to Michael Palamone. I know he will do an outstanding job in 2016.

Over the past 12 months, the Chamber — led by Todd Murphy, his excellent staff and a great board of directors — have done some amazing things, leading policy discussion, hosting outstanding events and growing membership for a vibrant business community. This year the team of board and staff members won the 2015 Louisiana Chamber of the Year.

What an accomplishment! Great Job! I also want to thank my entire staff at Renaissance Publishing for allowing me to dedicate so much of my time to this organization. I have tried to serve the business community well during my term as chairman, and our team of professionals at the office have done a great job moving our company forward in 2015.

And finally I want to thank my beautiful wife, Andrea, for her great support and encouragement, not only during my role as chairman but in life.

Happy New Year and have a great 2016.

Todd Matherne

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January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Meet the Sales Staff

Colleen Monaghan Vice President of Sales (504) 830-7215 Colleen@BizNewOrleans.com

Maegan O’Brien Sales Manager (504) 830-7219 Maegan@BizNewOrleans.com

Caitlin Sistrunk Account Executive (504) 830-7252 Caitlin@BizNewOrleans.com

Courtney Andrée Account Executive (504) 830-7225 Courtney@BizNewOrleans.com

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January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

Calendar January 5

January 19

French Quarter Business Association Installation and Awards Dinner 6 to 9 p.m.

Royal Sonesta Grand Ballroom 300 Bourbon Street FQBA.org

Crimestoppers’ 31st Annual Awards Luncheon Doors open at 11:00 a.m., program at 11:45 a.m.

Hilton New Orleans Riverside www.crimestoppersgno.org/tickets.html (504) 837-8477

January 21

January 7

AMA New Orleans Southshore Luncheon “Utilizing Your Product as a Tool to Market” 11:30 a.m.

Ruth’s Chris Steak House 3633 Veterans Boulevard, Metairie AMANewOrleans.com

Downtown Business Association’s Monthly Member Meeting 8 to 9 a.m.

Baton Rouge River Center 275 S. River Road DowntownBR.org

January 26

January 14 ABWA Crescent City Connections Monthly Luncheon “Eat to Beat Stress; To Look Better; To Feel Better.”

Featuring Sports and Lifestyle Dietitian, Molly Kimball, RD, CSSD 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Ralph Brennan’s Heritage Grill ABWANewOrleans.org

Jefferson Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting Luncheon 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Crowne Plaza New Orleans Airport 2829 Williams Boulevard, Kenner JeffersonChamber.org

January 29

January 14 AMA New Orleans Northshore Luncheon “Culture Kitchen: Recipes for Building a Better Brand” 11:30 a.m.

N’Tini’s Steak and Martinis 2891 US-190, Mandeville AMANewOrleans.com

January 15 St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce Installation and Awards Luncheon 11:30 a.m. to 1:10 p.m.

Tchefuncta Country Club 2 Country Club Park, Covington StTammanyChamber.org

Entrepreneurs’ Organization Louisiana Chapter Behind the Scenes at NASA Michoud – Mission to Mars 9 a.m. to noon Michoud Assembly Facility 13800 Old Gentilly Road, New Orleans RSVP to mary@eolouisiana.org

January 29 The Idea-Driven Family Business: Managing Continuous Improvement, Creativity, Innovation and Lean Production presented by Dr. Alan Robinson, author and faculty at Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts.

8:00 a.m. to noon Tulane University’s Kendall Cram Lecture Hall of the Lavin-Bernick Center 201 Boggs, New Orleans Registration is required.

(504)862-8482 or familybiz@tulane.edu

January 19 BRAC Monthly Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Cook Hotel & Convention Center at LSU 3848 West Lakeshore Drive, Baton Rouge BRAC.org

We’d love to include your business-related event in next month’s calendar.

Please email details to Editorial@BizNewOrleans.com.

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January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Columns | NOLA By The Numbers NOLA Metro LA U.S. Births Births Births 2007 13,554 66,301 4,316,233 2008 13,432 65,268 4,247,694 2009 13,334 64,973 4,130,665 2010 13,197 62,379 3,999,386 2011 12,940 61,888 3,953,590 2012 13,024 62,642 3,952,841 2013 13,137 63,201 3,932,181

U.S. Births

LA Births NOLA Metro Births

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Children of the Recession Lower birth rates over the past several years may present challenges.

K Robert Edgecombe is

an urban planner and consultant at GCR Inc. He advises a wide range of clients on market conditions, recovery strategies, and demographic and economic trends.

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ids are wonderful. They’re also really expensive: Between housing them, feeding them, toting them around, educating them, and doing everything else parents need to do to ensure their well-being, the USDA estimates that the average annual cost of raising a child is about $25,000. Indeed, along with choosing a career and buying a home, having a child is probably the most significant financial decision most people ever have to make.

It should come as no surprise, therefore, that broader economic conditions play a large role in the number of children born in any particular year. When the market is up and pockets are full, people are relatively more comfortable with the long-term financial commitment required of parenting. When there’s volatility and insecurity, more people are averse to it.

So while the Great Recession is largely behind us, it will have at least one important long-term impact—fewer children. In 2007, 4.3 million births occurred in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and

January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

Prevention. By 2010, that number had declined to just under 4 million, and continued to drop to a low of 3.9 million in 2013. In fact, 2014 was the first time the number of births increased over a previous year in seven years, and that growth was marginal.

Put another way, the number of children born in 2013 was about the same as it was in 1998, despite the fact that the nation’s overall population had grown by over 40 million.

The good news is that in Louisiana, where the effects of the recession were generally milder, the number of births did not drop quite as precipitously. In 2007, 66,301 children were born throughout the state, a rate that was very close to the pre-Katrina average. By 2013, that number had fallen to 63,201. That’s a 5 percent dropoff compared to the 9 percent decline nationwide.

The trends in the New Orleans metro area are a bit more nuanced. In Orleans Parish, the number of births rose 15 percent— from 4,093 in 2007 to 4,687 in 2013. But this is largely a result, of

course, of the fact that the city’s population has increased significantly each year since Hurricane Katrina. A more realistic (and more sober) statistic is that while the number of births has grown by 15 percent, the overall population has increased by 41 percent. So, whether because of economic conditions, demographic trends, or, more likely, both, the annual number of births has not kept pace with the growth of the city’s overall population.

In Jefferson Parish, where the overall population has remained largely consistent in the past several years, the decline in the number of births each year has mirrored the national trend. The number of births to Jefferson Parish residents in 2013 was 5,596, about 10 percent lower than the 6,118 in 2008. Even in St. Tammany, where the population continues to increase, the number of births dropped by 11 percent during this same period.

The overall effect, unfortunately, is not trivial. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 1.27 million fewer children under the age of 5 in 2014 than in 2010. Likewise, there were about 6,700 fewer children in this age range in Louisiana about 1,100 fewer in the greater New Orleans area. The numbers from Orleans Parish are a bit skewed because of post-Katrina population recovery, but between 2012 and 2014, the number of children in the city under the age of 5 fell by over 900.

While the recession is not the only explanation for these trends—birth rates and average household sizes have been shrinking steadily for at least a decade—it certainly exacerbated them dramatically. A sizable population cohort, at least seven years’ worth, will be substantially and irretrievably smaller, with significant implications for the sizes of schools, the labor force, the tax base and other key economic areas. This isn’t doom and gloom, of course; there are, generally speaking, plenty of people. But it will require some adjustments and creative solutions, some immediate and others long-term. n

BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Columns | Dining Biz

Drawing Back the Curtain The hidden side of fine dining

W

Peter Reichard is a native New Orleanian who has written about the life and times of the city for more than 20 years, including as a former newspaper editor and business journalist.

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hen you enter a restaurant and sit down to eat, you see the smiling face of the maître d’, you hear the jolly banter of the bartender, and you listen to the carefully rehearsed special of the day from a courtly waiter.

But these interactions are only ripples on the surface of an ocean. As anyone who has ever worked at a restaurant can tell you, beneath the surface is a dramatic netherworld. There’s conflict, love, lust and hate. There are prima donnas and peacemakers, narcissists and neurotics. There’s shouting. Drinking. Liaisons.

A quarter-century ago, I served on the wait staff at a now-defunct white-tablecloth establishment in the Vieux Carre. What happened when the customers weren’t watching was extraordinary.

Look in the kitchen: The chefs are wrathful, yelling at each other, seething at the selfimportant waiters and waitresses.

January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

The dishwashers, by contrast, are mellow souls. One has a severe intellectual disability and giggles his way through every shift. The other has a physics degree from MIT. “Washing dishes soothes me,” he says as he works out an algorithm involving dinner platters and bolla glasses.

With food everywhere, there’s bound to be gluttony. A busboy steps into a freezer, grabs a chunk of cheesecake and gobbles it in two bites. A chef takes a filet mignon, dips in in melted butter, and devours it like a Snickers bar.

In the stairway, a waiter passing a food runner grabs a handful of calamari from a plate destined for a customer’s table. At the bread oven, a busboy sneaks a piece of bread. The manager catches him: “Are you eating something?”

“Mm-mm,” the busboy shakes his head.

“Open up your mouth,” the manager says, patting the busboy’s cheek. The busboy later

reports that his pay has been docked $10.

And, yes, there can be cruelty in a restaurant. A brawny waiter grabs a busboy’s hand, holds it down on the bar against his will, and plays five-finger fillet with a steak knife. The manager tells a waitress she needs a name tag, then charges her $8 for it without her consent.

A disgruntled waiter calls in a phony reservation for an elaborate, 15-top party of VIPs, just for the schadenfreude of knowing that the manager put himself out to set it up. That same waiter, predicting a small tip from a certain table with whiny patrons, declares: “Let’s give ‘em the Shoney’s job.” The head waiter is suspected of shorting his busboys on tips.

Don’t let the black-and-whites fool you.

Beneath those vests and bow ties can occasionally be troubled souls. There’s something about the combination of high stress and quick cash that comes with waiting tables that lends itself to bad decisions. When the shifts are over in the thick of the night, some members of the wait staff wander to French Quarter watering holes to pay their tips forward to bartenders. Copious amounts are imbibed. At the bar, a waiter is inhaling something out of a handkerchief. Another shuffles out the door toward Rampart Street to buy some coke. As one waiter put it when the subject of smoking crack came up: “Yeah.

I went down that road.”

Of course, a lot of drinking can occur on the job, too. Waiters hide shots in a closet and take hits as the shift goes along. A waiter and a busboy move to a quiet corner to guzzle half-empty bottles of Dom Perignon and $50 wine left unfinished in ice buckets.

There is also romance – and lust. One waiter is in love with the hostess. A waitress takes a young busboy home after too many afterwork drinks. A busboy makes eyes with the young lady at Table 12 throughout her meal, and wakes up in her hotel room the next day.

“Pour water at Table 4,” winks a European waiter to a busboy. The busboy knows the wink means that a woman is wearing a loose top and that, when he pours the water, he will have a good view down her shirt. That table ends up getting a lot of attention.

But above all, behind the curtain, the restaurant crew is working its hide off, often under high-stress conditions. Hands are burned on ovens. Sweaty foreheads are dabbed with napkins. Heavy trays are lifted.

Miles are put on black shoe soles. Smiles are forced at nasty customers. Outside of coal mines, restaurant employees may be the hardest-working people in America. So be nice to the wait staff and tip well. n Photo Thinkstock

BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Columns | Tourism Biz

Resolve to Take Your Best Trip Nine resolutions for travelers to New Orleans in 2016

A

Jennifer Gibson Schecter was

once a tourist in New Orleans herself and is now proud to call NOLA home. Prior to New Orleans, she wrote for publications in the Midwest and New York City.

She advises travelers to ask their cab/pedicab/ gondola driver for their favorite restaurant and taking a chance.

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t this time of reflection and resolutions, it’s easy to focus on health or career. But what about the fun? If you are traveling to New Orleans in 2016, I offer you nine resolutions to consider on your trip. Why nine? Because it’s my lucky number.

Venture beyond the French Quarter.

While the historic French Quarter is an obvious must-see, it is only one neighborhood.

Challenge yourself to visit other areas of town where you’ll find restaurants, stores and architecture worthy of your Instagram account. Bayou St. John offers kayaking and paddle boarding, Irish Channel has great neighborhood bars and the stories that go with them, Mid-City is home to City Park, and Algiers Point brings us to the next resolution.

Cross the Mississippi River.

Did you know there’s more New Orleans to love across the Mississippi River on the West

January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

Bank? Neighborhoods like Algiers Point and English Turn have quirky restaurants, paved paths along the levee, and even a championship golf course. The ferry at the foot of Canal Street provides wonderful views of both sides of the city.

Shop locally.

For those visiting from smaller towns or international locales, large chain stores are understandably an attractive draw. But shopping at locally owned stores practically guarantees you will have access to unique merchandise, plus you’ll have a greater impact on our economy.

Buy art.

Someone once gave me the wonderful advice to buy art on my travels. Rather than spending money on a plastic snow globe or postcards, purchasing original work from a local artist is a better investment and a more meaningful memento of your trip. New Orleans has some of the best galleries in the country,

not to mention street artists on Royal and around Jackson Square who give you the opportunity to interact with them and ask about their process and inspirations.

Speaking of questions…

Ask questions.

New Orleans is not a shy place. Don’t hesitate to ask questions of locals. We pride ourselves on our hospitality and love to brag about our favorite band, restaurant, park, and so on. If you want to really learn about a new destination, ask the locals where they spend their time and money and you’ll get a more enriching experience.

Dine high and low.

Make a reservation at a fancy restaurant and eat your heart out. But also leave room to eat from food trucks and dive bar menus.

To experience contemporary New Orleans cuisine means you can and should honor our century-old restaurants, visit our cuttingedge chefs, and eat fried alligator and gumbo from the back of a neighborhood joint.

Bring the family.

Many people don’t realize how familyfriendly New Orleans actually is, and how much fun a family can have on a visit here.

