Michael Maenza

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:07

Thanks for joining us today for another episode of Drop in Knowledge. I'm Chris Couch. This is Anna Ciolino. Today we have a longtime member of my personal village, very, very influential in shaping the vision that I had for my career. A restaurateur, a hospitality entrepreneur, a food manufacturer, a medical meal manufacturer, a decent golfer, a loving husband and father of three, and one of the most charitable people I've ever met, uh, Mr. Michael Mayenza.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

My baby, my baby.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Welcome.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

I'm proud to be here. Why y'all picked me? I have no idea, but I'm excited to be here. And thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

Yeah, this is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Well, I've heard a lot about you for years, so I'm very excited to finally get to meet you. So, really quick, I think this is a good place to get started. How do you recall meeting this guy?

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Oh, oh, shoot. Okay. Way back I had a restaurant called King Creole back in 1993 on Mettery Road, right? And I met his dad. His dad worked for the customs, and we had a a New Year's Eve party, and his dad must have confiscated some fireworks through the course of the years. And he said, Mike, I got this. I'm going to bring bring a few fireworks into the parking lot for New Year's Eve. So I threw a party at King Creole and invited some friends. I said, We got these fireworks, you know, if y'all want it at midnight, we'll shoot them off, you know. Where's the dad came? These these were cannons. These were we the parking lot, the fireworks in the parking lot, where we had more fireworks there than they had down at Jack's brewery.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Stop.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

It was incredible. We had people from all over the neighborhood just come around. So it started out to be a party of about maybe a hundred people inside of King Creole. But by the time we got finished blowing up these fireworks, it took about 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_04 2:05

For the record, they were not confiscated.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

Was that?

SPEAKER_04 2:07

They were not confiscated for the record. Just so we keep things clear.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

Okay. For the record. But that was so long ago. So anyway, with that, that's that's what he gets his. Chris gets his enthusiasm and what he does. His dad came in, you know, unexpectedly, and what he did was incredible. So I could have picture what he's learned from his dad, right? Which is incredible. So Chris then started to work with me. I think he might have been his again, labor law, maybe. He might have been 14, 15 years old, but we're not going to say anything about that. We paid him cash. Don't say anything about that. And he came and worked, and I think he was with us maybe a month. And I said, here, here's the keys. You are a closing manager. And by that time, I think I think Chris might have been maybe 20. I think I started working for you. So you still wet behind your ear.

SPEAKER_04 2:56

I think I started that dying chain.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

So he came and work with us. He was a manager within 30 days, and and that's how far we go back. So that was in the 1990s. His his brother, Timmy, came to work for us as well. And his dad would come frequent the the establishment and and and have food and and and drink. But so I've been so the answer to your question, sometimes I get I'll go well.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

That's okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

But I always come back to the original question. That's how we are, you know. But but but Chris, we've been friends since the 1990s. So 30 years, and maybe a little longer. And it and that 30 years we've we've come a long way. He he he's a great, great gentleman. A great I still call him a kid, you know, but but he's a good young man. And um I'm very found of Chris.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Well well, thank you. Yep. And we have that in common that we've actually worked with Chris multiple times. This is my third round kind of doing a project or working with Chris. So I I agree with you. He's a good guy.

SPEAKER_04 3:57

I think that means both of y'all are partially crazy.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Probably. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

So you are a quintessential native New Orleanian in my mind. Um you know, just your mannerisms, uh the way you treat people, your love for food and hospitality and having a good time. I mean, to me, you're like one of the poster children of the New Orleans area for the last 40 years, in in my mind. And I think many, many people uh would agree with me. So give us a little bit of your background and kind of like you know, give us the story on how did you you, you know, where did you grow up and then really how did you start in in hospitality?

unknown 4:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

Well, go all the way back. When I was born, the the the doctor slapped my mama. But but as we were talking earlier, my dad was in the produce business. So when I started work, and again I was about seven years old at the time, never forget getting 25 cents a day, sweeping the banana rooms in my dad's downtown. He was right outside the French Quarter, actually underneath the Mississippi River Bridge. So we were the distributors for Chiquita bananas. So my dad was in the produce business, and my grandfather that they were partners, right? So that was probably I was born in 1959, so that was in 1965, and it was a United Fruit Company, Chiquita brands, right? So the bananas would come in from South America, from Honduras, right? We'd ripen the bananas and sell them to the grocery stores, to Sopatos, to Schwagman's, you know, you haven't heard that in a while, right? Um, Canal Villary, those grocery stores, Casey Jones, True Pianos, Nicholson and Loop, it goes on and on. And so we used to sell produce to to all the the grocery stores. As I got into the business with my dad because I went to Holy Cross High School, and then that's in New Orleans. They say, well, you went to school. We say high school. Anywhere else in the country, it's college, right? That's true. So from Holy Cross, I played on the golf team at Holy Cross, and I was runner-up city champion in 1977. I had scholarships to a few colleges around the country, and I picked the University of New Orleans. So I could go to school, play golf, and work for my dad at the same time. So as I graduated from UNO, well, actually went four years of UNO, played golf. I was out of college four years in a row playing golf. I had a plus two handicap, which is not two, but anyway, uh from college, I I actually went to Loyola to finish because I still needed a few more hours to to graduate. And I was going to try to go into law school.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Okay. Right?

SPEAKER_03 6:51

Took to LSAT, was accepted, but chose to stay in in my dad's business. So I got into my dad's business and we used to go make deliveries, and then we got into the restaurants. So then I started making produce deliveries to the restaurants. Then I came up with this idea about let's since we're going into these restaurants, and I'm talking about Houston's when they first opened on Veterans, I'm talking about the Hilton downtown. I'm talking about Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

Miss Ruth, what did what a lady she was. So my dad, I'm in high school, so I'm going back a second, you know. I'll do that sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

No, go for it.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

And I go back, and my, I said, Dad, everybody's getting a car. I'd like a car. All right, son, well, you need to work for that car. I said, okay. So everybody's got transams and Camaros. I get a pickup truck. It wasn't bad. It worked pretty good about at the Mardi Gras Fountain on Friday nights in a pickup truck when everybody's trying to neck in the back of a transam and lay it out in a pickup truck under the stars. Now for those who have Gino Vanelli.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:00

In Boston. For those who are not quite as uh uh mature in age as you. What is neck? Necking? What is that?

SPEAKER_03 8:10

Necking. Ah. Come on over here, show.

SPEAKER_04 8:13

Come on, Chris.

SPEAKER_03 8:16

We have a little passion mark right here.

SPEAKER_04 8:18

Oh my god, and now a passion mark. Sneaking out is what you meant to say.

