It's Baton Rouge: Out to Lunch

In recent years, there’s been a lot of discussion in the art world about accessibility. Not physical accessibility — though smaller or historic facilities often fall short on ADA compliance – but cultural accessibility, creating welcoming spaces for everyone in a community. Both of my Out to Lunch guests have spent much of their careers ensuring that art in Baton Rouge is free, inclusive, and vibrant. Jason Andreasen is the President and CEO of the Baton Rouge Gallery.  Jason didn’t grow up immersed in the art world. His family didn’t frequent galleries, and his interest in contemporary art developed largely through his now-wife, local painter Lily Betancourt. In 2007, Jason started at the Baton Rouge Gallery as a part-time employee and moved into his leadership role a year later. Now in its 60th year, the Baton Rouge Gallery is the nation’s longest-standing artist cooperative, and prioritizes accessibility by making most events free and open to the public.  Jason is no stranger to Out to Lunch. You can check out his earlier appearances and compare how things have changed in Baton Rouge. If you have ever been a guest at the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center or heard a musical performance at Beauvoir Park in Mid-City, then you have probably noticed Nathan Logsdon's work. A native of Illinois, Nathan Logsdon landed in Baton Rouge in 1999, finding work with a local ironworker specializing in traditional hand-forged pieces. In 2002, Nathan went into business for himself building gates, railings and other architectural pieces.  Two decades later, Nathan’s work spans practical welding, architectural metalwork, original artwork and commissioned pieces that depend as much on his particular artistic and technical skills than straightforward cutting and welding. 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.

Baton Rouge, like other cities, deals with what demographers call “Net migration loss.” Here, we use the term loosely. It’s not that the number of people leaving Baton Rouge is greater than the number of people moving here. What net migration loss means here is - there are more people leaving than staying. Why do people leave Baton Rouge? Typically, they’ll tell you, for opportunity. Not romantic opportunity or opportunity for spiritual growth, but career opportunity. The bigger a city, the greater the opportunity.  Okay, so if you follow that logic, every time someone decides to leave Baton Rouge they make the city smaller. So, the best thing a person who wants more opportunity should do is, stay. Right? Most people don’t buy this argument. But both of my lunch guests today, do. Brett Roblez likes making movies. Typically, if you want a career in the film business, you have to move someplace where they make movies. Brett moved to Atlanta, a film production hub. But after a couple of years in the film business there he moved back home to Baton Rouge, because, he said, he missed crawfish. In 2022 Brett founded a local film production company Dinosaur Rumblings. In the beginning it was just him. Today, Dinosaur Rumblings has 10 full-time employees, and they make a full slate of feature films, commercials, and filmed social media content. All of it, Brett says, is the same quality as anything that comes out of Hollywood. Alysia Guin is bullish on making Baton Rouge an entertainment mecca too. Alysia is Director of Marketing & Partnerships at Raising Cane’s River Center. Raising Cane’s River Center hosts up to 375 events each year at its arena, theater, and convention center. There are Broadway productions, sporting events, community programming, and concerts that include an amazing list of superstars like Elton John, The Rolling Stones, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. The River Center has been hosting events for almost 50 years. Alysia has been Director of Marketing since the beginning of 2025. If you spend any time on social media, especially TikTok, you’ll see any number of well-meaning people encouraging you with variations on the theme, “You Go Girl”. One of these encouragements that you might roll your eyes at as you scroll by is, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” That one is apparently not a Hallmark card, it’s a quote from Mahatma Gandhi. He was suggesting we should each individually take personal responsibility and lead by example to make the world a better place. If you ever think one person can’t make a difference, sure, you can point to Gandhi as an example of what one person can do, but locally, we could also point to Brett Roblez and Alysia Guin. 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.