From the French Quarter there are easy walks to attractions such as the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas and Insectarium, the Louisiana Children’s Museum, The National World War II Museum and Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Explore the riverfront during a stroll along Woldenberg Park or the Moon Walk. The streetcar provides a scenic ride to City Park or Audubon Park and Zoo. Most restaurants are very accommodating for children, and all restaurants are nonsmoking. Just call ahead if you are unsure if children are welcome.

And with musicians playing in the streets and a free festival nearly every weekend of the year, you won’t miss out on the music culture, either.

Be generous.

Travel is a time to be generous to yourself and others. Give yourself the time to enjoy the experience. Save your money so you can spend it on what is meaningful. Be generous with your patience – for your fellow travelers and for those in the service industry. Tip your servers, bartenders, cab drivers, and even when you paid a cover at the door, tip the band if a hat gets passed. Those folks are professionals who pride themselves on making your trip a great one.

Wishing you safe and happy travels in 2016! n Photo Cheryl Gerber

BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Columns | Sports Biz Saints’ Top 10 paid players of 2016 The Saints’ top 10 highest-paid players currently on the 2016 roster are scheduled to make a combined $96.95 million, almost 66 percent of the team’s total cap allowance for the year.

Cap Dead Cap Player Number Money Savings* Drew Brees $30m $10m $20m Cameron Jordan $12.8m $18.8m ($6m) Jairus Byrd $10.9m $11.4m ($500,000) Jahri Evans $8.2m $7.1m $1.1m Keenan Lewis $6.35m $7.2m ($850,000) Brandon Browner $6.3m $5.35m $950,000 Max Unger $6m $1.5m $4.5 m Dannell Ellerbe $5.9m $1.4m $4.5 m Marques Colston $5.9m $2.7m $3.2 m Zach Strief $4.6m $3.3m $1.3 m Total $96.95m $68.75m $28.2 m *amount saved if player is cut before June 1, 2016 Source: overthecap.com

Risky Business Saints to suffer salary cap troubles at least one more year

T chris price is an award-winning journalist and public relations principal.

When he’s not writing, he’s avid about music, the outdoors, and Saints, Ole Miss and Chelsea football.

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he New Orleans Saints close out the 2015 season early this month, and while players, coaches, and fans are ready to put it behind them, many of the same themes that have haunted the team the past few seasons will likely be present for at least one more.

The Saints will once again begin the year in a negative financial position—this time more than $4 million over budget, according to overthecap.com. The site estimates the NFL’s 2016 salary cap will be $150 million. New Orleans enters 2016 with 41 players signed to the roster, who have a combined salary totaling more than $139.3 million. The club also has more than $14.8 million in dead money, salary from previous contracts owed to players no longer with the team, on their books. Combined, the team already has a payroll of more than $154.1 million going against the 2016 cap figure.

January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

While this year’s dead money figure is half of what it was last year, the team will still be forced to cut, negotiate or renegotiate salaries to get under the leaguemandated limit.

The trouble for the Saints is that they need to cut more than $4 million just to reach the league’s salary allowance, yet are still 12 players shy of filling a 53-man active roster.

Fans should expect the team to again cut familiar names and look to replace salary with more economical free agents and draft picks.

General manager Mickey Loomis and head coach Sean Payton, assuming both remain with the team, will have to be smarter about spending money going forward. The two maximized deals by delaying ballooning salary payments until late into players’contracts. They built a team that went 37-11 in the regular season from 2009 to 2011 and won the Super Bowl in 2009.

Since then, management has had to shed talent and has been forced to fill the roster with a handful of high-priced free agents, but mostly journeymen, backups and undrafted free agents to fill the roster, as they cannot afford to replace lost talent.

The team’s top 10 highest-paid players on the 2016 roster are scheduled to make a combined $97 million, nearly twothirds of the team’s estimated budget. It’s possible many deals will be reconfigured.

If agreeable terms cannot be met, the team could see significant savings by cutting underperforming players before June 1.

Drew Brees, the highest-paid Saint, has a $30 million cap number in 2016, the last year of his current contract. If he negotiates a new deal that spreads that money over a few years, his cap hit for 2016 will go down accordingly. That seemingly would be the best option for both parties and, as it would allow Brees to retire in black and gold and make money available to use toward improving talent across the roster.

Of course, they absolutely must be wiser when negotiating contracts. In 2013, the team signed Junior Galette to a three-year, $9 million deal. He led the team with 12 sacks, and was rewarded in September 2014 with a four-year, $41.5 million extension. The Saints released him just before the 2015 season, and are responsible for paying him $5.45 million last year and $12.1 million this year.

If the Saints are to return to the top of the NFL, they can’t continue to make mistakes like this. n Photo Thinkstock

BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Columns | Film Biz

The Craft of Craft Services Keeping crews fed feeds local businesses like Headwaters Café.

C Kimberley Singletary is the

managing editor of Biz New Orleans magazine.

A 20-year Southern California veteran, she has been surrounded by the film industry for most of her life and is thrilled to be covering its emersion in her newly adopted home.

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an you imagine George Clooney brown bagging it to work?

It’s hard to believe it now, but in the early days of Hollywood, actors used to do just that.

As hours and demands grew, however, so did the need to provide sustenance to cast and crew — now commonly pulling 12 to 14 hour days.

After all, there’s nothing like a nice plate of cookies to turn a day around.

“On set, the main meals are provided by a catering company,” explains Jason Robertson, owner of local catering and craft service company, Headwaters Café.

“Craft service provides everything else — the coffee and all the snacks and drinks.”

A native of Portland, Oregon, Robertson took his 1968 Streamline trailer on the road in 2010 and didn’t stop until he hit

January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

New Orleans.

He says he immediately noticed that the competition was stronger than he was used to. “I’d say there’s about five or six major craft services providers and another five or six that focus on more the small to mid-range projects.”

Robertson says it’s his focus on healthy options and eco-friendly methods that set him apart.

“I’m a chef who does craft service,” says Robertson, who was a past contestant on the popular Food Network show “Chopped.”

“I describe what I do as ‘Northwest fresh cuisine’ — vegetable driven creations paired with grilled meats that often have an Asian influence.”

It was another kind of focus on green, however, that got this NOLA newcomer his first gig.

“During a kind of recon mission before I made the move

out here I went to the New Orleans Film and Video office downtown and introduced myself,” he says. “I told them all about what I do and how both my trailer and pickup ran on waste vegetable oil. They told me they couldn’t directly recommend me to any producers, that’s not what they do, but they told me to give Diane Wheeler, director of sustainability at Second Line Stages a call.”

Robertson did just that, and ended up working a few commercials and photo shoots at the studios. “They also let me park my trailer there,” he says. “I’d bring in free food once a week for everyone.”

From there, word spread about Headwaters Café and Robertson was in business.

“I love this work because it’s so dynamic — nothing is ever the same,” he says.

“One day you could be filming at a prison, another out in the countryside or in the French Quarter.

While working on the Warner Bros. big budget drama “Geostorm” (starring Gerrard Butler and set to be released January 2017), Robertson says that filming took place for several days in Tunica Hills, outside Baton Rouge. “We were driving around on ATVs through sand dunes to deliver food,” he says.

“There were even camels hanging out.”

While days are long — commonly 14 hours, not including daily shopping trips to places like Restaurant Depot, Costco and Rouses, Robertson says he loves the chance to really get to know people on set.

Assisted by a few associates, Robertson says he can comfortably feed crew of up to about 150. His snacks are far from chips and dip. “One of my popular items is a grilled chicken wrap with a hoisin balsamic sauce, feta cheese and sautéed vegetables,” he says. “I also do a great frittata and things like cheese and salami platters.”

Robertson says he’s definitely seen a slowdown in Hollywood South since the tax credit cap.

“When I came here in 2010 there were about 14 projects in the works in October,” he says. “This October there were only four.”

Robertson says he’s heard a lot about how Atlanta’s film industry is booming, but says he has no plans to leave.

“My daughter’s here so I’m here to stay,” he says. “Hopefully things will pick up again, and if not, maybe I’ll start doing more catering for private events.” n Photo Courtesy of Chrissie Cowan

BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Columns | Entrepreneur Biz More Zoning Help is on the Way The NPP is just one aspect of the new Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO) in New Orleans that is providing some challenges. With its extensive revisions – including new zoning categories, new areas of regulation such as storm-water management, and a host of other new standards – the document represents major change.

However, several efforts are underway to help businesses navigate the new CZO. The New Orleans Business Alliance is working with the Stone Pigman law firm to create a booklet that identifies and explains key aspects of the CZO that business owners should be aware of. The city’s One Stop Shop app brings together several key agencies involved in launching or expanding business operations in a single location. And a nascent effort led by the Urban Conservancy and Latter & Blum is bringing together government, nonprofits and businesses to develop a variety of resources to assist entrepreneurs as they make their way through the new zoning laws.

Help is Here City planning applicants have a new ally.

C Keith Twitchell

spent 16 years running his own business before becoming president of the Committee for a Better New Orleans.

He has observed, supported and participated in entrepreneurial ventures at the street, neighborhood, nonprofit, micro- and macrobusiness levels.

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lashes between businesses and neighborhoods sometimes seem like a regular occurrence in New Orleans. It doesn’t have to be that way, and some key steps are being taken to reduce tensions, promote quality economic development, and preserve neighborhood character—all at the same time!

In August 2013, New Orleans formally adopted the City Planning Commission Neighborhood Participation Plan (NPP). This is one part of a larger civic engagement structure proposal put forth by the Committee for a Better New Orleans (full disclosure: I am the president of CBNO).

The NPP requires applicants seeking an action by the Planning Commission to engage the nearby residents and neighborhood association before the formal application process can

January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

begin. This includes holding a meeting with the neighbors, discussing the project, getting input, and submitting a report to the commission.

This gives entrepreneurs an opportunity to work out any concerns at the beginning of the project timeline, thus gaining community support for their projects as they subsequently wend their way through the city approval process.

After the measure was adopted, CBNO worked with the planning commission to do a yearlong review of how the NPP has been working. Both residents and applicants were surveyed, and both were generally pleased. To our surprise, applicants actually expressed greater satisfaction with the NPP than residents.

However, problems with the process as it currently stands were identified on both sides

of the equation. Business owners said they often were not sure how to make good, clear presentations to the community, while residents wanted more and better information from applicants. Both said that a better understanding of the applicable zoning regulations would be helpful.

In particular, both residents and applicants felt that the NPP meetings had a tendency to get off track, and many expressed a desire to have city staff present to help steer the meetings on a more productive course.

The City Planning Commission staff is already thoroughly overworked, so until New Orleans adopts a full-blown civic engagement structure with personnel expressly allocated for this kind of role, help is not on its way from the government side.

However, as the organization on whose work the NPP is based, CBNO is now offering City Planning Commission applicants NPP Facilitation Services. Business owners can engage these services for specific aspects of the NPP process, such as preparing presentations or facilitating the NPP meeting; or they can hire CBNO to work through the entire NPP process.

Done properly, the NPP truly is an asset to entrepreneurs looking to open, move or expand their businesses. More information about how CBNO can help make the NPP process succeed can be found at nppfacilitation.org. n Photo Thinkstock

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Columns | Biz Etiquette

Like a Boss Etiquette resolutions for head honchos in 2016

I Melanie Warner Spencer is editor of

New Orleans Bride Magazine. Her writing has appeared in the Austin American-Statesman, the Houston Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune and Reuters. Spencer’s ever-expanding library of etiquette books is rivaled only by her everready stash of blank thank-you notes. Submit business etiquette questions to Melanie@ MyNewOrleans.com.

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n 2013, The Harvard Business Review reported that in a span of 14 years, 98 percent of workers polled reported experiencing uncivil behavior.

Why should employers care about uncivil behavior? Research shows incivility affects the bottom line, whether experienced by a customer or client from an employee; between coworkers; or from the boss.

The same 2013 piece states when it comes to incivility, customer relationships suffer, and on the employee side, work quality and retention take a hit. In last year’s January Biz Etiquette column, I offered up a list of workplace etiquette resolutions.

Those suggestions were employee based, so this year since workplace civility can have such a high cost to business owners, I’m focusing on a list of resolutions for employers and managers. n Set the stage. From the first email and initial job interview,

January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

discuss the company’s culture of civility and its importance to the success of your business. For example, I’ve heard from countless individuals at Brennan’s that the company’s motto is “Be nice.” It doesn’t get simpler than that, and if you’ve ever been to Brennan’s, you see it in action from the moment you walk in the door. n Walk the walk. The best managers know how effective it is to set a good example. By behaving civilly, managers positively affect the office or company environment. This relates not only to behavior, but also attire, which serves as an indication that the company is either more casual or more formal. In the case of more formal dress, it can promote an atmosphere of graciousness. n Draw the line. Well-defined boundaries make it easier to discern when someone has crossed a line, and empowering supervisors to take action will keep it from escalating.

For example, a friend recently mentioned that a newly hired and subordinate associate was emailing daily to-do lists to her boss. The boss not only found these dispatches unnecessary, but also insulting.

Rather than address the emails directly, he responded by saying “I’m good” or “Got it.” In this case, the new hire might have been taking the oft-issued advice to “manage up,” which, when done properly, is a great way to make your boss’s life easier. Unfortunately, her efforts were coming off as condescending rather than helpful. The boundary has to be set by the manager gently, and with kindness, but also in a way that leaves no ambiguity.

A good solution would be for the boss to have a brief chat with her, preferably in person. Simply state something similar to this: “Susan, I really appreciate your initiative. It’s thoughtful of you to send checklists of daily tasks, but I prefer keeping and organizing my own to-do list.

Going forward, please omit those from your regular email check-ins.” Bookend the request with a compliment about a recent project, then ask if the other party has any questions. n Keep score. Rewards aren’t just for breaking sales records. When managers see good behavior, adherence to best practices and employees who go above and beyond for customers and coworkers, it’s important to acknowledge it.