SPEAKER_03 8:23

So I had a three-speed, you know, pickup truck. I said, okay. So I'm a senior in high school playing golf. Also, um I'm also we have I have a scholarship now to University of New Orleans. So I'm thinking, you know, so but every morning I used to have to make three phone calls at about six o'clock in the morning before I went to Holy Cross. Now, Holy Cross was the old school off of St. Claude in a night war doll, you know, right over the industrial canal. So I used to make phone calls to Miss Ruth.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

And I said, and she goes, Hey baby, how you doing this morning, you know. She had that ruskin voice. And it was always the same produce order. I know it to this day. Two cases of iceberg lettuce, one case of four or five five tomatoes, a sack of jumbo onions, a case of green onions, a case of curly parsley, a dozen lms for the bar, a dozen lemons for the bar, and a dozen oranges for the bar, right? Oh, and a half a case of garlic. She used a lot of garlic back then. So and it was every other day. But it was the same auto. Same one. But she wanted to hear my voice. And I had a call. The other one was Piggly Wiggly. Remember the old Piggly Wiggly? They still have one down in Madisonville, right? And then the other one was a place called Jewel's Food Store, which was on magazine, right? And those three customers. So I'd call them, go make the produce delivery in my pickup truck, and then Mosy on down at St. Claude Avenue to Holy Cross High School. So one night we go out celebrating because it was a friend of mine, Mark Eppolito. He had gotten a scholarship to LSU with Charlie McClendon. So we go out and celebrate. It was a Sunday night. I'll never forget this. Sunday night. So we go celebrate in Pattle Brian's. Now, we didn't just get a hurricane. We got one of those magnums. And y'all probably always drink one. We get these long straws and everybody sit around the table and you drink from the long straw. Well, we got a magnum of scotch and water. Giving me scotch is like giving a machine gun to a monkey. You know, so it's a Sunday night. I come strolling in the house around four o'clock in the morning. Well, for me to get up at 5, 5.30 and call Miss Ruth and call the produce manager at Piggly Wiggly and call the produce manager at Jules, it wasn't happening. So my dad, you know, left the house. Didn't I didn't hear him say anything. So I go to the banana rooms to get my produce to make the deliveries before I go to school. It's about 6.30, so I'm 30 minutes late. I didn't call Miss Ruth at 6. You know, I still smell like scotch. And, you know, so I go and my dad just laid in to me. He gave me the it was it was tough. It was tough. So I get in my car. I'm still, you know, kind of hung over from the night before. My dad just ringed me, you know, and you know, and I'm man, I get to Miss Ruth.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

She goes, Michael, come on over here and sit down. Let me talk to you about responsibility.

SPEAKER_03 11:28

And she's smoking a cigarette, drinking her coffee, and she starts talking to me about promptness, responsibility, all the about business, family. Man, she's laying in onto me too. Well, I didn't know my dad called Miss Ruth and said, all right, let's lay into it, right? So man, now I get my dad, Miss Ruth. Yeah. Man, I go to Jews, he gives me the third degree, piggly wiggly, they give me the third. I said, I'll never be late again, and I'll never drink scotch again.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

So this is a good place just to take a quick pause because you know one of the the basis for what we're doing here is is we talk about our village and that old line, it takes a village to raise a child, right? And we both believe it's much, much broader than that. It really takes a village to to live a good life, right? And um and so I'm listening to you and I'm like, man, I thought I had some cool people in my village. And you have Ruth Fertell in your village. I mean, that's just mind-blowing. That's pretty neat. One of the most influential females ever in the restaurant business.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

And and that was the question you'd asked, how I got into it. So that's was was was was instrumental. My dad, Miss Ruth. So when I graduated from college, chose to work with my dad, and and because I'd graduated in marketing, we picked up m restaurants and more restaurants. So, you know, and and as it grew, I I really took a liking to the restaurant business. I said, This is pretty neat. Didn't go to law school. Golf was kind of, you know, it was a fine line high wow from making it on the tour and and being a good golfer. It was, you know, so it got kind of I mean, I was playing golf since I was seven years old. When my first golf tournament when I was twelve, you know, had and set some course records in in in between at Chateau Estates and and through the country, but I kind of got not burnt out, but I said, look, I'm zeroing in on on on this marketing, I'm zeroing in on the in in could be the restaurant industry. My dad's business.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Right.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

So as the year went on and went on, now we're looking at 1986. So I'm delivering produce, I'm delivering uh uh fresh vegetables, we're delivering herbs. So we decided, I said, you know what, since we live and delivering fresh seafood, I mean fresh produce and and vegetables, how about fresh seafood? Like crab meat, crawfish meat, right? So I hooked up with a friend of mine, Tommy Martinez. You can look him up. He was actually the the president of Ascension Parish later on in years. He's still around, he lives in Gonzales.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

And he was a produce manager at Boca Supermarket in Baton Rouge. Right. So I used to go deliver produce to him, and we just started talking and and and you know, said, Mike, I'm opening up a seafood uh place like like for bald seafood in the middle of nowhere in Gonzales. I said, Oh, that's pretty neat. So he's also hooked me up with this fella, Eugene. Okay, this fella, Eugene, he talked like that, you know, out of Pierre Port, Bayou Pigeon, White Castle. Okay? So he's having a crawfish ball on a Sunday, okay? So, you know, Tommy knew I wanted to get into the seafood business, you know, just just crab meat and and crawfish, meat, right? And this fella, Eugene, he was getting a little older, and he was possibly maybe wanting to sell his his establishment that he had. Now, all this is going on, it was his processing facility. It was a manufacturer. Got it? So this is 1986.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

I can only imagine.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

So it's all coming together. The question you asked me in the beginning, how I started. So Tommy Martinez puts me in touch with Eugene. It's a Sunday afternoon. I go drive up to Eugene's place and pull up, and sure enough, he's having a little crawfish boil outside. And his plant's beautiful. We walked into his plant and he actually picking the crab meat with with the fluorescent lights, and he's they picking the crawfish meat. The place was immaculate, clean. His end product was incredible. Wow. So we start walking around his facility and he's he's showing me the facility as if maybe we were gonna possibly purchase the facility in his business. Back then he wanted one million dollars. This was in 1986, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Oh so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:03

So I'm watching. I'm looking at the facility, looking at his washdown, his clean cleansiness, his prep, the end product. We're looking around and around, and and on the side of the building was this old trailer. Wheels were flattened they had a big round aluminum pot with weeds growing out of it. I kind of looked at it and and I said, Eugene, what the heck is this? He goes, Ma, goes back when the oil business, that's how he was talking, right? In the 1970s, we used to borrow crawfish on the docks at Morgan City and I'll put them in helicopters or crew boats and send them to the the crew members on the oil rigs because they couldn't have an open flame. So during crawfish season, they'd give them a treat, so to speak. So I said, Oh, that's interesting. Now this is a Sunday afternoon, right? So I you know, so I get back and Chip Bood, that was one of the my customers, that Park Nightclub. Was that were you too young or did you hang out at the Park Night Club? I was too young. Too young. But ironically, I probably don't even remember that either.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

No, I don't remember Park Club.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

So this is back in the in the 80s.

SPEAKER_04 17:14

That name came up with another guest of ours, Park, who named Chip a Bood as one of his most influential people. He's also in hospitality.

SPEAKER_03 17:22

So here we go. You got my dad, and of course my mom, and my grandfather, right? And God. Okay. And then you have Miss Ruth, you got Tommy Martinez, and then you got Chip Abood. Chip A Bood calls me on a Monday. I'll never forget this. Hey, Mike. Because I told him, I said, Chip, you know, I might be getting into seafood, but when I delivered to you at the Park Nightclub, because it was a restaurant too. It was a corner of Wesleyanade and Causeway. Ironically, that place that was the restaurant bar is now Cusha Le Gray's, which is my CPA firm.

SPEAKER_04 17:57

Oh, gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

And then as the years went on, too, I know I'm jumping, but that particular location too, I had a restaurant there. And my sister Debbie had worked with me up in in the uh in that restaurant there. So that's how it kind of but that's I'm jumping. But I'll come back. So so Chip calls. He says, Mike, hey, you getting into seafood business? I said, Yeah, Chip, you know. He goes, Well, I have a spring flame coming up this Saturday. I said, okay. He goes, I'll need a thousand pounds of crawfish. I want bald crawfish. So I'm on the phone with him and I'm saying, I said, Chip, I'll tell you what, I can do it. And guess what? I'm gonna come on premise and ball them for you on site. No one, no one has ever done that before. This is 1986, April. Actually, it's 40 years this year. We're in a business 40 years. Just keep that in mind. So it's Monday afternoon. I called Tommy Martinez. I said, Tommy, I said, I might need your help on this. He goes, what, you you interested in the in the facility? I said, no, you just I'm gonna call Eugene, but I want you to understand what I'm going, where I'm going from with with this. I said, I'm gonna need a thousand pounds of crawfish. Oh, and by the way, 400 pounds of shrimp as well. Okay. 2125. So you can imagine how many pieces of shrimp that is and a thousand pounds of crawfish.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Right.