"Dearly beloved, We are gathered here today to get through this thing called life." You might recognize those lines as the opening of Prince’s 1984 song, “Let’s Go Crazy.” In this classic pop song, Prince is making the point  that life is short and we should make the most of it. Prince encourages us to celebrate the joy of living with the chorus, “Let’s go crazy, Let’s get nuts.” Here in Baton Rouge, Mike Andrepont gets crazy for a living. Mike specializes in what we might call Joy-Maxxing: celebrating life’s high-points with his company, AFX Pro. AFX Pro is a special effects company. Their work includes pyrotechnics, stadium tunnel and smoke lighting, weddings, concerts, festivals, and corporate events. Even if you don’t live in Baton Rouge you’ve probably seen AFX Pro's creations because their clients include the NFL, NBA and NCAA. Locally you might have seen their Joy-Maxxing celebrations at an LSU Tigers event, a couple’s first dance at a wedding or a gender reveal party. For some people, celebrating life doesn’t come quite so easy. That’s because they’re starting from a more challenging everyday baseline. And when I say “they,” this group of people might well include you. If it doesn’t it probably includes someone you know, because according to government statistics, roughly 20% of adult Americans take anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medication. These 58 million Americans are trying their best to live contrary to Prince’s advice. They’re trying to not go crazy, not get nuts. Here in Baton Rouge, Leigh Blanchard is dedicated to improving the lives of people dealing with anxiety, depression, emotional trauma and chronic stress, using techniques like Reiki therapy, hypnosis, Somatic healing, Aromatherapy and other wellness practices. Leigh is the Founder of the wellness clinic, Life Plus You, on Essen Lane. The Declaration of Independence grants us the right of “the pursuit of happiness.” Some students of US history say the word “pursuit” is intended to be a verb, meaning happiness is something we have the right to chase after. That’s how most of us interpret it.  But other scholars say “pursuit” is a noun. Happiness is a pursuit, like the pursuit of stamp collecting, or the pursuit of bird watching. In that sense, happiness is a state of being. Rather than something we’re chasing after it’s something we’ve been granted and need to preserve, like life and liberty.   Mike is involved in maximizing moments of already existing happiness, the noun, and Leigh is involved in the active pursuit of happiness, the verb. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by  Ethan Castille at itsbatonrouge.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Laura Nichols never expected aesthetics to become her career. Originally from Lake Charles, Laura came to Baton Rouge to attend LSU and then spent the next decade working as an emergency room nurse before returning to school to become a nurse practitioner. Her first job as a nurse practitioner required a lengthy commute and 12-hour shifts, an arrangement Laura quickly realized wasn’t sustainable as a single mother with two children. Around the same period, Laura became fascinated by the science behind aesthetic medicine after she received a Botox treatment. She began learning injectable procedures and offering services to a small group of ten existing patients she already knew and trusted. When the pandemic disrupted her practice, Laura temporarily worked in urgent care while continuing aesthetic treatments out of a salon on the side. Over the next two years, her client base grew to roughly 200 patients. Eventually, Laura realized the business had outgrown its informal beginnings. So, in 2022, she signed a lease on her own space, and The Face Place officially opened on Perkins Road in March 2023. Now, suppose Laura doesn't want the story to end here. Suppose she has her sights set on growing her business, expanding, maybe, even into other states. Or other countries. After all, WalMart started with a single store in Arkansas.  Okay, but it's not 1962. So how would Laura make a dream like that actually happen today? She might turn to a type of investor called an angel. And specifically she might turn to an organization called Gulf South Angels who specialize in investing in companies with growth potential and in helping them with guidance and expertise. Gulf South Angels ranks among the top angel investment organizations in the country in terms of both membership and capital deployment. Here in Baton Rouge the go-to Gulf South Angel to contact is Rick Bond.   Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by  Ethan Castille at itsbatonrouge.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's no secret that Amazon and e-commerce in general has been eating retial stores' lunch. You've probably thought to yourself one time this week already - "Do I really have to go to a store to buy that? Couldn't I just order it online?" Well, yes, of course, you can order just about everything online, but it's just not the same as going into a store. Is it? So, if we agree on that, what exactly is the difference? All things being equal, like price and availability, why do we prefer to go shopping in the real world? The secret, as best I can tell, has nothing to do with merchandise. It has to do with another human being actually caring about your happiness.  Chase Bass runs George Bass, a family-owned men’s clothing store with locations in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Covington. His father George started it, and Chase grew up in it. Some of Chase’s earliest memories are of time spent in the shop. He worked there through high school, went to college, tried investment banking after graduation, and fairly quickly realized that wasn’t the life he wanted.  In 2010, Chase’s father saw an opening and offered Chase a job launching the Capital Region location, and Chase has been running the shop in Baton Rouge ever since. George Bass is known for premium menswear and custom clothing, but Chase will tell you pretty quickly that clothes are almost beside the point. The store keeps detailed profiles on every customer — measurements, past purchases, even photos — and the sales staff doesn’t work on commission. Chase says the goal is a customer for life, not a sale this afternoon. They don’t advertise; everything runs on word of mouth. Catherine Pletsch has been needlepointing since she was four years old. Her grandmother taught her. As a teenager she became a regular at The Elegant Needle, then owned by a woman named Marion Gremillion. At 18, Catherine was working Thursday evenings while Marion went to the symphony. By her senior year of college she was working Fridays too. Catherine spent years after college doing other things — wedding planning, church administration, LSU admissions, a law office, a bed-and-breakfast. When she moved back to Baton Rouge from Texas, buying The Elegant Needle became a real possibility. Twelve years ago she did.  The Elegant Needle has been around for more than 30 years and has had a genuine resurgence lately. The pandemic brought people back to slow, handmade things. And then in 2023 a TikTok video featuring needlepoint Christmas décor went viral and introduced the craft to a whole new generation.  About a third of Catherine’s customers today are first-time stitchers. The first stitch Catherine’s grandmother ever taught her was a French knot, which she still works into special family projects whenever she can. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by  Ethan Castille at itsbatonrouge.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.