Company-wide recognition via memos and emails, a simple thank you in passing, monetary rewards and incentivized contests are all great ways to encourage and cultivate civility. n Don’t just preach, teach. Since civility has such a direct effect on the bottom line, it’s a worthwhile expense to invest in training on the subject. Hold workshops or invest in a workshop or an online training program. Either way, your company will reap the rewards by having less turnover, more productivity and happier customers.

This year, resolve to implement that ageold advice to avoid discussing politics and religion; avoid gossip; and bring kindness to all of your interactions. Here’s to a more civil 2016 at work, home and on social media. In all three arenas, my resolution for the year is another oldie but goodie: If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything. n Photo Thinkstock

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Columns | Tech Biz

authorize a large financial transaction and who is likely to perform it. They then create an email account that looks very much like the authorized person’s and send an email requesting a wire transfer. Occasionally, the request seems legitimate enough that many thousands of dollars per instance end up in criminal hands.

By all accounts, these criminal exploitations are very lucrative. While no one seems able to determine the precise amount that these cyber criminals are raking in, there is no question that it is a multimillion-dollar enterprise. This problem is here to stay.

Think Before You Click Cyber security awareness is key for business.

F Steven Ellis

has spent the last 16 years working at the intersection of business and technology for Bellwether Technology in New Orleans, where he serves as the company’s vice president.

rom a cyber security standpoint, the one behavior that leads to more headaches than any other for small or midsize businesses is people clicking (or otherwise acting) on things in emails that they shouldn’t.

The IT team can help: Certainly scanning email for malware or signs of phishing is a must. Other techniques that detect and take action on the presence of malware on a computer or network have also proved effective, but there is only so much that anyone can do technically to mitigate the potential impact of email attacks.

Threats are more sophisticated by the day.

Cryptolocker attacks (malware that begins attacking computers running Microsoft Windows via infected email attachments)

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and its variants have been the most notorious, harmful and seemingly profitable exploit in cyber attacks in recent years.

Initially the broad attacks came as email attachments with enough general context to make them seem legitimate, but later the attachments were replaced with links to commonly used file-sharing apps. In both cases, simply opening the file could potentially render all of your and your company’s files useless. The only recourse is to restore from backup or pay criminals a sort of ransom in hopes that they will help you recover the data.

Recently, many attacks have become more targeted and involve no malware or real technical expertise at all. I have encountered more than a few cases where criminals research a company or individual to determine who is likely to

How do you fight back?

So, if we can’t rely on technical measures to address these attacks, and if they’re not going anywhere, what’s the answer? It’s all about raising awareness.

At the very least, every company and organization should educate employees about the need to be extremely careful when opening email attachments and clicking links in an email and to confirm authorization before sending money or sensitive information based on an email.

Even better is to use one of a number of inexpensive, commercial securityawareness solutions such as KnowBe4 and PhishMe. They typically start with internal testing consisting of fake emails that mimic the same ones that criminals use and identify which employees click on them. They also have a short series of effective and concise computer-based training videos, which tell you specifically what to look for in email attacks. The training can be required company-wide, or just for those employees identified in the course of testing.

This type of testing and training may seem unnecessary, and the majority of attacks may seem easy to detect and avoid, but given the frequency, probable persistence and growing sophistication of email attacks and the inability of technical tools to prevent them, formal security awareness is one more layer of defense that belongs on the list of countermeasures that everyone should employ. n Photo focuspocusltd

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Biz Bits - Industry News Around town

This is a problem that truly affects everyone in this city. More than 70 percent of all households pay one-third or more of their incometowards housing costs.

- Andreanecia Morris, chair of the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance’s Board of Governors, speaking about HousingNOLA, a program of the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance aimed at increasing access to affordable housing over the next decade. The plan outlines a process to create 3,000 affordable housing opportunities by 2018, for a total of 5,000 housing opportunities by 2021. To read the full plan, visit HousingNOLA.org.

Internet Speeds to Increase in Jefferson and St. Tammany Parishes and throughout the Northshore On December 7, AT&T announced plans to expand its GigaPower(sm) network – offering internet speed up to 1 gigabit per second — to Jefferson Parish, St. Tammany Parish and throughout the Northshore. The faster speeds will enable customers to download 25 songs in less than a second, a TV show in three seconds or a favorite HD movie in less than 36 seconds. Service is expected to begin within the year.

The Pythian broke ground December 11 at 234 Loyola Avenue. Co-developed by ERG Enterprises, Green Coast Enterprises and Crescent City Community Land Trust, (CCCLT) the project will provide 69 workforce and market-rate apartments aimed at tenants with annual incomes from $35,000 to $70,000. The mixed historic renovation will also feature the Pythian Public Market, Magnolia Physical Therapy and a community health center operated by Access Community Health. The opening is planned for early 2017.

Based in The Woodlands, Texas, Avanti Senior Living was launched in 2013 in an effort to redefine senior housing. The company has announced plans to expand into Covington with a 77,000-square-foot, $15 million community off Oschner Boulevard in the Water Cross at Nord du Lac. The groundbreaking for the 60 assistedliving suites and 50 memory-care suites is set for the first quarter of 2016. Similar communities are planned for Baton Rouge and Lafayette.

RECENT LOUISIANA RANKINGS

Which Louisiana Cities Manage Debt Best?

“New Orleans is the Best City in America for School Choice” According to a recent study from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The study looked at political support, policy environment, and quantity and quality of choices in cities around the country.

A new study by New York Financial Company SmartAsset has ranked the following cities in order of their citizens’ debt-savviness.

“Louisiana Insurance Department One of the Worst in America for Insurance Regulation” According to a new comparison study released by the R Street Institute in the fourth annual Insurance Regulation Report Card. Receiving a “D” rating for the second year in a row, Louisiana ranked 49th out of 50 states, besting only North Carolina.

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COMING SOON

January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

Credit Average Credit Foreclosure Most Debt Rank City Score Debt Utilization Rate Savvy Index 1 Lafayette, LA

651.4

$30,079

30%

2.59%

37.63

2 Lake Charles, LA

650.1

$29,419

30%

4.05%

34.14

3

Baton Rouge, LA

644.9

$29,526

32%

3.26%

28.58

4 New Orleans, LA

648.8

$29,475

33%

4.72%

22.31

5 Monroe, LA

635.3

$29,408

32%

6.09%

13.49

6 Shreveport, LA

635.6

$29,456

32%

7.35%

8.61

7 Alexandria, LA

633.8

$29,873

34%

6.18%

4.93

Recent Openings B&B Discount Pharmacy

Athleta Yoga- and athletic-wear retailer Athleta celebrated the opening of its newest store in Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie on December 9.

Presented by St. Charles Avenue magazine, the evening event included free chair massages and raffle prizes from Barre3. All of Athleta’s more than 100 stores offer free fitness classes.

LSU Health New Orleans Dental & Medical Primary Care Clinic Located on the campus of the LSU Health New Orleans School of Dentistry at 1100 Florida Avenue, this newly opened clinic offers adults the opportunity to be evaluated by both a nurse practitioner and dentist in the same visit. The clinic is funded by a Health Resources and Services Administration grant to the LSU New Orleans School of Nursing to bring primary care to underserved areas.

The grand opening of B&B Discount Pharmacy’s new Metairie store at 610 Veterans Memorial Boulevard (next to Dorignac’s Food Center) took place December 14. An independent pharmacy with ownership roots in the New Orleans area, it is associated with the Health Mart professional network of over 4,000 community pharmacies and pharmacists nationwide. The pharmacy provides customized services such as local delivery, prescription transfers, immunizations and a free vitamin program.

Kendra Scott In partnership with the Junior League of New Orleans, Kendra Scott celebrated the recent opening of its 5757 Magazine Street store December 4. This marks the leading fashion-accessories brand’s 30th store. The store offers shoppers the opportunity to create customized jewelry in minutes. As part of the grand opening event, the store showcased five community projects funded by the Junior League and asked shoppers to vote on which would receive 20 percent of the night’s proceeds.

We’d love to include your business-related news in next month’s Biz Bits.

Please email details to Editorial@BizNewOrleans.com.

BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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January 2016 BizNewOrleans.com

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Meals aren’t about trends, shock value, or opulence. Meals are about moments, memories and those who surround you at your table.

We believe in the complexity of simplicity, and the power of pure flavors. Our histories, vast and varied, deserve to be memorialized and romanticized by dishes that at once retmind us of home and transport us to somewhere new. We don’t make food for everyone else, we make food for you.

BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Frozen Daiquiris to

Fine Dining Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts takes New Orleans hospitality to new frontiers.

By Rebecca Friedman | Photography J Stephen Young

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In 1989, while he was still in college, Marviani Ammari took over his first daiquiri store. Fast forward 26 years, and the business he grew with his brothers, Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts, has grown to include all Big Easy Daiquiri locations and 11 full-service restaurants and counting, including Broussard’s (shown here) in the French Quarter.

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A

t 4 a.m., you’re likely to find Marviani Ammari already at his computer, enjoying a cup of coffee and reading emails before his wife and four children get up. As the CEO of Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts, the New Orleans hospitality company with a rapidly growing portfolio of restaurants, bars, event spaces and real estate, Marviani simply can’t wait to get to work every day.

“I love driving Downtown, even on a Sunday morning, to touch the buildings, maybe stop at one of the restaurants for a cup of coffee, see the managers,” he says. “We truly live in the best city in the world. I love what I do.”

“I’m not a gambler, but I’m going to put all my money on New Orleans.”

- Marviani Ammari, CEO of Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts Marviani’s brother and company COO Zeid Ammari jokes that along with Richy, the third brother and CFO, they are all “amping up the coffee every morning” to keep pace with a business that can’t sit still. And they wouldn’t have it any other way.

At the time of this writing, Creole Cuisine employs more than 1,000 people and operates 11 full-service restaurants, including Broussard’s, Kingfish, The Bombay Club, Royal House Oyster Bar, Cafe Maspero, The Original Pierre Maspero’s, Bayou Burger & Sports Company, Chartres House, Le Bayou, Pier 424 Seafood Market, Daiquiri Paradise, and all of the Big Easy Daiquiri locations. They also run another daiquiri shop in Chalmette.

Marviani didn’t foresee any of this back in 1989, when he took over his first daiquiri location in St. Bernard Parish. At the time, he was in his second year of college. “I was a kid. I didn’t have a vision of what I

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wanted to do. I was extremely happy making the money I was making at that time.” Enjoying this early success, Marviani extended to a second location on Read Boulevard in eastern New Orleans.

By 1991, he was ready to break into the French Quarter, landing a prime spot on Bourbon Street, near the Pat O’Brien’s Annex, then growing to an additional location on Decatur. Over the years, more locations followed, brothers Richy and Zeid joined the business, and in 2003, the company opened its first restaurant, the Chartres House. “It had been a restaurant for more than 40 years,” says Marviani. “When the gentleman who had it passed away, I had the opportunity to jump in.”

A path forged by water – and oil Up until Hurricane Katrina, daiquiris remained the company’s primary focus, but that shifted with the storm. In its immediate wake, Marviani found himself in Houston thinking, “’Oh my God, everything I’ve got is gone.’ We had eight locations at that point — seven daiquiri stores and a restaurant. How do you go back and capture staff who are dealing with the same issues we are? Our family in Houston tried to convince us to put Cajun restaurants there, and I said, ‘I’m not a gambler, but I’m going to put all my money on New Orleans.’”

The Ammaris returned to New Orleans, made contact with most of their managers and employees, and immersed themselves in helping to rebuild the city. This commitment led them to expand their restaurant presence, creating more gathering spots for people to “see and hear others and hear people’s stories,” says Marviani — a vital need at that time.

In 2008, Hurricane Gustav tested what they had learned from the first disaster.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, this could be every other year? How can we work with staff, with the city, to put places back in commerce immediately after an evacuation?’” recalls Marviani.

In 2010, the business took another hit with the BP oil spill. “That taught us a lot. We do an aggregate of $50 million in sales, 80 percent of it in restaurants, and most of that is really in seafood, so any little glitch brings you challenges. But we learned. We are going to continue to learn.”

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The biggest challenges facing the company today, according to Zeid, are the rising costs of goods and a shortage of manpower.

“With six new locations, what we work on every day is to set up a team, from a dishwasher up to a GM, to be ready. You don’t want to just put bodies in — you have to put the best person available. At the end of the day, there is a solution to every problem, and we do our best with it.”

Blending consistency with individuality For the Ammaris, the holy grail of hospitality is consistency, something Creole Cuisine prides itself on. Marviani cites the daiquiri stores in the French Quarter as an example. “It’s a $7-12 average spend per person,” he says. “You’re looking for a daiquiri or a beer and maybe a slice of pizza. You want someone to give you the best service — have that napkin on the side, have people address you correctly. Clean bathrooms, no boom-boom music where you can’t have a conversation with the bartender. Consistency, consistency, consistency. Doors are open consistently. The staff behind the bars, the host stand, manager, waiter, busboys — all have to be consistent with service. Our business is hard — you have to love your staff. They are your ambassadors, and they send a message out to customers.”

The Ammaris attribute most of the company’s success to their strong team, the hundreds of employees whom they refer to as ‘family.’ “I hire the best,” says Marviani. “You hire smarter people than you and you get out of their way.” Then the goal is to “keep them happy, pay them well — above what the market calls for — and treat them well. Keep them forever.”

The brothers also stress that consistency does not mean uniformity. According to Zeid, “We live in a city that is extremely original. New Orleans is one of a kind, not something you can duplicate. So we believe our business should be original also. Out of our 11 restaurants, every one is a separate entity, concept, with a different feel and touch. The goal in our growth is always to pinpoint a concept that works very well for the potential guest we are targeting.”

1/2: Café Maspero occupies the historic Old Slave Exchange building in the heart of the French Quarter.

3/4: Another French Quarter favorite, Chartres House is known for its Cajun cuisine.

Growth on the menu The Ammaris’ confidence in the city’s economic future underpins their aggressive growth model. “The city is growing at an unbelievable speed, and New Orleans is not a completely different city than it was 10 or 20 years ago,” says Zeid. “But what’s different is that we’re evolving from a very small big city into a very good medium-sized big city. The business community is feeling a tremendous growth, and you have to react to that.”