SPEAKER_03 19:26

So I so I said, can you build a rig similar to what Eugene's rig is? Yeah, Mike, I can take care of that. So I'll call Eugene. I said, Eugene, yeah, Mike, how you know how you do it, Mike? Were you gonna buy the facility? I said, no, Eugene, I'm interested in that rig that was outside that's rusty with the weeds growing out of it. So the million-dollar plant or a rig, a cross uh a car trailer, whatever it was he had. It wasn't a car trailer, but it was a trailer. I was interested in that, you know. So I kind of blew his mind. And so Tommy Martinez gets involved, so we designed one on paper. Tuesday morning, the function Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

I have no idea how to boil crawfish. Everybody boiled crawfish, you know, sack at a time, sack at a time. Right.

SPEAKER_04 20:13

But much less shrimp, which for those who don't know, is is a much more we had back there? Yeah in boiling because the shell is thinner. And so there's a technique. And your timing is very, very important because if you you know, if you undercook them, they're mushy, and if you overcook them, the thing you can't peel them. So when you're talking about that's with five pounds on your stove, right? Much less 400 pounds.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

In fact, just a couple of years ago, he asked me, Mike, come on over here and balsam shrimp. We don't want them to mess up. You can give us a technique. It's really easy. Can't tell you now, but it's so Tommy says, All right, I can handle you know, building a rig. I said, All right, this is what we want. We want to like I get an old car trailer, we're gonna put two pots on it, about as big as this table, they can each hold about 500 pounds of crawfish, or about 10 to 12 sacks in each put the propane tanks and we can go wherever. I said, we can say our motto is we go where you go. Okay? And that's we use that to this day. We go where you go, right? That's awesome. I have a few things going on. Clean as you go, go as you clean. Team together, everyone achieves more. I get so many easy little sayings, I'll let you know. But so we build on this rig, now it's a Wednesday. Okay. He thighs this fella, it's an old junk yard place where this fella does welding. So we get a hold of a car trailer, bring him the car trailer. He's a welder. He welds aluminum, he welds all that. So he can handle it. So we get the the pieces of aluminum, bring it to him, and he's gonna weld us together. We could design the propane burners. And that's why I can't hear today from all the propane burners from all the years from nineteen eighty six for me around the trailer every day, every day, every day. Cause it it ended up being a full-time business, but I'll get to that in just a sec. So so anyway, we bill in the rig. Now it's Thursday. So I have to go bring the gentleman some money. So I go to my dad. I said, Dad, because I'm you know I I made a dollar back in college and after I got out of college, you know, I go out to the, you know, ever every night in New Orleans there was something going on. Right? Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night was, you know, singles night, Saturday night was date night, Sundays was down at the West End. So I make a dollar, spend two dollars. So I I go to my dad, I said, Dad, I need$3,500. Son, what's the I said, I'm getting in the crawfish business. I'm gonna go ball crawfish on the side. I'm still gonna come work for you, but this is what I'm gonna do on the side. Son, everybody bowls crawfish. I said, yeah, dad, but this is going to be unique. We're not only gonna go to your home and ball crawfish, but we're gonna take the trash with us. Because that's one of the worst things when you ball crawfish, right? Right. You you you ball crawfish, all the the the heads and all that and the the excess water you dump it in your neighbor's lawn or whatever, your lawn, you kill the grass.

SPEAKER_04 23:06

You forget to pretend about the trash we in a week. You have it for another week.

SPEAKER_03 23:10

Those big coffin flies for that and now your wife or your girlfriend are yelling at you and your neighbors colling up and thinking it's a dead body and of that. So we would I said we we we're in the business of of hospitality. So now I'm getting a hospitality business. Bowling crawfish cleanup take the debris with this dad says okay son so that's Friday. So I I'll go bring Friday morning the fella in in in Gonzales the welder at the junkyard Tommy Martinez the from Boca Supermarket that's opening up the seafood market in the middle of nowhere in Gonzales meets me at this this junkyard place I'll never forget it's a it's it's it's at dusk I pull up the the gates close and then he said well just open the gate open up the gate and two Dobman pinches just start running it's like the movie these dogs look like lions coming at me well I ran right out here close the gate you know of course the weld in the back oh they won't hurt you they all bark and no bite I said yeah yeah yeah so I get the$3500 with me to give them the to build the rig. Okay so that's Friday Friday night he's almost finished I looked at it and I'm look and it's it's still got the car trail and it still is but I'm looking at it still has the pieces of aluminum sitting on the side I said the the functions tomorrow at one o'clock oh I got this I said all right so we leave so I asked Tommy Tommy you have the crawfish lined up yeah I got this you have the shrimp lined up yeah I said you know what I gotta think of a name of this so I started thinking it didn't take long mud bug mud bugs Mr. Mudbug so came up with the name we had a person that was working with us in the produce business and this is Friday evening and her name was Debbie her dad was the police chief at in West Weego that's where our facility was because we moved from the underneath the Mississippi River Bridge my dad's company to 4th Street in West Wego. Got it West We go you know so anyway so we go there and she seen I said look this red jumpsuit so um so we just took a red jumpsuit and on the back she sewed Mr. Mudbug catering right Saturday morning I go to Ace Hardware in Bucktown Harry's Ace Hardware and I pick up white shrimp boots. So that's my uniform white shrimp boots and a red jumpsuit Mr. Mudbug catering. So I got my uniform. I love that you even thought of a uniform the night before right yeah I gotta get a uniform because I wanted to be precise the the the crawfish rig had to be red so they had to be because crawfish when you bought them they turned red so I wanted everything red white shrimp boots clean you know refreshing hospitality all this buff is starting to happen right Saturday morning I call up Tom because Chip's calling me the whole week hey Mike how's it going? You good I said Chip no problem I got this hanging up the phone I said okay right so I always say yes and I'll figure out how to do it afterwards right so Saturday morning nine o'clock I'm calling Tom it was no cell phones back so calling Tom hey he did he's not answering call him again now he's supposed to be at my home at 10 because the function starts at one I still don't know how to boil a thousand pounds that's why I needed Tommy because he he was boiling crawfish at his seafood market. So he had the seasoning because I said he says Mike I got the seasoning we're gonna mix this I said okay this was during the week I said okay I'll go he's gonna bring the onion celery garlic all the above I said all right I I got it and and the paper products I'll handle so you know we got all that so I get my my truck outside my house ready for I'm looking around down the street looking for Tommy coming from Gonzales with it with the trailer. 1030 stops he gets out beer cans fall out of his front of his truck he's drinking already he's got two helpers they are toasted it's 1030 in the morning but the rigs behind it look beautiful gorgeous red the aluminum tanks gorgeous right I said I got this he's got the crawfish in the back of the pickup he's got the shrimp in the boxes you know so we we go we get on we we get to the park nightclub pull up you know chip comes out wow this is all right this is gonna be great I said yep you know so he has about a thousand people there right close to a thousand people and it was packed all right so we ball in crawfish it's a hit you know of course when we ballin' adding a little bit more season taste in the water add a little more season you know the first pot comes out the crawfish oh add some more season so we just go in as we go and I'm trying to write down a score and he's throwing season I said what did you do? Well we threw I gotta measure this so back then I wanted to measure and weigh everything you see so now it's starting to come into what we do today right so it's all coming together and I didn't know anything about I'm just saying wait a minute I got to measure this you know for for the next pot and well that didn't you know so each pot was different. But of course every time we we threw 12 sacks of crawfish and there was another thing I forgot what are we gonna serve it out of I said a pea rock let's get a pea rock so we got an old pea rock that I knew from Ron Ron Chapman and Shelmet. They had old P Rogs I went and picked one up during a week so I had a P rog and I painted that red. That's amazing okay so when we got the crawfish out of the out of the pots we put it in a red pea rock I mean it's steaming hot chippers loving it because they were going to go get crawfish from from from West End you know and get bring them in you know in hot and seafood boxes that get mushy and we were balling them fresh putting them in a the people going wow because no one's ever done this before. This is 1986 in April okay so towards the end of the day because it was from it was from one o'clock till five so we ball a little bit at a time and and and and if we had to they had to wait a little bit it was fine it was hot crawfish you know and the best they were fantastic and the shrimp popped right out the show. Okay it was perfect everything was everything was going perfect people coming out what's your phone number we need to get one of these we need to get so I'm writing down on a on my tablet which I still use today in fact writing in the name the phone number and all that it's alcohol he goes are you busy next week I said no are you busy next week no I booked like from that function we booked 10 functions that's great we me but it's a team there's no me sure and you'll understand that there's no me and I and there's no I in my team our team and I booked overbooked and you know on Saturday the following week I got three functions but I told everybody said I'll get to you what Tom you want. Okay I'll be there but if I'm late not a problem if it's going to be like this it's fantastic. So we're in the middle of coffee season so that's why we booked so many the following week right so I'm in the back so now we drinking a little beer you know I'm working you know of course Tommy and they've been drinking all day chip comes around he says Mike everything's been perfect this is fantastic I said yeah he says turn around I said turn the rig was on fire oh stop because what happened was we built around the rig. We had wooden planks around the the the fire you know the burners and over the course of the day and the day it got so hot it was on fire. So we're out there with the holes I still have that rig to this day. It's over there at the moor by Leisha's place right oh wow so I said we got this never forget we go inside chips pays me of course I had a bar tab the whole day well the bar tab was almost as much as the what he paid me for the just 10 but it was close. But I was able to give the money back to my dad the 3500 that night nice I said dad thanks son but I said yep I'm on to something here so we booked ten more functions and then people would come up and say okay you do the bald shrimp and how about a barbecue? Oh I could do that. So we got did we started doing barbecues fish fry I could do that fish fry jambalaya I could do that then the conventions that come into New Orleans they started calling okay we want you guys to to come on in and we're going to be on the riverfront by the Cajun Queen Creole Queen in in front of the Superdome at 1555 Padres the Lakeway Center so now we're doing parties for a thousand people 2500 people and on my my advertisement paper and to this day I'm not sure what the you know internet is and and and and that that kind of you know would podcast I didn't even know what a podcast was. I'd asked my wife actually my son Michael knew and and and my daughter nine years old my son Michael's 13 and my my twins Michaela and Mason are nine they told me what a podcast that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

