In years past, formal dining rooms were used for Sunday dinner or holiday get-togethers, opportunities to cook a traditional meal, served on fine china, leisurely eaten among family or friends over a glass of wine. Today, estate sales are jam-packed with barely-used china no one wants because in most modern households meals are often fast-food or grabbed from the to-go counter and holiday meals are often catered and sometimes served on paper plates. So, what do you do if you are a homeowner with an underutilized formal dining room? Well, not so long ago Mauree Brooksher was in such a position when she and her husband bought a 50-year-old home with a traditional formal living room. Uncertain what to do with it, Mauree turned to social media for ideas. There, she found a blog showcasing a formal dining room converted into a mahjong room, with beautiful pictures of the tables and tiles. Mauree was hooked. Today, Mauree and her business partner Stephanie Politz, own and operate Mahjong Rouge, a club of sorts that offers mahjong classes and hosts tournaments to promote the game in the Capital Region. Founded in 2024, Mahjong Rouge has taught 1,300 students the tile-based game that dates back to the mid-1800s in China. Now, the game has become so popular that Mauree and Stephanie recently launched Mahjong New Orleans. What constitutes “fun” changes over time and is different in each culture, each community, and each family. Technology has greatly impacted the ways we entertain ourselves and interact with others. From radio to television to games played on our computers, technology is constantly evolving and therefore changing our lives in new and different ways. What hasn’t changed is the simple pleasure and joy of being in the company of others. People with a strong sense of community just feel better, leading to greater emotional resilience and higher life satisfaction. Mahjong is an old game with an enduring purpose of gathering family or friends around a table for an evening of fast-paced skill and cunning. By teaching mahjong classes in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Mauree and Stephanie are broadening people’s appreciation of Chinese culture and offering new opportunities for fun and community. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

By all accounts, it’s difficult to land a job or even an interview right now. There’s all kinds of reasons for that, including a stagnant labor market and sluggish hiring by cautious employers. Recent college graduates are bearing the brunt of what is one of the most challenging markets in years, with entry-level white-collar jobs being especially hard to secure. If you are unemployed and looking for inspiration, you’re in the right place. It took nearly 18 months for my lunch guest Nick Miner to be offered a job in design after graduating from LSU. After months of getting nowhere in his job search, Nick took a more aggressive approach to applying, made an e-portfolio, and started introducing himself to agencies. He ultimately landed a job at Mesh, a local ad agency where he was hired as the art director. Today, Nick Miner owns his own business Miner Design Company, specializing in logo design, branding, art direction, packaging design, illustration and graphic design. Tony Zanders was born and raised in New Orleans but made his career in tech in Boston and Silicon Valley. Eleven years ago, he returned to Louisiana to be closer to family and, during the pandemic, launched his second tech startup, Skill Type. Leaning into an international network of venture capitalists, Tony fundraised a 4 million dollar investment for his company from contacts in London, Silicon Valley, New York, Miami and in Louisiana, proving the old adage “it pays to have friends in high places.” While building his company in Baton Rouge, Tony became a coach and mentor at Nexus Louisiana. In 2024, Tony threw his hat in the ring for the role of president and CEO and was tapped for the position by the board. Today, he oversees 10 million dollars in annual revenue at Nexus Louisiana. After 2020, for a year or two, our default conversation was the pandemic. No matter what we were talking about, everything came back to what was happening before or after Covid. Today, the default conversation, especially in business, is AI. Is AI coming for my job? If so, when? What should I best do to prevent it taking my job, or what should I do if it does take my job? You might notice the use of "if." The fact is, right now, nobody really knows what the future of work will look like. But as it changes, Tony is in the forefront of that change, working with tech companies that are literally creating the future. On the other side of the coin, Nick is proving that no matter how creative technology can be, the source of all that creativity is, after all, a human being with the equivalent of a pen and piece of paper. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since Starbucks opened its first store in Seattle in 1971, coffee shops have become a staple in nearly every city. In Berkeley, California there are approximately 59 coffee shops, resulting in one coffee shop for every 2,000+ residents, which is a higher ratio than Seattle. New York City has more coffee shops per capita than any other American city. When I read those numbers, I naturally thought to myself how do they all stay in business? How does each coffee shop or chain distinguish itself from its competitors? Katie Jenkins, Owner and Executive Director of Grace Therapy Center and Stir, has taken a thoughtful approach to business competition and growth. Grace Therapy Center is a clinic for children with autism and other developmental differences that Katie started in 2021. Now with three locations, Grace Therapy Clinic offers applied behavior analysis therapy (otherwise known as ABA) for indiividual children, children in social groups and at summer camps. Of all the positioning possibilities you could imagine for opening a coffee shop, tieing it to a series of specialty autism clinics isn't something even the folks at Starbucks or coffee shops in California or New York have thought of. But that's exactly what Katie Jenkins is doing with Stir Cofffee House on Airline Highway here in Baton Rouge. Stir employs Katie's child clients who mature and are old enough to join the workforce. The coffee industry is responsible for more than 2.2 million U.S. jobs and generates more than $100 billion in wages per year. Over the years, we’ve had several guests on Out to Lunch who have contributed to the coffee industry’s success locally. By providing job opportunities at Stir to those who might struggle to find traditional work because of their intellectual and developmental disabilities, Katie Jenkins is not only contributing to the coffee industry’s success in Baton Rouge but she's providing invaluable work and life experiences for her clients at Grace Therapy Center. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The reasons people give for starting a business aren’t all that surprising. Financial independence, pursuing personal passions, requiring a flexible schedule, or making a positive impact on the community often top the list. What’s surprising is how many businesses start in garages. Many of America’s most successful companies, including tech giants Amazon, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft, started in humble garages. Perhaps the most famous of which is Apple, founded by college dropout Steve Jobs in 1976. Today, Apple is a multinational corporation with annual revenue in 2024 of $391 billion. And the infamous garage on Crist Drive? It’s now listed on the city’s historic properties. Blood Closer to home, David Slaughter stepped away from commercial real estate in 2017 to open Orion Laboratories with his wife Rachel in a 800-square-foot garage office at the back of their home. Today, Orion Laboratories is the largest independent laboratory in Louisiana, processing labs seven days a week for area health systems, independent clinics, urgent care clinics, nursing homes, physician groups and surgery centers, stretching all the way from Baton Rouge to Monroe, and in 2023, David was named Business Report’s Young Businessperson of the Year. Oil Some businesses never get out of the garage. Like Vinnie Carollo’s for example. In Vinnie’s case, though, it’s not because the business failed. In fact, it’s a big success. And it’s still in a garage. Vinnie Carollo’s fascination with obscure, odd cars began with a Porsche 944 in need of a repair. As he tried to fix the vehicle, his dad joked that he should go to Porsche school to become a technician. Six months later, Vinnie left home to attend 23 weeks of instructor-led, hands-on training. Then, in 2015, after nine years of working at dealerships and servicing Porsches over the weekends in a friend’s car detailing and cleaning shop, Vinnie Carollo started Vex European and Exotic Auto Repair in a 900 square foot garage with one car lift. Vinnie quickly outgrew that space and, over the next two years, moved three times, ultimately to his current location on Benefit Drive. This garage is around 20,000 square feet, has 13 car lifts and employs up to 25 people. The good news about most modern European cars is, when something's wrong you can hook them up to a diagnostic computer and find out pretty quickly what's probably going on. It's not that simple diagnosing human problems. Yet. There's all kinds of talk about futuristic body scanners, but as far as we know that's way off in the future, and till that day arrives diagnostic medical testing as we know it will probably continue.Vinnie and David are both following a well-worn path taken by generations of entrepreneurs who show ingenuity and perseverance building successful businesses in specialized and essential markets. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

95 percent of the world’s bourbon is made in Kentucky. But that doesn’t stop aficionados of the smooth amber-colored liquor from debating where the name bourbon originated. Among Louisianans, there’s no question that bourbon got its name from the infamous street in the French Quarter in New Orleans. John Hampton has capitalized on both the proximity of Bourbon Street and our rich French Louisiana history to open Laissez Versez Distillery, a Baton Rouge-based bourbon distillery. With four bourbon offerings, the distillery has garnered several awards since launching in 2019 and serves it fresh from the barrel in the tap room at its Airline Highway facility. One Coffee After a night out drinking bourbon, you might need a strong cup of coffee to get yourself to work. For many, the jingle “The best part of waking up is Folger’s in your cup” still rings true, especially for at-home consumers. You would be forgiven for thinking "Starbucks" is synonymous with "coffee" these days but Folger’s still holds the leading market share in the U.S. ground coffee market, accounting for over 25%. But tastes and markets evolve, and if you have been paying any attention you know that the over 170 year-old brand faces stiff competition. Even here in Baton Rouge. Chris Nance says he and his partner didn’t know anything about coffee till 2023. Well, they knew a little about drinking it but not much about how its marketed. After 16 months of researcha nd development they came up with a plan to manufacture premium coffee in partnership with a roaster in Lafayette, called Reve, and to target blue collar workers with a brand they christened Backbone Coffee. the oldest piece of advice in the history of manufacturing and marketing is, "Build a better mouse trap." In other words, take a product that everybody needs and make yours better than what's already out there. There is no shortage of coffee or bourbon in the US, and especially here in Louisiana. So, in the better mousetrap theory of evolution, you have to make yours stand out from all the others to succeed. Chris has found a way to differentiate Backbone Coffee from all the competitors by taking a marketing approach that, surprisingly, nobody has thought of: blue collar coffee. And John is already hauling in awards for bourbon, which is no easy feat in the first decade of making a product that traditionally can take over a decade just to age enough to get to market. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.