Creole Cuisine has increased its footprint significantly in the French Quarter area, and Marviani sees even further room for expansion. “I’ve heard comments recently that the Quarter is overbuilt with restaurants and bars, and I disagree with anybody that argues that point.” He cites a study he did recently around the intersection of Iberville and Bourbon. “When you add up places like Acme, Felix’s, Mr. B’s, Dickie Brennan’s, Red Fish Grill, Bourbon House — there’s $170 million in revenue a year, just in that section.”

Marviani believes some restaurants in the French Quarter may be “in the wrong hands — either folks that have a diamond in the rough, or a brand that has been going for a long time, with people who want to get out and sell or are getting up in age and want to pass the torch.

“Like Ralph [Brennan] with Napoleon House or like Café Maspero with Mr. Charlie [Malachias] giving it to us — it’s something you take and enhance,” he says. “We’ll never say we’re done with the Quarter.”

Creole Cuisine is so bullish on the French Quarter that they are currently building several new restaurants there. The first is Creole House Restaurant & Oyster Bar at 509 Canal St., the site of a former Arby’s. According to Marviani, the two-story restaurant will feature charbroiled and fresh-shucked oysters in the bar and a menu designed to satisfy both locals and “the great visitors we have with all these giant hotels around us.” The company is also about to break ground on a ‘rustic Louisiana’ bistro at 301 Royal, has just signed a deal on a property at the corner of Chartres and Bienville,

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and is transforming the former Bella Luna/Galvez building on the riverfront into a banquet facility called Marché (market in French).

While the company’s presence is most significant in the French Quarter, they are actively looking to expand outside of it — to the Warehouse District, Metairie, the Northshore, Westbank and beyond. One of the year’s most noteworthy restaurant headlines was the news that Creole Cuisine would be transforming the former Houston’s in Metairie into an American bistro called Boulevard. The new restaurant opened Nov. 23.

“People a re ex t remely happy about Boulevard,” Marviani says. “An American bistro is something that will always do well, whether on the Northshore or in the city.

That kind of menu and food — redfish and ribs, steaks, salads, great apps — you can’t go wrong with that.”

Adds Zeid, “We’ve been customers of that building for years. It seemed like a perfect fit when that project was available — it made not only business sense but felt right to do it. We wanted to bring back the right restaurant to the community we live in. The No. 1 feedback we are getting from guests today is thank you for bringing it back, a restaurant that belongs to the community.”

In addition to adding new concepts to its portfolio, Creole Cuisine also hopes to take two of its existing concepts on the road with new locations for Bayou Burger & Sports and Big Easy Café.

Two words: Family Business So what’s it like to run a business with your brothers? “To us as a family business, it’s family first,” says Zeid. “So there is a tremendous respect that comes first, and the second word in family business is that this is a business, so we understand each other’s job duties and respect them. I wish I could tell you some crazy stories that we throw plates at each other, but we don’t. We work very well together — it’s a little scary how well. Even as kids, we really didn’t fight.”

If there is any disagreement among the brothers, no one hears it apart from the one colleague allowed to join them in what they call the ‘Meeting Box,’ a weekly, three-hour session during which they hash out issues and solve problems. Says Marviani, “When we leave that room, we speak with one voice. What goes on in that three hours can be hot and cold, but once we agree, we are out of that room, and it’s love and respect.”

A New Orleans take on the neighborhood sports bar, the two-story Bayou Burger & Sports Bar opened on Bourbon Street in 2012.

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1

“I’ve heard comments recently that the Quarter is overbuilt with restaurants and bars, and I disagree with anybody that argues that point,” says CEO Marviani Ammari. Shown here are three of the company’s French Quarter offerings: 1: Broussard’s, 2: Kingfish Kitchen and Cocktails and 3: The Bombay Club.

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3

The brothers also benefit from a distribution of responsibilities that suits their natural talents: “Each one of us handles a different side of the business,” says Marviani. “Richy does real well as CFO, has a great team in the office helping him with HR, accounting, banking. I’m the big picture guy who brings in the deals. And then I give the piece to Zeid. When Creole House opens up, I’ll pass it on when construction is done and the doors are open, then it’s his deal.

I just supervise from up top. It’s not about myself and my brothers.

It’s about the team — the management and the entire staff who fight every day to make these good things happen.”

“This is a tough business,” adds Zeid, “holidays, weekends, nights.

Hospitality never shuts down. I always joke around that we have a sickness, and they have not found a medicine for the sickness. We keep going back. Maybe I’ll walk past a table making sure things are proper on the table, and I turn around and unexpectedly someone will grab me and say the food was tremendous, the service was excellent, thank you so much. And that does something to you — it keeps you going for the entire week, not just the day. We are blessed to be part of this community, and we promote the city any chance we get.” n

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NEW AND UPCOMING CREOLE CUISINE PROJECTS n Creole House Restaurant & Oyster Bar at 509 Canal Street — open late December 2015 n A “rustic Louisiana bistro” at 301 Royal (name TBD), opening first quarter of 2016 n Marché (transformation of the former Bella Luna/Galvez building on the riverfront into a banquet facility) – 914 North Peters Street, opening first quarter of 2016 n New locations for Big Easy Café opening on the Westbank first quarter of 2016 and Jefferson Parish in the second quarter of 2016

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New locations for Bayou Burger & Sports opening in 2016

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From Cranes to Carnival Carnival throw supplier Plush Appeal specializes in stuffed treasures.

By Pamela Marquis | Photography Cheryl Gerber

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I

n New Orleans, Carnival is far from just the wild extravaganza the tourists see.

It’s about family, good times, love and keeping long-held traditions alive. Whether it’s annually staking out and occupying the same spot along the parade route, or throwing treasures from elaborate floats, our family Carnival traditions go deep. The annual celebration also supports many family-owned, local businesses, including Plush Appeal LLC. Daryl Fletchinger, owner of Plush Appeal, is a manufacturer and importer of a wide variety of throws. Interestingly enough, the company’s origins can be traced to video games.

During work as a business consultant, Fletchinger worked for the company that distributed Pac Man, an immensely popular arcade game first released in Japan in 1980, which became a recreational phenomenon.

“They wanted me to predict what would be the next big thing,” Fletchinger says. “My research showed that the electronic skill crane would be it.”

This is the game found at arcades, bars and restaurants in which a players maneuvers a mechanical claw around a glass box in hopes of snagging a prize.

“My research showed that if these boxes were stocked with the right product and regularly refreshed with a variety of prizes it would 48

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always attract play,” Fletchinger says.

And he was right, but there was a challenge in stocking the crane boxes. At the time, companies manufacturing plush toys only sold cartons packed with single items.

“For example, it might be a box full of brown teddy bears,” he says, “The companies that I was dealing with said, ‘We will never mix product.’”

This problem led him to create his own solution — Plush Appeal in 1989. He began to create pre-packs, cartons that had a wide variety of high quality toys to fill the crane boxes.

Plush Appeal still sells crane pre-packs. A 72-piece bag that has no more than three identical pieces costs around $70.

The company also carries Carnival throws for krewe riders, such as beads, spears, hatchets, hats, Frisbees, flags, pendants, cups, key chains, coin purses, blinking beads, stuffed alligators, puppies and flamingos, coffee tumblers, smartphone cases, recorders, tambourines, maracas, and dragon hats with golden eyes that light up. These, too, are also sold in pre-packs that range from $295 to $1,200.

Plush Appeal employs 30 to 35 full-time employees. During Carnival, their payroll swells with an additional 250 seasonal employees who range from forklift drivers to retail store personnel. Daryl’s daughter,

PREVIOUS PAGE: Plush Appeal owner Daryl Fletchinger is joined in business by his daughter, Alyssa, and son, Clark (not pictured).

The company occupies 3.5 acres in Mid-City that includes several warehouses, an office space and a 15,000-square-foot retail space.

ABOVE: Working with production in China, Plush Appeal offers more than 10,000 products and supplies more than 70 parade groups from Tallahassee to Seattle and all around the world.

Alyssa Fletchinger, 34, is the company’s vice president and his son, Clark Fletchinger, 29, is in charge of custom project management.

The company occupies 3.5 acres in MidCity that includes several warehouses, an office space and a 15,000-square-foot retail space.

Fletchinger and his family love Carnival and for years had been involved with the Krewe of Elks, the oldest and largest of all the truck float krewes.

“In ’93 we began throwing our product from our floats,” Fletchinger says. “It started slowly – my sisters, my family, a few close friends – but we quickly started supplying to more and more people.”

As a result, the company began producing more kinds of throws. It now offers more than 10,000 products and supplies more than 70 parade groups from Tallahassee to Seattle

Beads and Baubles are Big Business According to a report by Toni Weiss, with assistance from The Freeman Consulting Group Project, Carnival riders spend $11.78 million on beads annually.

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Super-krewes such as Orpheus, Endymion and Bacchus and their collective 3,500 members toss more than 2 million cups, 3.5 million doubloons and 350,000 gross of beads.

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Some krewes contract with U.S. or international distributors to order their beads and throws; some, such as Krewe of Freret, make some of their throws; and other krewes purchase their throws from local companies such as Plush Appeal/The Mardi Gras Spot.

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Flowers to Flashing Lights

Early throws in New Orleans were mostly small foodstuffs or flowers handed out by individual maskers. In 1871, Twelfth Night Revelers had a krewe member pose as Santa Claus and distribute presents. This may be one of the earliest examples of an organized “throw” by a krewe.

Why Do We Throw Beads?

and all around the world.

Starting in January, Plush Appeal will begin to work crews for 24 hours a day: packaging, shipping and even delivering pre-packs to the floats the day of the parades.

“I love what I do,” Fletchinger says. “The business has grown through our network of friends and satisfied clients.”

Alyssa Fletchinger started with the company at an early age. Her father would bring home a product and she would play with it.

She soon became his most successful predictor of what would sell.

“She could choose winning products at the age of 8,” he says. “Then she began coming to the warehouse and working after school and weekends to help pack a pre-pack. She was one of the most accurate and fastest on the crew.”

From 2004 until 2011, Alyssa worked as the company’s assistant general manager. For the past four years, she’s taken on more responsibility as vice president.

“It’s been challenging for her because she is a woman working with Chinese businessmen, some of whom are not used to working with women, but she’s been doing such a great job,” Fletchinger says.

The Fletchingers spend close to two months of every year traveling through China managing logistics for their products.

The Planning Process Planning for throws begins almost minutes after the last season’s beads have been tossed.

The Fletchingers almost immediately begin to meet with clients to plan and create next year’s trinkets and toys.

“Many times we start with a luncheon meeting, and I may come back with a design written on a napkin,” Alyssa Fletchinger says.

Plush Appeal designs in-house, but some clients request their own fully realized designs; more often they collaborate with one another to create the finish product.

“The main thing we want is to make sure the product they have in mind can actually be made,” Alyssa Fletchinger says. “We want to make sure it won’t break and that it is affordable. There’s a lot of back and forth; sometimes we may have as many as 100 communications. It could be that the color they chose works with the plush throws but not the medallion. There are just so many details to work out.”

During the manufacturing process there are still often changes to be made, as details can easily get lost in the process.

The prevailing view is that the tradition of throwing beads originated with Rex in 1921, but there are other theories, as well. The following comes from Lissa Capo, author of “Throw Me Something, Mister”: The History of Carnival Throws in New Orleans.

“Lyle Saxon, in his memoir Fabulous New Orleans, mentions catching strings of beads when he was a child, which would have been the early 1900s. It is unclear when it began, but by 1913, throwing beads to the watching public became common practice.”

Did You Know?

Until the 1960s, most beads were made from glass in Czechoslovakia.

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Approximately 25 million pounds of Mardi Gras beads are shipped from China to New Orleans each year.

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n The whole process from mold-rendered to finished beads can take up to 90 to 120 days or more.

Manufacturers can make six or more 33-inch strands a minute. They generally sell for around $3 per gross (144 strands), or less when purchased in bigger bulks from distributors.

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The demand for flashier beads is putting increasing pressure on bead distributors to come up with fresh ideas every year, such as blinking beads that feature a battery-charged light-emitting diode.

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The China Factor

The Growth of Plush Appeal

The Fletchingers spend six to eight weeks traveling throughout China every year. The main thing they do during their trip is manage logistics.

“We have to find a way to move our supplies,” Alyssa Fletchinger says. “We use planes, trains, automobiles and buses to make it all happen.”

They also purchase raw materials and recycled supplies.

“It’s important to get the right price because it can fluctuate, and it’s good to get it locked down so your prices to your client is consistent,” says Daryl Fletchinger.

In China, the company works with a wide variety of suppliers and has worked with some of them for decades. Both Fletchingers say that many of the people they deal with feel just like family.

“We know they treat their employees fairly,” Daryl Fletchinger says. “And we have quality control throughout the process. Because we’ve been in the plush business for so long, we are very conscious about safety. We know our products have to be safe because our products go to children. We were already way ahead of the curve on safety.”

Though their business is most closely associated with Carnival, the Fletchingers have seen their business grow to include green beads for St. Patrick’s Day, orange beads for Halloween, heart-shaped beads for Valentine’s Day, red-and-green strands for Christmas, purple-and-gold ones for LSU games, rainbow beads for gay pride events and even beads as bar and bat mitzvah favors. They also supply showers, weddings, corporate events and school spirit days.

Alyssa Fletchinger says that for many customers, a trip to their retail store is an event.

“People make it an annual event to come and shop,” she says. “They dress up, sometimes in costume, go out for lunch and then come here to shop. You can just feel the fun in the air.”

She attributes the family’s success to strong leadership.