I wasn't about to ask y'all trust so you said yes not even knowing about he always says yes it's all just I got this true story.

SPEAKER_03 32:25

So so so anyway so we we we were doing parties for 2,000 people 2500 people we did one for 1000 people at Toyota by the aquarium. Wow and and we would we'd do our feto dough it was always the same menu bald crawfish bald shrimp barbecue shrimp it was fried catfish fried oysters we were doing grilled oysters before anybody was doing grilled oysters right and then nothing against Tommy Dragos or Acme who are good friends of mine. They're all good I love them but you know that's how it goes. In a hospitality industry and especially in New Orleans everybody knows everybody. And you don't want to burn a bridge right so we we all we're all together so to speak. You know the competition is good but it's good competition. Right. So we sort of do an I want to pause just for a second here.

SPEAKER_04 33:15

So at that up to that point what's probably the one what's the what's what's the takeaway from you that you would that you take away from that that entire experience that you just laid out from you know seeing that old trailer up to where you just ended now you've got a successful Mr. Mudbugs business catering 10,000 people. Right.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

That you would share with people entrepreneurism, right? Understanding the need, right to love what you love to do, right? You have to love it. And and I tell my kids to this day number one is having fun.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:01

When you when you know when you look in the mirror in the morning and you really don't like what you see or you're dreading going to work or you're dreading going to school you gotta no you gotta you gotta you gotta look beyond that right so a lot of these things from I learned from my dad right and I c I I say that and my mom right and family my grandfather that as we came through life that's what the takeaway is understanding today today and then tomorrow and the business end up. And you gotta be you got to have fun in business. Right. Right? The money will come but if you're after the money the business will never come so you you gotta have that that mindset and and that's the mindset I had in the beginning. You know people say oh you get lucky no it's not luck it's hard work and I understand there's no failures in life there's just answers and solutions right and you always say yes and never say no right I don't like the word I don't have the word like overwhelmed in my dictionary I still use the Webster dictionary. Like my dad used to say son I said I said dad how do you spell this go look in the dictionary dictionary well if I don't know how to spell it how I'm gonna find it in a dictionary so the takeaway is giving you 100% loving what you do being honest right and and and understanding what the need is and and and accomplishing that before so that you know if it's if it was the crawfish business and a couple other businesses now we'll we'll talk in a second.

SPEAKER_04 35:30

You answered it perfectly you know and as I listen to you not only do I hear everything you you just pointed out as kind of the the cliff notes or the advice I heard it all the way through the story. Which to me validates it. And then secondarily the thing I find very interesting about you and always have is you know lots of people say hey there's no I in my team you know lots of people say that. But when you listen to that first piece of the story and you hear the credit that you give to so many other people even though you were going to be the guy in the cheesy red jumpsuit with the with the boots you were going to be Mr. Mudbug or the face of it. But yet you still are humble enough to and grateful enough to be able to remember each of those little pieces of the story and the people who without any one of those people that may not have happened. Right. And I think too often we see people who achieve success in things and it's like it's the old line my dad taught me ingrained in me from from birth that felt like since birth but I can't remember that far back which is never forget where you came from. Right. And you always remember the people who've helped you and you always treat people you know the way you want to be treated. And you hear that in your in your story. And it it to me it's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Yeah it's not about me. Yeah and it's about family support too that's look supporting your husband supporting your wife the ki your kids which I'm 66 so you know we waited a a while to have children.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

Hey I'm with you on that boat too that's another thing we have in common see I have very young kids. Yeah and I'm not as young as I look just one of those you know I love it.

SPEAKER_03 37:17

That was the best thing Mike's actually 90 but he looks good that was the best I'm still a kid. That's the best thing that's happened in my life too is having children and and meeting Alicia right for sure. Meeting Alicia getting married and having children and having children late in our age if I would have had children when I was younger when I was working through this this this saying yes and yes and yes it would have been a turmoil in my relationship with with anyone or even trying to have a child because you children you need to be with them. You know it it's it's it's different nowadays than it was back then. I mean but you know we thought our parents were old at 30 years old, 35. I thought my my grandfather was old at 45 I'm 66. I think that's young you know the 50 year old kids I think are young. Now a 60 year old man or I think is young. But you you understand so and then a surrounding you need the family you know to to help you need that support because you're gonna have some some days or some function you know if we would lose one customer we would need I would always say we need two to make up for that one you know so so as it as it evolutionized right and I'm I'm I'm there and and and now I'm hiring people you know now because before I was doing it all myself so now I hire you know a a a secretary so to speak Jackie we call her wacky Jackie she's a character right she would take she would take the the calls in and I'd be balling coffee she's all right Mike we booked another one it was pretty neat I couldn't stop it so after one year in Mr. Mud Bug in 1986 we were coming up to do approximately 800 functions the next year I mean if you if you look that's that's just 20 15 functions a week I mean it was I mean we were doing barrels we were doing sit-down dinners then we went and it cooked around the country again and not not to interrupt you but it you know these things just strike me as so interesting because you were talking about earlier about how competitive the hospitality industry is in New Orleans because while New Orleans is a world class city it's very small.

SPEAKER_04 39:26

Right and it's known for hospitality so there's always been a large number of restaurants and and bars and catering companies compared to the population right and and so and it's because of the heavy tourism influence. And so lots of times I'll talk to people and I'm like well I I feel like I got this idea but it's so competitive I don't know if it's a good time to get in or out. And I listen to this and here you go entering a hyper competitive market at the time and have this tremendous amount of growth in the first year. And I think it ties back to your advice which is you know you found maybe a a spot that that was new and maybe wasn't being addressed by the marketplace boiling the crawfish on site and taking the trash which is an interesting part of it and then bringing the team aspect to it. And then lastly and most importantly and having worked for you twice uh yes you are difficult to work for but the flip side of that is you are you are always trying to have fun and you you embody that and you know that's the aura you give out, right? You're serious when it has to be serious but generally speaking you are trying to have fun. And I think those three things is probably what led to that massive growth which is incredible.

SPEAKER_03 40:43

I mean anyone trying to start a catering company would be blown away at that step right it exact and and it was I was lucky but hard work and in it and in the answer to one of the questions just understanding what what was needed. Right. And Bavar that need right about picking up the trash and the debris. And then from that then we got into you know the theatrical uh uh uh like like we would actually build a s a a set you know if it was a theme if it was if it was fade o'do we'd we'd we'd we'd build the food stations and it was pretty neat. We had Mardi Gras floats. I I took a few you know when you used to go to Sam's or and then you pushed those big push carts. I accidentally put one in my bat on my truck you know and I had actually um can Kentro float building build me a little minute miniature of float using that that push cart right and we'd have that and we'd serve food out of these carts. So little things like that started started progressing. Right. Right doing sit-down dinners right and I hired some good people Glenn Shillon and Chef Glenn Shillon was you remember Chef Glenn and killed me one day you know he threatened to kill me with a big knife.

SPEAKER_04 41:58

Yeah you know why? Because he was making one of the soups and he had a rule do not dip any bread in the soup to taste it. Don't taste my my stuff and then he would always make him go get a cocktail which Mike said he couldn't have so then you kind of get torn you're like well is Mike here? No Mike's not here and he would take he'd have that big chef knife in his hand and a spoon he'd say go get go get me a cocktail. I think he drank scotch if I'm my memory right I'm not sure. So I'd put it in a styrofoam cup and I'd bring it back to him because you know what Mike at the top he's in the kitchen cooking you know and doing his deal. And so one day man what he was cooking looked so good and I was like I gotta I gotta take a taste of this so he got up to go to the bathroom or something and I grabbed a piece of that French bread and I dipped it in literally like a little kid with his hand in a cookie jar. I timed this about as bad as you could tie it I waited clearly too long. I dipped it and it was going in my mouth and I heard you MF SOB son you know come and he started and he was older much older now but he started darting towards me with this big knife he's like I'll kill you in this kitchen you got naffed so I had to make a decision if I was going to die was I gonna taste it the answer was yes I shoved that piece of bread in my mouth and I ran as best I could out into the restaurant because I knew he wouldn't chase me out into the restaurant you know so I had to come back and make amends with Uncle Glenn and uh and we were fine he said I let that happen once that was at the restaurant King Creole that was at King Creole which is where I ended up meeting Mike as you were saying earlier he ended up opening a restaurant.

SPEAKER_03 43:27

And and and King Creole that's that's another you know stage in in this story. But getting back to the the the catering aspect and how we grew with that right um it was like like like you said Chris it it we couldn't stop it right it was it was pretty neat. So one crawfish rig went to a second to the third to the fourth so I had seven rigs. Wow and I had to train everybody to cook and and then I had some some kind of not franchises but friends that wanted to get into the business so we opened in Florida North Carolina. So I met some interesting people. So Tulane University was instrumental in us moving across the country. For all the alumni that went to Tulane that lived in different cities, they would do crawfish barrels. Well, up until with Mr. Mudbug, they used to just ship the crawfish ball in coal boxes. So then we changed that. So we called it the East Coast Tour. So Donnie Bowman, who works for me to this day, has been with me for 40 years. Donnie, he's still with me. He was an artist. I'm an artist too. I draw flies. Anyway. But so he would draw the actually Donnie actually designed the Mr. Mudbug logo. And if you look at it closely, one of the people in the pot has a HC, that's Holy Cross jersey on. And it's a crawfish pushing a pot on wheels. So we go where you go. You see, that's how it so we started. This is back in 1986. We started, you know, I was 26 years old. We're thinking about all these things. And so we're doing a crawfish boil early on, and a friend of mine, Mr. Rob O'Neill, was with the Thomas Picky Yun at the time. And they had a an ad Spotlight. It was an advertisement. It was a the initial run of ad Spotlight. He featured Mr. Mudbug. And on that feature of Mr. Mudbug is it also featured like um uh my dad's company also with the produce and how produces and so it was pretty neat. And my sister actually worked there as a Miss One ad. And I'll never forget there's a quick story. So so my sister, she she passed away, but and she was working as Miss One Ad. So someone calls in. They used to call in and you know, and they put the ads in the paper and it would would actually be, you know, the next day be published. Well, someone called in and said, I have a boxer puppy for sale. She took it as a boxer puppy. So the next morning when it hit the paper, a box of puppies for sale. So she never lived that down. Mr. Roll O'Neill to this day tells a story. So that really kicked us off as well, you know, doing a little advertisement. So we had the Thomas Pean actually come out and do a featured article, and it was Mud Bugs, and it was fellas jump out of a red van, our vans were red, everything was red. White hat, white white, white, um shrimp boots. Your shrimp boots, right? So we we we matched, right? So they came out and they said we they people thought we were exterminators. Mud bug coming in to exterminate your house. So Lucianne was working with me at the time, and he he used to own a place called Lucky Pierre's on Bourbon Street years ago. And Lucian was a good good cook. So he came on board with us. So we were getting interviewed, and it was 1988, and on the interview they said, what is your goal? And then we both said to do a crawfish ball on the lawn of the White House. Now that was 1988. Okay. So Tulane. Now keep that in mind. I'm gonna come to that in a second. So Tulane University. See, I always come back to what I thought. You know, sometimes my wife says I'm crazy, but anyway, that ADT stuff, I don't know what that means. You know, but so we we go around the country, the East Coast tour, New York City, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Miami, Tampa. Then we started going to the to the West Coast, Dallas, Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_00 47:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 47:33

So we actually did functions in Los Angeles, and this is all for two lane alumnus. So people that graduated from Tulane, they would live say we'd go up there with the crawfish rigs, driving it to New York, Boston.

SPEAKER_00 47:45

Oh, so you were bringing your own equipment up.

SPEAKER_03 47:47

Yeah, bringing all the equipment. And our hub was in Washington, D.C., so we'd have the crawfish flown to Washington, D.C., and then from there we'd we'd go to Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New York, from there, and we'd spend the whole month of June in the beginning of July doing crawfish balls, fish fries, but all over the country.