“But we are also successful because my father is not afraid to jump in and try new things,” she says. “He’s a visionary, who also just happens to really love Mardi Gras.” n

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Local Mardi Gras Suppliers n Beads by the Dozen 333 Edwards Ave., New Orleans (504) 734-9966, (877) 734-9966 www.beadsbythedozen.com n Mardi Gras Bonanza 2637 N. Hullen St., Metairie (504) 836-0600 http://www.mardigrasbonanza.com n The Mardi Gras Spot 2812 Toulouse St., New Orleans (504) 482-6100 www.mardigrasspot.com n Mardi Gras Wholesalers 225 Westbank Expy., Gretna (504) 365-1274 mardigrastrading.com n T J’s Carnival & Bingo Supplies 28 Fairfield Ave., Terrytown (504) 392-7217 http://www.tjcarnival.com

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Perspectives A closer look at hot topics in three southeast Louisiana industries

54 Banking & Finance 58 Healthcare

64 Maritime & Ports BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Perspectives | Banking & Finance

Resolutions for Revenue Advice on making financial goals a reality

By Chris Price

W

ith the ringing in of the new year comes declarations for improvement on myriad fronts. Financial fitness is one of the top three most popular New Year’s resolutions after losing weight and getting organized. But much like the confetti that is swept away after the parties, resolutions often get brushed aside before the end of January.

A 2015 University of Scranton Journal of Clinical Psychology study found that as many as 92 percent of resolutions fail. The reason is that resolutions require a change in lifestyle and stick-to-it-iveness that most people won’t follow through with.

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Several New Orleans area financial planners and advisors, wealth managers, and bankers offered advice for businesses and individuals on setting and keeping financial resolutions in the New Year.

Plan of Action Don’t just make resolutions; make a plan, says Richard T. Romano, a financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual.

“Like binge diets, taking a short-term view of your finances often leads to inconsistent results,” Romano says. “People who create a plan to reach their goals are much more likely to achieve success. You

Illustration Jrcasas

can resolve to spend less and save more, but the best way to achieve lasting results is by creating a plan that’s tailored to your financial picture and unique goals.”

Being as descriptive and realistic as possible in establishing the plan is crucial to success, says Jeremy Jacobson, president of the RBI Group.

“Investing, paying down debt, saving for retirement is a process,” Jacobson says. “Picture where you want to be at the end of 2016.

Working the process backwards, what are some things you can do throughout the year to accomplish that goal? Put the end result in mind and find ways to accomplish it.”

He encourages clients to take their time, take baby steps and always move forward.

“Someone may have a goal of contributing 20 percent, and we’ll help them reach their goal, but we don’t want them to call back in three months from now saying things are tough and they need to cut back to 10 percent. Why not start at 8 percent, see how that goes, and two or three months from now increase it to 10 percent and up from there? That way there is a feeling of success and accomplishment in reaching a goal rather than missing one,” he says.

Downsize Debt & Shore Up Savings Certified financial planner Patricia Besselman, of Besselman & Associates, says eliminating debt is one of the first steps to take to establish solid financial footing. She encourages analyzing debt, calculating how much money can be applied toward it monthly without wrecking the rest of the budget, and determining how soon the entire debt amount can be paid off.

“If you know what you’re trying to accomplish and you have a plan, it becomes manageable.

You can see that you can do it.”

– Patricia Besselman Besselman & Associates “If someone is just randomly putting some money toward it, they’re not going to be as motivated as if they know when the end date is,” Besselman says. “If you know what you’re trying to accomplish and you have a plan, it becomes manageable. You can see that you can do it.”

It’s important to know where your money goes. She says monthly cash flow sheet can help you see where your dollars are actually going.

“A lot of people don’t realize how much the little things add up and where they tend to waste money the most.”

For businesses, she recommends reviewing established practices to see if they can be improved. If the ultimate goal is to increase job profits, Besselman advises tracking project expenses and process inefficiencies that drive up costs and make changes to maximize income.

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“At that point, their kids are out of school and gaining independence. So that’s when they can really put their foot down on the gas on saving for themselves,” Jacobson says. “Financial health is a lot like physical health. The earlier you can start maintaining it, the better, but if you’re just starting you have to focus on what you can do going forward.”

If you work for a company that offers a retirement program via pension or 401(k)-type savings program, check to see if it will benefit your strategy. If your company offers a dollar amount match to your contribution, definitely take the free money. With compound interest, these accounts can build quickly, depending on the investment portfolio you choose.

The United States Government Accountability Office found about half of households age 55 and older have no retirement savings and few other resources.

Regarding Retirement When planning on retirement, advisors say the goal is to understand what it will ultimately take to create the lifestyle you want after you retire and determine what income you need to help ensure sustainable financial security and the realization of your dreams for the future.

As a rule of thumb, many retirement experts and financial advisors recommend saving enough to replace at least 70 percent of one’s pre-retirement income to maintain the standard of living. With so many questions about the future of Social Security, retirees need to save enough to last 20 to 40 years once they stop working. But few Americans are saving enough for retirement and face living their golden years with a lower standard of living than they currently enjoy.

A May 2015 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found most American households approaching retirement do not have enough saved to maintain their current status in retirement.

The GAO found about half of households age 55 and older have no retirement savings and few other resources, such as a defined benefit (DB) plan or nonretirement savings, to draw on in retirement. Among those with some retirement savings, the median amount of those savings is about $104,000 for households age 55-64 and $148,000 for households age 65-74, equivalent to an inflation-protected annuity of $310 and $649 per month, respectively. As a result, workers age 55 and older expect to retire later, and a higher percentage plan to work during retirement.

“A lot of advisors say you need to save 20 percent a year, but sometimes people just can’t do it,” Jacobson says. “Money is a lot harder to come by today, but we don’t want people to be discouraged.”

Many people reach age 50 before they can afford to save for themselves, he says.

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Target Talent A company’s workforce is crucial to its ability to succeed.

Therefore, the ability to attract and retain the best talent is vital to the long-term success of any business. One of the most effective ways to keep employees engaged and motivated is by offering them a carefully crafted benefits plan including focused educational and training programs and a viable career path for key employees.

“Along with salary, it’s what employees look at most carefully when deciding whether to join and stay with a firm,” Romano says. “This is especially true for millennials. When you give your Illustration Jrcasas

employees the benefits they value, they’ll likely be more productive, miss fewer work days and have a higher commitment to helping you build your business.”

Once a benefit plan is created, it must be effectively communicated to your employees. Ensure the employees understand and appreciate their benefits and continue to evolve the plan over time with your business.

Create a Succession Plan Continuing normal business operations in the best of times can be extremely challenging but can come to a halt in the event a business owner should become incapacitated. A business may face significant cash-flow problems and internal strife should an owner unexpectedly leave. A well-crafted buy-sell agreement helps ensure the smooth transition of business interests.

“If a co-owner retires, gets divorced, or suddenly becomes disabled or dies, you might, for example, need to quickly raise money to purchase a retiring owner’s interests; or, in the case of an owner’s divorce, disability or death, they could suddenly find themselves in business with his or her family,” Romano says. “Because you have the best selection of options for creating a desired exit strategy before you or another owner leaves, now is the best time to begin planning.”

The agreement should clearly define what happens if you or another owner retires, gets divorced or becomes disabled or dies. Several types of buy-sell agreements are available to accommodate variations among businesses, including organizational structure, number of owners, whether the owners are related and who the purchasers will be.

Moving Forward By setting realistic goals and establishing achievable benchmarks it’s possible to eliminate debt, build wealth and get to the point when life may be enjoyed without work. Even if you are just starting to improve your financial position or well on your way to reaching your objectives, today’s technology and automation there are many tools to help you reach your goal. n Illustration Jrcasas

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Perspectives | Healthcare

A 242,000-square-foot, $70 million facility, Thibodaux Regional Medical Center’s Wellness Center is set to open mid-2016.

What Lies Ahead Healthcare Trends for 2016

By Kim Roberts

H

eading into the new year, what might 2016 hold for the healthcare industry? What are the trends consumers can expect to see as the year unfolds? Of course there is no crystal ball that can predict the future, and nothing is absolute, but according to the PwC Health Research Institute, 2016 will be a year of firsts as the industry adapts to the main forces driving the new health economy: The rise of consumerism, the focus on value, downward pressure on costs, technological innovation and the impact of new entrants. The businesses that will likely succeed will be the ones that prioritize addressing consumer needs and increasing value.

“Continued emphasis on improving healthcare quality and patient safety will be a big trend for 2016,” says Greg Stock, CEO of Thibodaux Regional Medical Center. “Healthcare providers will be taking actions

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to improve, or greatly improve in some cases, the patient experience as a whole.”

“Patients of the region can look forward to the opening of our medically directed, state-of-the-art Wellness Center. The center is a 242,000-square-foot, $70 million facility set to open near the midyear point in 2016,” he adds. “It will provide advanced clinical and wellness services for patient needs.”

Thibodaux Regional Medical Center has been serving the healthcare needs of the Thibodaux area since 1929 and the new Wellness Center is the first of its kind in the state and is among the finest of its kind in the nation. It is designed to improve the health and well-being of the region through prevention, fitness, education, rehabilitation, and focused sports and wellness services.

Photo courtesy of Thibodaux Regional Medical Center

In addition to state-of-the-art health-and-fitness amenities, the facility will include centers of excellence that focus on imaging, sports medicine, neurosciences, pain, spine, rehabilitation, weight management, wellness education, urgent care, women’s breast health, and aquatics, featuring a lap pool area and warm-water therapy pools.

THE WHOLE PATIENT Internal Medicine Specialists was founded in 1976, by Thomas E. Oelsner, MD, and Jay M. Shames, MD. Internal Medicine Specialists’ goal is to provide the highest-quality, cost-effective medical care to their patients with a human touch. They are an innovative multispecialty practice that places a strong emphasis on preventive medicine and on the maintenance of good health.

All of their physicians are board-certified in internal medicine, and most of their physicians have training in a subspecialty areas such as nephrology (diseases of the kidney), pulmonary (lungs), endocrinology (diabetes, diseases of the thyroid and other glands), infectious disease, or allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology.

“We should expect to see the trend in 2016 to focus on population health management and looking at the patient as a whole, the big picture,” says Laurie Bergeron, administrator at Internal Medicine BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Specialists. “We are going to focus on how to help patients with the disease process and those factors that lead to health conditions like diabetes and kidney disease. The overall trend will be to address the whole patient with a more proactive and hands-on approach to see what is really going on with their health from head to toe. We want to go above and beyond the traditional, regular office visit and be more involved with the patient with a multidisciplined approach, which will put all the different pieces of the healthcare picture together. All the members of the patient’s healthcare team will be in communication with each other so that everyone knows where the patient is at the same time.”

SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE According to Crescent City Physicians, a subsidiary of Touro specializing in primary care, OB/Gyn, oncology, urology and cardiac/vascular services, the upcoming year will see an increased importance on the reporting quality of data as patients become more educated in choosing healthcare providers. Also, they recognize that there is a need for bilingual physicians to serve patients who are not native English speakers.

Nearly 21,000 New Orleans residents identify themselves as Hispanic, the fastest-growing population segment in the city, according to the Data Center, which based its analysis on U.S. Census Bureau data from the 2000 census and 2013 population estimates.

Since Katrina, the Hispanic population of New Orleans has risen from 15,000, or 3.3 percent of the pre-storm population, to 50,000, 15.2 percent of the current population, according to the New Orleans Economic Development office.

TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS Meeting patient needs better seems to be a trend for the new year.

Healthcare providers realize the importance of providing patients with the most up-to-date treatment options as well as keeping up with technology. Usage of health-related smartphone apps has

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Health apps for smartphones are expected to continue to grow in popularity.

New options include AskMD, which provides a personalized health consultation and prepares a patient for a doctor’s visit, and HealthLoop, which enables a patient to stay connected with his/her doctor between visits.

doubled in the last two years, from 16 percent of consumers in 2013 to 32 percent this year, according to the PwC Health Research Institute.

Both technology and shifts in financial incentives mean “care will begin to move into the palms of consumers’ hands,” PwC said.

For example, Thibodaux Regional is dedicated to researching and implementing the latest medical technology to improve patient care, enhance patient recovery, perform advanced diagnostics and constantly advance surgical procedure technology. They are actively engaged in listening to their patients and reach them through their hospital website, Facebook page, YouTube channel and Twitter account.

Phone apps that are expected to pick up steam in 2016 include AskMD, which provides a personalized health consultation and prepares a patient for a doctor’s visit. It uses speech recognition to identify potential causes of symptoms, taking into account medications and other known conditions. The app can determine if the patient may be in a life-threatening situation and provides the location of the nearest emergency rooms. The Apple Health Capability app synchronizes patient’s current health data including age, sex, height, weight and blood pressure. The app allows patients to share relevant information with their doctor, and it also allows physicians to deliver tasks and reminders to keep patients on track.

The HealthLoop app enables the patient to stay connected with his/ her doctor between visits. It uses interactive mobile “check-ins” to set a patient’s daily expectations, support self-care recovery activities, anticipate questions and monitor clinical areas of concern “We are one of the first communities in our field with access to new computer-based assessment tools,” says David Schonberg, owner

PhotoThinkstock

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and operator of Schoenberg & Associates Assisted Living Facilities.

“We now have the capability to constantly improve the experience of our residents with programs that closely monitor and analyze their emotional, mental, and physical well-being, as well as programs that utilize our resident’s life stories and personal preferences to provide caregivers with an ideal activities and care plan that is completely customized to their needs.”

“Heading into the new year, in which the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and dementia and other forms of cognitive decline continues to steadily increase, it is more important than ever that assisted living and memory care providers like my company play an active role in the research and improvements being made in the memory care field to provide the best, most advanced level of care possible to the residents we are serving.”

In addition to continuing education programs, Schoenberg & Associates is also taking advantage of exciting technological advancements to better serve their residents. The company owns and operates 10 assisted living communities in Louisiana (including Vista Shores and Beau Provence), Mississippi and South Carolina, which focus on putting the safety of each resident first.