SPEAKER_00 48:04

Right.

SPEAKER_03 48:05

So that's so I meet some some individuals in Washington, D.C., right, that wanted to start a restaurant in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. So I said, oh no, I got a lot going on. I got Mr. Mudbug catering, I'm doing these crawfish balls around the country. It's 1991. I've said I'm opening up a restaurant called King Creole, right? And which wasn't trademarked. Named after Elvis Presley, which it was his his his birthday afternoon.

SPEAKER_04 48:33

Now, with all your impersonations, can you impersonate Elvis at all or no?

SPEAKER_03 48:36

Thank you, thank you very much. But but you know, but but like Neil Dahmen, too. So I get like Where'd it begin? You know, it began in 1986. You know, it's weaker. So anyway, but so so so so now I got the restaurant, I got the catering going on. They want to open up some restaurants on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Tulane University. So I I need more more help, right? So I started hiring more people, training them, understanding where we were going now, now um, you know, it the the the phones come out, you know, the the the the flip phones or those big phones, so now it's communication is is better and still not advertising. Never once advertised.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 49:21

That was pretty neat, it was word of mouth. Because I was like, we could say we do a hundred things. We do 99 right, one wrong. Forget about the 99 you did right, right? So it was it had to be spot on, spot on, spot on, spot on. So I was hands-on, and to this day, everything from procurement to prep to cook to presentation and then cleanup, so to speak, right? So as the years go on, we we we we grow. So North Carolina, we open up some restaurants called Dirty Dicks Crab House. Our motto was we get we get we got crabs from Dirty Dicks. Clappy the crab was our mascot. So every t-shirt we sewed, he had a little crab on it. That's clappy.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 50:05

We sew more memorial dick sticks. They were crab mallets made out of a closet rod.

SPEAKER_00 50:10

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 50:11

And then we had we had to steam crabs up there. So we had to learn how to steam instead of boil, because they don't eat bald crabs on the outer banks of North Carolina. Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, you know, where the right brothers took the first flight, right? Up in that area. So we had built it from a t-shirt shop to seven restaurants. Right.

SPEAKER_00 50:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 50:30

So I'm going up there, you know, I'm doing this, doing that. It's getting kind of crazy. So I built that up to seven restaurants, sold my portion out. Okay. So so now I got the catering going on. I got the restaurant King Creole. Everything's gonna happen. I get a call from Sheriff Harry Lee. Mike, you're the only one that could pull this off. I said, what? He said, we're going up to do a crawfish ball on a lawn of the White House. 19, yeah, can you believe this? 1999. Eleven years after I said we were gonna do a crawfish ball on the lawn of the White House.

SPEAKER_00 51:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 51:09

So it happened. So we went up there and we cooked for 2,500 people the first night, 1,500 people the second night. And the way we had to do it, we had to we had to cook the gumbo and all beforehand and put it in bags. Because there's no way we could cook that from scratch. So we went up there. It was myself, Jean-Luc Albin from Maurice's Bakery, the Wong Brothers from Trey Young, we had Copeland's going up there. So we only had about 10 chefs, 10 cooks, and we cooking for 4,000 people. Well, the head chef at the White House comes out and he's got his big white hat on. We pull up. We you know, I got my shrimp boots on, and he's looking around, he says, How are you guys gonna pull this off? I said, We got this. We're all right. So we pulled it off the first night. Well, he came out hugging us and stuff like that, and we pulled it off the second night. Got to really meet President Clinton firsthand. He was a what an intelligent individual he is, and really a neat meat, not only as a president, but as a as a person too. So we did a ball, not only crawfish, but we did barbecue shrimp, fried catfish, we did grilled oysters, we did jambalaya, we did the Wong Brothers. It was really neat, and we did it. So we did it in 1999. And that's what I guess goes back to if you really want to do something, you can make it happen.

SPEAKER_00 52:27

Yeah, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_03 52:28

And that's what I always say too. We can make it happen. So, so as we as we're growing, and it's growing now, it's 1993. Open up King Creole, 1999, it was getting too much. I said, when I say too much, I'm talking about the catering was was was moving up, the restaurant was doing okay, but people that wanted to buy it. I said, you know what? I think it's time I'll I'll sell it. Because at the same time, we'll open up this little business could work in a catastrophe, unfortunately, incidences that would happen from Mother Nature. Ice storms, hurricanes, forest fires, flooding, utility workers.

SPEAKER_00 53:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 53:10

Okay, cooking for the utility workers. Because our goal with this company, and the how I got into it, was the we we were cooking for Entegy, right? That was our first customer, and we had got called out to go up and do a a function, I say a function, but a catastrophe work in Decatur, Mississippi, because a tornado came through. Well, a couple individuals were at King Creole restaurant in 1999, ordered their their food and they had their their walkie-talkies with them, and they knew there was gonna be a problem with this weather moving through the country and hitting Mississippi somewhere. They just didn't know what the extent of the of what was gonna happen or a tornado hit. It was a pretty pretty d catastrophic. And they didn't know how bad it was hit. So they get ready to order their feet meal and they get a call out that they have to go up with these entergy crew, about 30 guys, girls, had to go up to Decatur and go assess the damage and start fixing the damage. So they had their bucket trucks and all that. So Jimmy Hoppy says, Mike, I wish we can get this food where we're going because it's it's in the middle of nowhere. I said, I got this, Jimmy. I said, in the back, I got my Southern Pride oven, I got a refrigerator truck, I have some food in a cooler here, I could put it on there and it'd come up there and cook for y'all. He says, You could do that? I said, I could do that, you know. Like I said, but I'm talking to him. He goes, All right, meet meet us at Lake Forest. Now, this is 1999, right? Meet us at Lake Forest Shopping Center in two hours. I said, I got this. And I wasn't married or you know, at the time. So I said, okay, so I loaded up the truck, got and I met him up in Lake Forest and went up there with the convoy, right? So we went up to Decatur, Mississippi. On the way up there, it's pitch dark. Can't really see what's going on. But notice on the way up there I saw a Sam's, I saw a dry cleaning, just caught my eye. Not knowing where that was going, but it just caught my eye, right? Java, we get up there, can't see what's going on. We only got to get 30 guys and myself. He goes, Mike, can you have breakfast ready for seven? I said, Yeah, I got this. It's about four in the morning. It's two hours from now, you know. I said, All right, cracking eggs and stuff like that. So I really didn't sleep, getting in and then, you know, they I feed him breakfast. Jimmy comes back and says, it's a lot worse here than we thought. We got to call more in reinforcements, and we might have to stay here more than a day, because he told me originally we'd only be up here about a day or two. I said, okay. He goes, all right, he goes, Mike, all right, can you do lunch, dinner, and can you go do breakfast, lunch, and dinner the next day? And looks like the next day, and looks like we're gonna have about 150 people coming up here. I'm by myself. Because I'm thinking I'm just cooking for 30 people. Now it's 150. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I said, I got this, Jimmy. Not a problem. So I call back and I say, okay, I need three people, come on up, you know. And on a way up, let's go stop at Sam's, get some, you know. So the next that night, he said, Mike, you got any ideas on on this? He goes, you know, guys have one set of clothing, you know, I got this. I remember the dry cleaner.

SPEAKER_01 56:18

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 56:19

So I drove back 30 miles to the dry clean that was open. So this is what I need. I need you to wash, you know, 30 sets of clothes. We might need 100. Can you do that? Yeah, can you deliver it? This is where we are. We got that. So the next morning I said, everybody, your pillowcases, mark down your room number on a pillowcase, put all your dirty clothes in here. When you come for breakfast, set up in a pile. I had the dry cleaners come pick it up, bring it back, clean them, and bring it back that evening. So now I'm in the the laundry business, the food business. Then he says, Mike, we we might be getting some bad weather. Not a problem, Jimmy. I got this. I had the tenor rent company come and bring the big tables and chairs. Now we feed 150 people, no problem. They were able to get those lights, and this is what was the whole deal on where I was going with this. Same thing we'll we'll talk about. If I have time, we'll talk about the medical business, right? If we can get this light turned on faster and keeping the guys and the girls on the bucket trucks longer instead of because when they would go into the c catastrophic areas, it was totally, you know, there was nothing there. So they would work for maybe four hours, drive back an hour out of harm's way or whatever, right? Right. Where there was lights on to eat. So they wasted 30 or 40 percent of their time trying to find a place to eat. And look, you go into a restaurant, 100 people, you know what it's gonna take to feed. Right, right, right. So I said, we got this. We're gonna keep them on a bucket truck, they're gonna come back and they're gonna eat good food. So, Jimmy, you know, at that time they really didn't have a budget. So we were doing steaks, we were doing pork chops, we were doing fried cafes, we're doing baked fish, we doing the top of the top, because we needed to keep the workers happy.

SPEAKER_00 58:00

Right.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

And keep on in those bucket trucks for those eight hours, come back and eat and go to sleep. So we in the laundry business now, we're in the food business, we in the housing business, we in the hand wash stations, we had the tower lights, so it kept growing and growing and growing and growing. Right. And from just entergy, we then had almost every utility company in the country within a five-year period. So we we um Jeff Batto came on board, William was out, so I had partners as well. And and and and we all contributed.

SPEAKER_00 58:36

Right.

SPEAKER_03 58:36

Right? Everybody had their place, and it was really good. Without them, I couldn't be where they where I am, and they couldn't have been where I am with the food. So it worked out. It was really neat, and it's called base logistics. It was that that company, okay? So we we we would do any type of any type of catastrophe, feeding, housing, you know. Unfortunately, Katrina happened and and we were there for that. So so, but back in the 1999, 2000, uh a hurricane came through Lafayette. Okay, so I'm out there cooking at the fairgrounds out there, you know, the Evangeline Downs. Royal know where that is, you know. The horse business, right? I had a horse one time. It was so good, it took 10 other horses to beat him. So I'm out there in the middle of nowhere cooking, and we're cooking for about two thousand two thousand people, and I'm up night and day, right? Cooking the gumbo, cooking the and even though I could cook it back home, I'm I'm just back in New Kenner, you know, putting them in little bags. I'm I'm I'm still out there and and and I always did that for for my own use, you know, for Mr. Mudbug Catering. I I I didn't I was the the retail end of it. I knew there was a it was a challenge to become USDA, HACCP, hazardous analysis, critical control point, all the above. So I'm out there. And at the time in Kenner, we builded out a a facility about 5,000 square feet. Now remember what I'm saying right now, 5,000 square feet. Catering. It was where I was gonna haul equipment and all that for this catastrophe work, for everything that we're doing as Mr. Mudbug was growing. Because I went from a thousand square feet to two thousand, three now it's five thousand with the with with with say just say eight thousand, because it was gonna be five thousand and we were gonna add on.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:28

Got it.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:29

So just say eight thousand square feet. I'll never forget Lou Lands is is is building Lanco of the the the the catering facility, right? And I'm out there cooking and cooking, and Cisco Rep comes out to me and says, Mike, he goes, You're cooking this from he goes, yeah, I am. He says, Well, there's this company, John Foles. I said, okay. He does gumbo in the back. I said, well, I kind of do that. He says, yeah, but we have it in stock. I said, all right. Well, send me 50 cases of seafood gumbo. If I can get an extra an hour, two hours of sleep, but I don't have to cook the gumbo from scratch. Right. Man, that was great. So he brought in 50 cases of of gumbo, and and the cases were like 20-pound cases, right? And it was actually pretty good. So this is I could sleep two hours extra. I said, give me another 50 cases next week. Well, they did, and when he when he brought it to me, it could it was a completely different flavor profile than when he brought me the previous Friday. I said, think, that's it. I got on a phone, called Lou Lanza, Lanco, stop construction. We're getting in a food manufacturing for business.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:31

As a side note, I remember that name because I waited on Lou every Friday night at Creover.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:36

It says why. Remember that? Him and George Villiar.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:39

Every Friday night.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:40

Right? See how it's two years. And it's not just luck, it's it's kind of right. So you see how it this is building now, right? So I said, stop construction. We're getting in a food manufacturing business. Well, that's a whole nother story. You needed USDA, you needed FDA. I had to go back to school to get a HACCP certificate. I felt like riding Dangerfield and back to school. I had to go to Baton Rouge, and actually, Brent John Dott, who Brent works for me now, started working with me when he was 14. Here's a ball and crawfish with me. And then he went on his own venture for a while with PJs and Wild Wingery, and he came back. So Brent's with me now about 19 years or so. Wow. Right. Okay. So anyway, we we we uh change it. I go get HACC certified, so does Brent, get the USDA in, and and we knew a friend of our friend, Terry Shellis, his brother's Jerry Shellis, that's a veterinarian. And there's a lot of veterinarians that also when they finish veterinary go into the USDA, you know. So so Jerry put me in touch with with this with this USDA inspector, right? So he came and kind of helped us do the layout where the drain should be and all that. And and and so we built a USD facility, 8,000 square feet. So I'm in a food manufacturing business. And I have two new customers, right? So all this is going on. I have I started with two 30-gallon skillets, which is about as big as this table, and we cooked the gumbo. Our agitation was a paddle. You know? The how to get the product out of the tit skillet, I had a water picture. And I had to go in there with the water picture and and and and sc stir it, turn pour that into a plastic bag with a with with like an like an O-ring, and pour it in there and had um uh hognose tie clippers I put in there and had a and close it with a with a with a with a wrench, right? And then threw it in a 55-gallon drum of water and ice. But that was hassle, hazardous analysis, critical control point, and we documented everything. So we did it by hand, right? But that's how I was started in 2000. Did it by hand. I'd make it, go out and sell it. Two customers. The first two. You ready? Ruth Chris. You know, got a TMI and an Acme Oyster House. So I had fond dining and I had casual dinning.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:13

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:14

But it's a full circle with Miss Ruth. Is that incredible? She had passed though before. But before that, let me go back a second in a catering, as uh, you know, was delivering produce to her and when opened up Mr. Mudburgh, she had had uh partnered with Miss Lana Duke. Okay, and they bought a mausoleum in the Lake Orden Cemetery, and they had a celebration of life about how it was, because what instrumental she was, from what she started and how she grew. But you know why? She was there at six o'clock in the morning to closing.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:48

Right?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:49

And that name on the top of the restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:51

Yeah. No, on a side in a double. But almost her entire And then when she passed, that's where she still lived.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:56

And and that she came up in a in another podcast. So it's in here about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:02