Jim Strickland, manager of Iron Tribe Fitness, says that next year the company plans on implementing a new phone app especially designed for Iron Tribe that will enable members to schedule classes, track fitness benchmarks, and keep motivating them to improve their health. “Our ITF smartphone app and in-store iPad can be coupled with members’ My Tribe accounts to make it easy to chart

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Local business Iron Tribe Fitness is resolved to increase its technological offerings in order to help busy professionals meet their fitness goals.

progress and stay on track. Also, we utilize social media to engage members to enjoy working out and continue to improve. The app also has healthy recipes, mini workouts for people who travel, and Instagram capabilities so members can keep in touch with each other and support each other on their journey to improved health,” he said. “Technology-wise, in 2016 we plan to kick off the body composition analyzer, which is much more than a scale. It measures body fat percentages and lean muscle mass and uses the method of quantitative analysis. These elements of body composition and body composition analysis provide basic information required for assessing the status of the body and allow for personalized exercise and diet programs to maintain healthy lifestyles.”

Iron Tribe Fitness is a place for individuals to go to do group-based workouts to achieve better results. “Our members are able to build relationships with the same coach they see each time they work out as well as working out with the same group of people,” Strickland says. “The new year is the time when people are most excited about getting into shape, and we are adding new staff to accommodate the influx and to better serve our members. Also, we are looking to expand to Uptown and Metairie locations in the very near future. We are looking for the right spaces now.”. n

Photo Cheryl Gerber

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Perspectives | Maritime & Ports

Making A Mightier Mississippi Port leaders, maritime companies and agencies weigh on the challenges, investments and support needed in an industry that’s poised for greatness. by suzanne Ferrara

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e must build for the future,” says Gary LaGrange, CEO of the Port of New Orleans. “It’s extremely important that Louisiana officials have a laser focus on international trade, transportation and infrastructure issues.” One in five Louisiana jobs, adds LaGrange, is supported by Louisiana’s ports.

Even though the Lower Mississippi River makes up the busiest port complex in the world, the Port of New Orleans and its neighboring ports must still compete daily for cargo on both national and international scales. Port leaders say support and industry investments are both necessary to stay ahead of the global curve.

“We need the citizens of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana to understand the importance of the port and maritime industry to Louisiana and the nation,” stresses LaGrange. “It’s vital that we invest accordingly into maritime infrastructure and freight highway projects to continue to compete on a global scale.” Having the best, 64

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state-of-the-art facilities is essential to success on the global playing field, says LaGrange.

At the neighboring St. Bernard Port, Harbor and Terminal District, Executive Director Robert Scafidel echoes the need to stay ahead of the global curve. “The challenges are every day, and always relate to fiscal operations. We need more money and more support from the public and the Legislature to continue to grow.”

Upriver, Paul Aucoin, executive director of the Port of South Louisiana in the River Parishes (America’s largest tonnage port), agrees, and says he faces similar challenges. “It’s not a fair, level playing field,” says Aucoin. Aucoin says his port district faces stiff competition from countries like China that have no labor regulations or environmental standards, which, in turn, means those nations can produce products at a lower cost. “We favor a lot of these treaties with foreign companies because, if they want to enter into a trade Photo Tracie Morris Schaefer

LEFT PAGE: Fracht USA/Germany supervisors were on hand at the Port of New Orleans to assist in the transload of a 718-ton, 164-foot-long absorption tower onto Roll-Lift’s self-propelled modular transporters. “In order for a port and manufacturers to be successful, you have to get product in and out efficiently,” says CEO Gary LaGrange.

ABOVE: The Port of New Orleans’ mounting cruise business is also receiving new infrastructure with the construction of a third cruising ship berth at the Poland Avenue Wharf.

agreement, they have to agree on all the standards including the same tariffs.”

Infrastructure investments on the state and federal levels remain the biggest challenge for South Louisiana’s port industry, including the Port of New Orleans, the dominant general cargo port. “In order for a port and manufacturers to be successful, you have to get product in and out efficiently,” adds LaGrange. LaGrange cites the $14 billion backlog of construction projects and other investments along the lower Mississippi River as reasons for making last-mile connectors a priority. Scafidel concurs. “We hope to increase the funding commensurate with the greatest river in the shipping corridor of the whole world, and each one of our ports plays a specific role.”

In an effort to meet these challenges, the purse strings are being loosened, thanks to the overwhelming passage of a $305 billion national transportation bill. Louisiana’s lower river system is among the American ports that will share a portion of the proceeds that will be distributed over a five-year period and be designated for freight and harbor maintenance. $11 billion of the funds has been allocated to freight grants and other programs, and $6.3 billion will be dispersed under dedicated formula funding for freight projects, including 1,500 miles of connections.

In addition, heated efforts continue toward deepening the Lower Mississippi River by 5 feet, to match the 50-foot draft of the Panama Canal expansion and allow for access by larger cargo ships. According to a report compiled by local economist Tim Ryan, deepening the river from the Gulf of Mexico to Baton Rouge would bring an additional 24 million tons of cargo over an eight-year period. In addition, the study projects $5 billion in new revenue for Louisiana over a 20-year period.

But that’s just the beginning of the Herculean efforts by port leaders, industry representatives, government agencies and

lawmakers to build toward the future. A recent Mississippi River helicopter flyover by two key lawmakers — Chairman of the Congressional Transportation and Infrastructure committee Bill Schuster and Louisiana Congressman Gary Graves — is expected to increase critical legislative support. Aucoin, who was part of their congressional committee panel in New Orleans, was there for the bird’s-eye view. “It’s unbelievable, man, it’s unbelievable,” he says. “When you look down from a helicopter it looks like traffic on Canal Street. The fly over the river was beneficial for us so they can understand what is going on here in South Louisiana.”

Game-Changing Boom “The investment boom on the Lower Mississippi River is a game changer for the future,” says LaGrange, referencing the more than $80 million of investments in new and expanded chemical and petrochemical projects and manufacturing facilities. While the Calcasieu River in southwest Louisiana will also benefit from the investments, the Port of New Orleans is expected to gain 5.4 million tons of chemicals exports, which would be three times its current rate.

Construction of nearly $40 million in new investments aimed at expanding container-handling capabilities is expected to be completed at the Port of New Orleans’ Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal by the end of 2016. Among those projects is a $7.9 million refrigerated container racking system to help accommodate the increasing demand for refrigerated cargo. The state-of-the-art system is designed to store more than 600 refrigerated containers.

In the more immediate future, there’s another project which port officials believe will make a huge difference economically for South Louisiana and the Port of New Orleans: the new $25.1 million Mississippi River Intermodal Terminal. Construction of the 12-acre facility on existing port property is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2016, and this modern intermodal container transfer terminal will help move marine and rail cargo efficiently, while at the same time increase the port’s container yard capacity. LaGrange says it will also enhance safety and reduce the carbon footprint of the regional and national transportation system.

The port’s mounting cruise business is also receiving new infrastructure with the construction of a third cruising ship berth BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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The Port of South Louisiana is expected to announce $23 billion in new projects this year.

Port directors predict an economic upswing in the industry. “I see a vibrant port with new opportunities arising from value-added services for the chemical manufacturers, plus expanded infrastructure doubling existing container volumes through the Port of New Orleans and new, untapped opportunities with an expanded Panama Canal,” says LaGrange.

Scafidel shares that optimistic view. “The outlook for the five river ports is outstanding!

We project that we will continue to have financial growth, and that growth will spill off into other areas, which will continue to fuel the economic engine of those respective parishes and ports.”

Creatively Staying Afloat at the Poland Avenue Wharf. The engineering phase, including final touches, is underway, with the terminal expected to be completed in 2017. “That project will free berthing space for additional homeported cruise ships and allow port officials to aggressively market New Orleans as a unique port of call,” says LaGrange. In addition, American Cruise Line is adding America, a third steam wheeler, to its New Orleans fleet, and according to LaGrange, Viking Cruises will open its first North American home port in New Orleans in 2016.

Efficiency upgrades and expansions are also taking place up and down the river. At the Port of South Louisiana, “$66 million in capital investments will be taking place within the port’s jurisdiction over the next five years,” says Aucoin, “and unlike the past, many of those investors come from foreign companies.”

New infrastructure work is taking place this year at the Port’s Globalplex Terminal in Reserve, and Aucoin says a whopping $23 billion in new projects is expected to be announced this year for the port’s district. “We expect two to three of those new projects to start construction in 2016, including construction of the Pin Oak liquid storage terminal and Yuhuang Chemical’s methanol project.”

Plus, if proven to be a profitable venture, the Port of South Louisiana may soon be in the container business; Aucoin is expecting results from a container market study for the port’s district to be in by the middle of the year. “It would make the operation highly profitable, and it would be very competitive with any other container port. That’s what we expect the study to show,” he says.

Adding to the economic development of the port is the effort to have more corporate jets land at its airport, which now has a 5,000-foot runway. “We are trying to make it easier and a more attractive place for companies from around the globe to locate here.” Since the extended runway is now published with the FAA and in pilot’s manuals, Aucoin says he’s seen an increase in the number of corporate jets utilizing the airport, and he expects to see many more in 2016.

Above all, Aucoin says the industrial growth at the port is because of plentiful and low-cost natural gas, as well as the deep water of the Mississippi River, which he considers to be the greatest of Louisiana’s natural resources. Aucoin expects the availability of inexpensive natural gas to continue for the next 20 to 30 years, which is great for companies wanting to do business in south Louisiana.

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“I’ve been around the block a few times,” says Dale Revelle with a knowing smile. The owner of Revelle Shipyards says he’s worked on the water in New Orleans since he was 12 years old. “Business is low and competition is very aggressive. Everyone is looking for that deal.”

Revelle says some companies are paying local steamship agents, like him, lower rates for moving their vessels, depending on which lane is being used to move the cargo. “It’s down anywhere from 30 to 80 percent. We are also running out of places on the river to do the work, and the rates are so outrageous that it’s cost-prohibitive.”

The slowdown has Revelle coming up with creative ways to bring in income. “We went out to our clients to see if we can help them in any other way, and this is how we are maintaining our business,” adds Revelle. Sharing the same challenges are some tug companies, stevedores (dock workers) and other companies whose job is to load and unload vessels.

The turnaround can’t come soon enough for Revelle. “I’m hoping it will happen in a couple more years, but we are not sure which sector will be coming back. It may be metals, steel or fertilizer. There are a lot of different working parts here.”

According Brett Bourgeois, with the New Orleans Board of Trade, Ltd., a maritime-advocacy group that also tracks vessel arrivals, the numbers are up. Vessel arrivals have increased steadily since Hurricane Katrina. “I think 2015 will end up with 100 more vessel arrivals than we had in 2014, and we hope this trend continues into 2016. And containerized vessels will continue increasing as they have in previous years,” says Bourgeois.

The collective wisdom seems to suggest that those companies who stay the course will reap the rewards in the future. “If they can hold on, they should benefit greatly from this industrial boom we are going to have,” says Paul Aucoin, the executive director of the Port of South Louisiana.

Bourgeois echoes the same advice: “Keep working hard, keep plugging away to bring more business to the river because ships and cargo are always going to come into the Mississippi River, our wonderful natural resource,” says Bourgeois. n

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Guest Viewpoint

Need a Web Presence?

Tackle the task yourself or call for help? A look at the options.

Wendy Dolan is a Louisiana native and founder of Get Online NOLA, a locally-based firm that provides affordable websites, branding and marketing for small businesses and non-profits. She teaches regular workshops to help business owners take control of their online presence.

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he Internet is a huge part of our daily lives, and the fact that most people consult the web when shopping for goods and services is no secret. A recent survey by media research and advisory company BIA Kelsey found that 97 percent of consumers use online media before they make a decision on where to spend their money.

As that number continues to rise, businesses without a strong online presence are at risk of becoming invisible. Knowing you need a website and making it happen are two very different things.

Even though most of us use the Internet on a daily basis, shopping for a business website can be intimidating. The options can be overwhelming and there will inevitably be new jargon to learn.

Despite this, the process does not have to be confusing.

Photo Thinkstock

Should I Go it Alone?

The first step is deciding whether you want to take the do-ityourself approach or hire a professional. As a small-business owner myself, I often hear advice that I should outsource anything that isn’t part of my core competency. Unfortunately, real budgets don’t always allow for this, so making decisions about what we can do alone and what needs to go to a professional are crucial to success.

If you’re considering using an online template to build your website, ask yourself these three questions: n How much time do I have to spare? Even a simple website can spiral into an 80-hour project if you have to learn a whole new software, come up with a design and create content. Think about how much your time is worth, set an amount of time for the project, and be willing to abandon the task if it becomes too overwhelming. n Do I have a good design eye? DIY website builders can be a lot of fun because they give you loads of options for colors, fonts and designs. But if design isn’t your strong suit, it’s probably best to keep it simple or consult a professional designer. Too many homemade websites end up as a confusing jumble of fonts and colors with no cohesive message. Even unsophisticated Internet users recognize a badly designed website, and this will send the signal that your business doesn’t take itself seriously. n Am I technically savvy? Even website platforms with good user interfaces can be tricky to navigate at first (think about how confusing it can be when Facebook implements a platform change), and there will inevitably be new jargon to learn. From domain names and hosting, to responsive design, and search engine optimization — if you have to teach yourself a whole new field from scratch, you may be getting yourself in too deep.

Finding the Right Web Designer and Platform If you decide to hire a pro, make sure you find someone you can trust. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and steer clear of folks who try to confuse you with jargon. A good web designer will be willing to talk you through the process in plain English and show you examples of previous work. A contract is essential to any working relationship, and this is no different with your web designer. Make sure you establish the project scope — exactly what is included in your site, and the timeline, before you get started. This way, you can also compare quotes fairly, and there won’t be any big surprises down the road.

Photo ronstik

A few things to look for in your contract include: n A content management system (CMS): Buying a site with a CMS means you will be able to make content changes in real time without having to pay your programmer every time you want to make updates. Wordpress is our favorite CMS platform, and its popularity means that other programmers will find it easy to use if you have to change web companies down the line. It’s usually best to stay away from a custom CMS since the code may be proprietary, which means you may have to from scratch if you decide to leave your web design firm. n Mobile-friendly site: Google recently changed its algorithms to prioritize mobile-friendly sites in mobile searches, and at least 50 percent of your website views can be expected to come from a smartphone or tablet. This makes a mobile-friendly website a necessity. n Content creation: Professional photography and text will really make your site special, but you may already have copy and photographs that you can provide. Many web designers require you to provide text and images for your site so be clear about whether or not they are included. n Ongoing fees: All websites need to be maintained on a regular basis. Don’t expect this to be included in the original cost of your site, and ask if your designer has a plan for ongoing maintenance.

Be prepared to pay yearly fees for hosting and your domain name, and budget either time or money to create fresh content on a regular basis, which will help with organic SEO. n Search engine optimization (SEO): SEO is a specialist field and will not often be included in simple sites; however, experienced firms can include software and a plan to make the site more visible to search engines from the start. If you want your site to appear at the top of SERPS (search engine result pages), expect to pay a good bit extra and plan a budget for ongoing expenses.

Whether you decide to do it yourself or hire a pro, establishing a robust and attractive online presence will be beneficial for your business. Do your research, consult people you trust, and be prepared to keep your site fresh and relevant. Remember, the Internet is always changing, and your business needs to change with it. Best of luck, and see you online. n

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PUBLISHER’S NOTICE: All real estate advertised herein is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Ace and the Louisiana Open Housing Act, which make it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination. We will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. For more information, call the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office at 1-800-273-5718.

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L U X U R Y

R E A L

E S T A T E

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Great Offices

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St ylish Solomon Entertainment design and production firm, Solomon Group, takes Biz backstage at its headquarters.

By Bonnie Warren | Photography by Cheryl Gerber

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he simple façade at 825 Girod St. — which once housed the manufacturing operation of Dr. Tichenor’s antiseptic medicine in the early 1900s — today gives no hint of the state-ofthe art interior that belongs to the Solomon Group, an award-winning entertainment design and production firm that creates spectacular live events, brand activations, themed attractions, broadcast environments 72

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and “architainment” projects.

“Since the founding of the company in 2009 with five employees, we have grown to a staff of over 180, and we are still growing,” says one of the company’s three cofounders, 29-year-old Gary Solomon Jr., as he sits in his office wearing casual clothes and suede Ferragamo loafers without socks. The other founders are Stephen “Steve” Fink and Jonathan Foucheaux. After only two years

in business, Solomon Group was tasked with a very high-profile project — installing lights on the newly named Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Since that time, the company has achieved an impressive $21 million in revenue for 2015 and a yearly payroll of $4 million.

Solomon Group moved its corporate office to Girod Street, next to a historic fire station, in 2012. Design credit for the

facility goes to Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, a premier New Orleans architecture and planning company.

“I walked into the warehouse-like building for the first time with the late Allen Eskew and he declared, ‘I can see you working here,’” Solomon says. “I immediately knew he was right, and I had total faith in Allen’s vision; I purchased the building without hesitation.”

Today the transformation of the original building is a visual candy-land of high-tech everything. Step inside that simple façade and you will find this sign: “solomongroup THE ART OF BRINGING STORIES TO LIFE.” Once inside the building, you are soon straining your neck to see past each unique, mostly open space. Solomon’s own office is in the front corner, with a view of the warehouse-like historic buildings across the street. It is a sleek space with a large desk and black leather chair in front of a large window, which provides plenty of light. Two unpretentious chairs are positioned in front of the desk, with a computer table tucked in a corner. Across the room, a small couch fits neatly in the architectural niche created by the old building, and a small table behind the couch shows off a family photo that include Gary’s parents, Martha and Gary Sr., and him with his brothers, Sam Mickal, 27, and Conway, 23. One entire office wall is covered with framed clippings of local and national articles about Solomon and the Solomon Group.

An open bay area lined with computers on desks occupies the core of the building.

Conference rooms, joint workspaces and other offices fill the rest of the building.

A kitchen and dining room and nearby seating niches are tucked across from each other. Walls are wrapped with show-and-tell murals of past projects, creating an almost visual overload of interesting images.

In the beginning, the partners focused on producing groundbreaking live events and multimedia installations. “Soon we were delivering newsworthy projects for high-profile attractions for clients such as The National World War II Museum and the Mercedes-Benz Superdome,” Solomon says. “In 2011, we didn’t hesitate to acquire the assets and business of the 22-year-old Express Productions, Inc., a successful New Orleans company. The acquisition dramatically increased the company’s equipment inventory and in-house capabilities. With our own production and scenic fabrication facility, we were better positioned to serve the kinds of stunning, large-scale events and attractions that

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we had originally envisioned. With our expansion, we began traveling around the country to create larger and more complex productions.”

Solomon is a local boy proud of his roots.

“I attended St. Martin’s Episcopal School and graduated from New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) in 2004,” he says.

“Then I headed to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where I graduated in 2008 with a degree in theater design.” He is the first graduate of NOCCA to serve as president of the NOCCA Institute’s Board of

1: Every wall in the back of the office is devoted to displaying visuals of the company’s work.

Bockman + Forbes Design provided all of the office’s furnishings.

2: Purchased in 2012, Solomon Group’s office façade gives no hint to the state-of-the art interior that is the headquarters for the six-year old company with $21 million in revenue for 2015 and a yearly payroll of $4 million.

3: The company’s unpretentious reception area.

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Directors. “It is an honor to be a part of the continuing success and growth of NOCCA, a school I believe in 100 percent, that shaped my life in such a positive way.” He is also a member of the Advisory Council for Innovation + Design program at St. Martin’s.

Solomon’s admiration for his late grandfather, T.G. “Teddy” Solomon, is evident as he shares how the elder Solomon built a movie theater empire that stretched across eight states. “My grandfather was an amazing man who always had the ability to see the big picture in business,” he says. “I am proud of the legacy of my grandfather 74

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that includes many import philanthropic endeavors, including providing the funds for The Solomon Victory Theater at The National World War II Museum.”

He also has kind words for his father.

“He has been a very successful venture capitalist, and he has followed in my grandfather’s footsteps of giving back to the community in many ways.” He is proud to be very close to his parents who meet with him each month to find out what is going on in his business. “I call them my board of directors.”

Solomon and his company’s success

haven’t gone unnoticed in the national media. Inc. Magazine recently named him “30 Under 30: World’s Coolest Young Entrepreneurs,” and he has been highlighted in The Atlantic, SUCCESS and Forbes magazines and in USA Today. Inc. listed the company as one of America’s fastest-growing private companies in 2014 and 2015.

Not a person to rest on his laurels, Solomon is all about the future. “Our talented, in-house team that includes producers, designers, project managers, fabricators and technicians are dreaming up and delivering new and stunning entertainment productions for a variety of clients in the United States and Canada,” he says.

“We are ever-improving our 65,000-square-foot studio in Elmwood that is one of the most technically advanced facilities of its kind in the country.

Here we are capable of carpentry, metal fabrication, CNC routing, professional paint finishing and more. This is where custom environments literally take shape.

The transformation from rendered designs to beautifully finished forms, ready for installation, is amazing. It functions as both a production space and a fabrication shop, and we have the resources and experience to integrate technology into new or existing environments.”

One of the company’s newest acquisitions is The Print Shop, which is also housed in the facility. “It is equipped with the latest industrial large-format HP printers, enabling the company to provide grand and large-format printing and specialty graphics production service to our clients – even big enough to wrap a building,” he explains.

It seems there is no end to the vast inventory of professional lighting, video screens, projections units, audio systems and LED displays the company has available. “This means that we have the technology to turn virtually any space into an engaging environment, painted with light, sound and moving imagery,” he says.

“It is here (that) our talented team has created custom broadcast environments for some of television’s most-watched events, including the Super Bowl for CBS TV.” Solomon sums up the company with a few choice words: “We have all worked hard to craft the entire organization around making the impossible look easy.

Our experience in the management of technological events and installations lets the company ground each project in the reality of building and operating complicated storytelling vehicles.” n

3 1: Gary Solomon, president of Solomon Group, in his Girod Street office in the Central Business District. The building once housed the manufacturing operation of Dr. Tichenor’s Antiseptic medicine in the early 20th century.

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2: A large screen in the smaller conference room facilitates multi-media presentations.

3: Two rows of desks face each other while a colorful large display of the company’s work wraps walls.

4: A couch in Solomon’s office fits neatly in the architectural niche created by the old building. The table behind the couch shows off a family photo, center, of Gary’s parents, Martha and Gary Sr., and him with his brothers, Sam Mickal, 27, and Conway, 23.

5: A lamp fashioned from on old movie projector adds interest on a desk.

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Q&A - Biz Person of the Month

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Fifty and Fabulous Captain Ed Muniz looks back on five decades of Endymion.

Kim Singletary - Photos by Cheryl Gerber

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hen it comes to Carnival in New Orleans, it doesn’t get any bigger than Endymion. Held on the Saturday night before Mardi Gras, Endymion bears the title of the largest of the city’s more than 80 parades and is followed by the largest party of the season, the Endymion Extravaganza. Held at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, it draws approximately 20,000 people.

Fifty years ago, however, the krewe’s founder and Captain, Ed Muniz, says he was just a 24-year-old with a crazy idea.

Ed Muniz (left) serving in his role as Captain of New Orleans’ largest parading krewe, Endymion, during 2013’s after party: Endymion Extravaganza.

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Luckily, they loved the idea and of course he probably didn’t want to lose the rental income, so he rented me 16 floats that first year — 1967. Of course then I had to find riders. We had a total of 145 members that first year. Back then the average float held about eight riders. We barely made it.

Nobody had reason to think we’d survive.

Biz: But you did, and you started to grow.

EM: Yes. But we were not like Bacchus, who started a year after us. They started big. In the first five years we grew to about 27 or 28 floats and about 250 to 275 riders.

That’s when I was approached by Blaine Kern. He said, “I will build you 12 floats and you can use one of my King’s floats.

I have the feeling y’all are gonna make it.” Of course to make it happen we had to get our membership up to 400 to cover the additional expenses. We did that, and became the second krewe to be called a superkrewe.

Biz: What about the party? How did that get started?

EM: We always had a party after the parade. The first year it was in a small ballroom at the old Jung Hotel. We had about 125 people. Seven years in, we rented the Rivergate Convention Center — where Harrah’s is now. Our first celebrity grand marshal was Doc Severinsen. That was great because he ended up talking about us on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.”

Biz: As a young 20-something, how did you manage to get this big star?

EM: It was funny, actually. He was in town doing a performance at the Loyola Field House and me and Joe Giamelli went to the show. We basically just badgered him until he gave us his manager’s card. He actually ended up performing for us five or six years in a row.

Biz: How did Endymion come about?

Ed Muniz: Growing up, my mother was a huge fan of Carnival. We went to all the parades every year. She used to make costumes for me — I was a cowboy one year, a pyramid the next. My grandfather worked at Gallier Hall, so he used to get us tickets to sit in the stands.

Then, when I was in my early 20s, the parade that had always run the Saturday before Mardi Gras, Adonis, folded. I remember talking to my wife — my girlfriend at the time — about how sad it was that the best night for a parade, the 78

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night that everyone wants to go out and have a good time, wasn’t going to have a parade.

So I decided to do something about it. I was 24-years-old, not socially connected at all, with no big background in Carnival.

Most people thought I was crazy, and (laughs) maybe I was.

Biz: How did you get started?

EM: I met with the Krewe of Carrollton, who had been renting floats to Adonis. I told them about my idea and how I wanted the parade to start in Gentilly. Everything started Uptown. I wanted to change that.

Biz: Doc Severinsen was just the first in a long line of Endymion’s celebrity grand marshals, and it’s a pretty broad range of personalities — Bobby Vinton, Alice Cooper, Dolly Parton, Chuck Norris, Jerry Springer, Britney Spears, Kevin Costner, Carrie Underwood…

EM: Yes, we try to offer something to appeal to everyone. For instance this year, Steven Tyler from Aerosmith and Pitbull are both going to perform at the Extravaganza.

Of course Aerosmith goes way back and Pitbull is someone my granddaughters are especially excited about.

The Many Sides of Muniz In addition to serving as the founder and captain of Endymion for 50 years, Edmond Muniz worked in the broadcasting industry for decades, beginning in 1959. He eventually owned a company called Phase II Broadcasting that included six stations in the South. Muniz was inducted into the New Orleans Broadcasters Hall of Fame in ’96.

Also active in politics, Muniz served for seven years on the Kenner City Council, 17 years on the Jefferson Parish Council, and was the Mayor of Kenner from 2006 to 2010.

Did you know?

Endymion rolled in Gentilly near the New Orleans Fair Grounds from its founding in 1967 to 1975, when it was shifted to its current Mid-City route. It is the only parade that does not use the Uptown route.

Biz: This is a special year, with the 50th anniversary. What else do you have in store for everyone?

EM: We’ll be introducing a new float: Club Endymion. It’s a replica of the Superdome and is in honor of our longstanding relationship with them. (The Superdome has hosted the Endymion Extravaganza since 1981). We’re excited to have Doug Thornton, executive vice president of SMG, which manages the Dome, serving as our Grand Marshal. We were actually just honored by the Superdome as being one of the “40 most important things that have happened” inside the Dome. When we moved our party there it was just great. I mean, we have fireworks inside. Where else could you do something like that?

Of course, I’m also excited because on this, our golden anniversary, the last of my granddaughters is going to serve as queen.

My wife, Peggy, and I have three daughters and four grandchildren.

Biz: Have you passed down your love of Mardi Gras?

EM: Oh yes. It’s still a family affair. From the Wednesday before to that Tuesday, Peggy and I stay downtown so we can see it all. Even after Saturday night, the grandkids will wake me up the next morning and we’ll all be out there watching the parades.

Biz: Let’s talk about the business side of running Endymion.

EM: Yes it’s definitely a business. We have 3,100 riders now — which is just incredible to say — and each pays dues of about $1,000.

So that’s over $3 million right there. Our

other two sources of income are, of course, the party and selling throws. All of our members get two tickets, and then the rest of the 20,000 people purchase them and prices can range up to $280 for the better seats. Last year we were working with about $6.5 or 7 million.

Biz: Endymion is known for its generosity with throws. How much do members typically spend?

EM: I’m not really sure because not all of them buy their throws through us. I’ll say some can spend up to $3,000 to $4,000 with us. Last year my three sons-in-law and myself together spent about $6,000 or $7,000.

Biz: How does the management of the organization work?

EM: I’m the Captain, then we have a President, three Vice Presidents, a Secretary and Treasurer. Everyone is a volunteer.

We only have one employee and that’s BJ Ory. He is basically our Ticketmaster. He’s incredible. He keeps track of every party ticket, every payment, everything.

We’re all working year-round. Right after the season ends we’re out meeting with the IRS to make sure everything’s in order.

About a month after the parade, I’ll start working on next year’s theme with Kern studios, and we’ll be getting the members to rejoin and making sure the dues get paid.

It all starts all over again. You have to really love it to do what we do, and we do love it.

actually nine connected floats and each depicts a different part of the old Pontchartrain Beach amusement park. We debuted that in 2014, but before we were allowed to use it the police made us run the parade route at 2 a.m. to make sure the float could make the turns.

Then last year we had a giant float that we called E-TV, or Endymion TV. It was kind of like those giant screens you see in Times Square, only rolling. It was made of LED panels and video screens and allowed the crowd to see themselves as they were yelling, “Throw me something mister!”

Biz: Why do you think Endymion has been so successful?

EM: Well, of course we have this great time slot. I think it’s the best night in Carnival. There’s nothing like a Saturday night. I also think that it’s because we’ve never had any pretense. Our goal was always just to have a hell of a good time.

Biz: Was your goal ever to be the biggest parade?

EM: (Laughs) Oh no. My goal was always just for the parade to survive. And now, at age 75, that’s my goal. When my time comes, I just hope that someone who loves it all as much as I do will keep it going. n

Biz: Endymion currently has the largest float in the world, is that right?

EM: Pontchartrain Beach, yes. It is BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Why Didn’t I Think of That? | Creative Businesses Taking Hold in Southeast Louisiana

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Vending Reinvented Your Nutrition Delivered is helping local businesses create healthier employees.

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he day begins with scrambled eggs and chorizo, spiced and served over a bed of roasted sweet potatoes. For lunch, there’s dill-tinged flakes of Cajun roasted salmon combined with crunchy red quinoa and a lemon crema. At dinner, a steaming pork tenderloin, with a syrupy maple-sage glaze, is offset by the balsamic spike of Brussels sprouts.

A full day of gourmet dining at only 1,300 calories; That’s Your Nutrition Delivered.

A New Orleans-based food service, Your Nutrition Delivered (YND) crafts appetizing meals for the health-minded individual, offering home delivery with customized nutrition goals. The company also offers vending machines in the workplace designed to provide lunch and snack options that are both gourmet and healthy.

Office workers are the prime demographic for Your Nutrition Delivered. When lunch comes around and the most convenient choices are overpriced restaurant meals or salty vending machine snacks, the average employee, already combating a sedentary lifestyle, isn’t left with a lot of options for nourishment.

In its “set it and forget it” strategy, Your Nutrition Delivered takes the disciplinary reins from an aspiring dieter. YND president Erik Frank, along with a team of chefs, crafts meals with a conscience, steering clients clear of the misleading packaging in grocery stores and conflicting dietary tips online.

So why trust Your Nutrition Delivered? What do they deliver, exactly?

The Big Idea In 2010, Erik Frank was at the top of his game, winning the 275pound weight class in the American Powerlifting Association National Championship. His start in the sport was not so auspicious. “At my first meet, I came in fourth,” says Frank, a certified personal trainer. “That sounds okay, until I tell you there were only four participants in the meet.”

But four years later, he was the champ. Frank credits YND’s success to that irrepressible spirit. He started the company in 2011, when his work as an insurance company consultant revealed that many office workers had dangerously unhealthy habits, habits that proved costly to the employers charged with insuring them.

With the onset of the Affordable Care Act, large companies began corporate wellness initiatives to reduce these costs. “I was interviewing thousands of employees about their eating habits, their workout

By Lucie Monk Carter - Photography Cheryl Gerber

routines, their family history. But I realized that corporate wellness wasn’t going to work if we didn’t change the food that was inside companies,” says Frank. “People could take 10,000 steps a day and get flu shots, but if they were eating bad food, they were going to be sick and cost a lot of money.”

Frank started his company by simply delivering meals to employee’s homes. In 2012, he attended Idea Village’s original “Big Idea” competition for entrepreneurs. He watched the three finalists stand on stage and pitch their ideas to an audience of 1,000 people. “I told my banker, ‘I’m going to be here next year. I’m going to win that $50,000.’”

In 2013, Frank took home top honors at the contest. “When they announced I won, my wife jumped on stage,” laughs Frank. “Tim Williamson [CEO of Idea Village] calls this the ‘rock star moment.’ He says women are now jumping onstage for entrepreneurs rather than rock stars.”

With his $50,000 winnings, Your Nutrition Delivered rapidly scaled up operations later that year.

How It Works YND’s custom refrigerated vending machines use Shelf X, a technology out of Israel. Frank purchased a working prototype in 2013.

The machines can tell by weight removed from the shelf how much a person is buying. “You just swipe your credit card, pick out what you want, and then close the door,” explains Frank. “The machines are all stocked a minimum of two times a week, or as often as needed.” If desired, items can be placed directly in a microwave for heating.

Now, with 25 coolers, Frank is the largest single owner of Shelf X in the world.

Building Partnerships When Your Nutrition Delivered went looking for its first corporate client, one name stood out.

“Laitram was the first business that came to mind,” says Frank.

In 2011, the manufacturing company was undergoing a crisis in healthcare, with company annual expenses totaling $11 million.

Franck Labiche was the architect behind the company’s solution.

“We had seen a 40 percent increase in our premiums between 2006 and 2011,” says Labiche. “We needed a more proactive wellness model.”

Laitram invested in a full-time nurse practitioner and a 6,000-squarefoot wellness center. They also installed one of YND’s machines.

While working as a consultant at an insurance company, Erik Frank saw how unhealthy eating habits on the job were costing employees their health, and employers in higher healthcare rates and absenteeism.

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The company now has half a dozen coolers stationed throughout the grounds, serving over 1,000 employees.

“From 2011 to 2014, our insurance premiums stayed flat,” says Labiche. The company saw a 5 percent creep in 2015, but it was a much smaller increase than the hikes suffered by other businesses in the area.

“Everybody loves Erik’s meals,” says Labiche.

“We almost consistently — particularly in one of the areas — empty coolers in about a day or two.” Labiche says his preferred pick is the turkey meatballs with spaghetti. “And all the salads are really delicious,” he adds. “The dressings are fabulous.”

Selling Nutrition in New Orleans “I still remember being on that stage as part of the final three [at the Big Idea competition],” says Frank. “Archie Manning said to me, ‘New Orleans has the best food in the world. How will you make this idea work here?’”

But Frank knew New Orleans’ great food came accompanied by grave health problems.

“We’re the greatest city, but the least healthy.

We’re No. 1 in diabetes and No. 2 in obesity,” he says. His response to Manning: “If we can make this idea work here, we can make it work anywhere, because we have the greatest 82

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food in the world.” By his account, if he could persuade New Orleans residents to accept smaller portions and fewer calories, he’d have no problem convincing cities with less tempting food.

A Big Win In early 2014, Frank approached Humana about installing a vending machine for their New Orleans employees. “Humana is a $50 billion company with offices all over country,” says Frank. “Their cooler became our very best seller overnight. They’ve said, We want this in every office in the country.”

“One of the things that we do is really encourage our associates to live a healthy lifestyle, says Rhonda Bagby, vice president of Humana’s Louisiana Employer Group. “We recognize they spend a lot of hours in the workplace and need healthy options.”

“Nutrition is cornerstone to health,” adds Dr. Laura Trunk, Humana’s chief medical officer in Louisiana. “When our associates see one of their colleagues order a salad, they’ll be more likely to do it. They see how easy it is. It’s affordable, and you don’t have to leave the office.”

In addition, Humana has set a goal for the year 2020 to improve the health of certain communities, including New Orleans, by 20

Frank Labiche (left) of Laitram says the company has seen positive movement in their insurance premiums since installing YND machines.

percent. Efforts include not just education but easy access to nutrition, like the convenience afforded by YND’s coolers. “Seventy percent of chronic diseases have a lifestyle component that influence them,” says Dr. Trunk. “If you’re eating poorly and trying to control hypertension, diabetes, or pre-diabetes, you’re not going to be very successful.”

Culinary Cures YND also recognizes the role healthy eating can play in disease prevention and treatment.

“I want to be part of the change in how cancer is treated,” says Frank. In 2016, YND will embark on a new partnership with the American Cancer Society. “The American Cancer Society has never put their logo on a food product before,” he says, “but in 2016, their logo, their seal of approval, will be on every product we produce.”

YND works with dieticians from Cancer Treatment Centers of America to craft specific meals designed for patients with specific types of cancer.

“Curing cancer is a monumental feat,” adds

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Your Nutrition Delivered’s healthy vending options are made without preservatives from fresh ingredients locally sourced whenever possible.

QUICK FACTS n 50 percent of the adult population in America is pre-diabetic. The average annual cost to insure a pre-diabetic person is $3,000. Once a person is diabetic, the premium rises to between $15,000 and $30,000 a year. n After obtaining Your Nutrition Delivered’s vending machines, Laitram saw blood sugar or blood pressure go down among 80 percent of their 1,200 employees n Beginning in February 2016, Humana will hold Clinical Town Halls in both New Orleans and Baton Rouge, inviting community leaders, medical professionals, and various non-profits to an ongoing dialogue on community health

money. Idea Village teaches you how to take a product to market, talk to investors and raise capital. YND wouldn’t exist without it.”

He moved from the Idea Village to the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s accelerator program. “There they teach you how to run a business, hold meetings, hold employees accountable, do employee reviews, hire and fire...”

Frank is now chairman of the EO accelerator and recruits new businesses to join the program. He also sits on Idea Village’s advisory board. “Something I pride myself and my company on is paying it forward,” he says.

A Wider Audience

Frank. “Some people say we’re never going to cure cancer. But what I’m interested in is how do we treat it most optimally? How do we eat to prevent cancer?”

Too Much of a Good Thing?

To start home delivery service, each new customer fills out a brief questionnaire on his lifestyle and nutrition requirements, then it’s on to the mouthwatering menu, which caters to various dietary restrictions.

While many of YND’s clients opt for home delivery, Frank himself actually warns against using the company for every meal. “We hate someone getting 21 meals a week from us, getting burned out, and never coming back,” says Frank.

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He believes diversity in food sources plays an important role in dietary discipline. “We aren’t Nutrisystem; we aren’t Jenny Craig giving you three meals a day, seven days a week. No matter how good it is, you’re going to get sick of it.”

“We have customers who have been with us since 2011,” Frank adds. “They get five or six meals a week from YND. We’re part of their life, but not their entire life.”

Forward Motion Though Frank’s focus had been purely on winning the Big Idea contest when he joined Idea Village’s accelerator program (IdeaX), he was set straight on the program’s real benefits. “I learned there was a lot more than the Big Idea and the

Currently YND is operating within 4,000 square feet inside the Times Picayune building, but plans are in the works now to move to a 30,000-square-foot facility in Jefferson Parish. The company’s food offerings will be crafted on site.

Frank has 14 employees who assemble the food, which he says is sourced as locally as possible. Thanks to the refrigerated machines, preservatives are not necessary.

“Refreshment Solutions, the largest vending machine company in the state, bought all our coolers,” says Frank. “Now we make the food, and they handle distribution. It’s great because this opens us up to being available all over Louisiana, as well as Mississippi and Texas.”

Next, YND is set to expand operations to a 10-state region that includes Florida and Washington, D.C. n

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Events ACG Louisiana December Luncheon

JEDCO Annual Luncheon

December 1, 2015

December 3, 2015

Roosevelt Hotel

Hilton New Orleans Airport

“Why New Orleans?� was the question for the panel moderated last month

by Quentin L. Messer, Jr., president and CEO of the New Orleans Business Alliance.

The Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission highlighted opportunities for economic growth within the parish at its 2015 annual luncheon.

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1. Michele Burton-Otis, Scott Whittaker and Melissa Woods 2. Quentin Messer Jr. 3. Sharon Cassiere, Terese Bennett and Tracy Robinson 86

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1. Cynthia Lee-Sheng, Paul Rivera and Bruce Layburn 2. Ryan Daul 3. John Occhipinti and Jerry Bologna Photos by Cheryl Gerber

ABWA Crescent City Connections Monthly Luncheon

NORBC Biz to Biz Breakfast and Trade Fair

December 10, 2015

December 11, 2015

Ralph Brennan Heritage Grill

Hyatt Regency New Orleans

Ann R. Tuenerman, founder of the annual event Tales of the Cocktail, was the guest speaker at the ABWA’s monthly luncheon. Tuennerman spoke specifically about the Sazerac, the official cocktail of New Orleans.

The New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce’s Biz to Biz Breakfast featured guest speaker Clifton Taulbert, a business consultant, entrepreneur and author.

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1. Angela LeBlanc, Kate Theriot and Mimi Barker 2. Ann Tuennerman 3. Jeanne Bergeron, Rachel Nunez and Amy Landry Photos by Cheryl Gerber and Jeff Strout

1. Derrick Martin, Michelle Craig and Harry Coaxum 2. Clifton Taulbert 3. Quentin Messer Jr., Lloyd Dennis, Beverly Jelks and Cleveland Spears III BizNewOrleans.com January 2016

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Behind the Scenes

Place Your Bets!

Hidden in the basement of Harrah’s New Orleans Casino and Hotel is an 800-square-foot room used to train all of the casino’s dealers in more than 20 table games. Training times vary, from two weeks for blackjack to five weeks for craps (seen here). The casino currently employs approximately 400 dealers.

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Photo by Jeff Johnston