She contributed to entrepreneurism, saying yes, I can make it happen, hospitality industry to this day, right? She was she was very instrumental, right? So we catered a party for her on the lawn of the of Lakehorne Cemetery. She had 500 people there. And there we all are doing, you know, some crawfish, some shrimp, and and other things. But she wanted us to cater that for her. That was very special. That's pretty awesome. And then now, you know, behind the scenes, we work with Roots Chris, our RD chefs work with their RD chefs, with who would ever talk it. Right? But that's how it's a full circle. And Acme Oyster House, Mike Rodrigue. I mean, what what what he's done in that business has been incredible, right? So remember I mentioned 8,000 square feet. I mentioned turning that light on faster. Okay, so there we are. We're making the butters, we're using The sugars for the sweet potato casserole that makes it good. The sodium, you know. So we learned a lot in MMI, and that's Mr. Mudbug Inc., it's not Mike Myanza Industries. Remember, I tell you, there's no IMR team. A lot of people say, Oh, it's Mike Myens Industries, Michael Myans Industries. I said, no, it's not. It's Mr. Mudbug Inc. and it's a team. It's not just me. And it's the people that have hired around me. We have a good staff. We have great employees. Alicia now has runs the catering division. She has a venue in Elmwood called The Moor.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:37

Yeah, I've been there.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:37

Right? Which she's done an incredible job with that. So she does on-premise and she does the off-premise. She still goes to New York with Tulane and still does other other. We go to Tennessee for the for the the football games up there during Thanksgiving. So she goes all over the country to the state and off-premise catering as well as the more.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:57

That's it.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:58

She's done a great job with that.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:00

As a quick question, though, tell me really quick, what do you look for when you're hiring people?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:05

First of all, what I look for is to make sure they love what they do. Understanding in the hospitality business, they could work a month, they could work six months, they can work a year. I get it. I've been through so many chefs and sous chefs and dishwashers. And that dishwasher is just as important as that shelf. And if that dishwasher doesn't show up, that chef needs to wash dishes. If that dishwasher needs to cook, we'll train them. So I hope I'm going somewhere with all this. They gotta love what they do. The hospitality business, no matter if it's a restaurant, if it's catering, if it's the Swegs project, they gotta love what you do. I bring that back. And you have to understand you want to be in this, this is not, it's a marathon, not a spread. Right? So look at the integrity of that person. Look at the background, he or she, where do you want to be five years from now? You know, what why did you come here? Why did you answer the application? What are you here for? So I do the hiring, right? And I'll answer and now I'll I'll say, okay, this is what you what you're in for, then fine. Knowing that they could quit in six months. Well, I probably have at least 10 or 12 employees that's been with me 15 or 20 years now. Right. So I look, I look for that. And it's okay if they want to come and work, like I said, for a couple months, learn things and move on. I'm I'm okay with that. You know. So we we really I really ask them, you know, where do you want to be? You know, where were you yesterday, today, where do you want to be tomorrow? And and and and a lot of people that work with me and work for me, so to speak, has grown from the dishwash, and that's saying they're the bottom of the right. You know what I'm saying? They're just as important as everyone else. How we move people up in our organization, especially at MMI and Swags, right? And in catering. Keep going back to the hospitality. It's it's a unique business. It it really is. It it's a lot of hours, it's dedication, and you have to love what you do.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:04

Which again kind of goes back to when you said it you have to do something that's fun so that you love it. You gotta do it. And it goes back to what you're looking for in employees, like you're looking to make sure they have that that passion, that love for that particular business, and that industry.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:20

And some people that didn't have it when I hired them, but I I think they can have it. They they they grow with me, right? They grow with this, they grow with the team. So here we are, and we and we build in this this this MMI culinary. So now we have 125,000 square feet of prep, kitchen, cook, packaging, chill, boxing, income and raw, outgoing finish, walk-in freezes and coolers, and refrigeration areas. So so we built that. We have a hundred employees, right under a hundred employees at MMI.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:00

And that's again, Mr. Mudbug Inc. culinary, right? And we do in we in over, say, 3,000 restaurants around the country under the radar. You would never know it. And our RD chef is incredible. Chef George Rhode, his team, because you have to build the team in layers, right? You have it starts with RD, research and development. So we have our own product line, King Creole. See, it's still there, right? Uh, we have a product on Mr. Mudebug Inc., and we have another product line called Sweg's Kitchen, which I'll get to in just a second, right? So we build that, right, where we would do a co-packing. So we get a restaurant chain that comes to us and says, okay, we have a gumbo. Can you make this? Fine. We look at it, we make, we make the gumbo spot on, they put a stamp on it, and we distribute it. So what if you eat at a restaurant in New Orleans? I always say this, Paducah, Kentucky. I don't know if you know where that is. It's a middle part of the country. That's where all the interstates come and go. It's it's in the middle of the country. And Kentucky was trying to lure MMI to build in Kentucky as well as Georgia. And we chose to stay in the state of Louisiana, Jefferson Parish. Okay. With with Jetco and Economic Development Department. As we expanded. We also in another expansion mode, too, as we speak. And we'll get to that in another podcast. So I don't know if I had enough time.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:25

But the way you throw out podcasts, it's like really understand what it is now.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:29

Well, I'm not an understanding, but maybe after y'all can explain it to me after this interview, if that's an interview. Okay. So so now we're in, like I said, those and in grocery stores, you would never know it. So we either do their brand in the retail section. So now we're in the food service, which is the in the bag, so to speak, right? And restaurants, and we also in retail. You would never see us in the retail. Now King Creole, you'll you'll you'll see it in certain certain grocery stores and and now in some convenience stores. We just picked up a new client called Church Point. Probably haven't heard of them, but you'll you'll you'll see it soon, right? In the state of Louisiana and Mississippi, and in some stores maybe in Alabama, but that's starting to grow in that sector, right? So we in over 125 distribution centers around the country. So when you see this trucks, U.S. Foods, GFS, Garden Food Service, Cisco, Reinhart, we and Benny Keith, Cheney Brothers is in Florida, and Shamrock is out west. So we're in over 125 distribution centers. So we make the product at MMI, distribute it to the distribution centers, and they distribute it to the restaurants. Is that how it's kind of so we go to Hawaii, we go to Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, but we just distribute it to the or transport it to the distribution centers. So that's how it works. So we do co-packing, we do our own brands, and now we into the we also do on retail as well. So one of the brands, Swag's Kitchen, right? And Swag stands for small wins ego great success. And it and that's when everything, when you hire someone, it's Swaggs. Because you you you're hiring someone, it's a small win. He or she comes on board, it's a big win. Not only for MMI or Swaggs, but also for the individual. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:32

And I'm just gonna pause you there because I think that's so important in in in life is you know, I think everybody sometimes sets these massive expectations for themselves or these massive goals or society places them on people. And ultimately, I use the term incremental. Incremental wins. Small wins, right? Like when you when you look at things, you know, setting up uh you know, smaller expectations, smaller goals that are attached to a bigger vision, but that's really where you pick up traction and you pick up momentum in in a business, in life, right? And so again, it's just interesting to hear you explain the background of swags. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:18

And I had cancer back in 1993, right? And and with that, I've always had that in the back, you know, eating healthy, changing your lifestyle, you know, party, party, party, you know, no, no, no, you know, when I'm saying it and understanding uh the second chance, and and there's some people don't get the second chance, right? So taking advantage of that second chance. So I always, you know, thought of that through the year. So and it kind of came full circle. So when Alicia and I became pregnant, well we you know, I felt like I was pregnant too, but it I look good after having a baby. You do 13 years ago, that's when I took on the project of swags. I said, you know what? We're gonna we're gonna get to the pregnant woman, which she needs to consume while she's pregnant to eliminate a lot of diseases as what's going on. So we got rebounded.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:19

Pause one second. In typical Mike fashion, I run into Mike at the Zurich golf tournament. Right. And we hadn't run into each other for maybe a year or so at that time. You know, I hear my baby, my baby. And I look over, we get a hug, and I said, He says, What are you doing? So I'm filling him in on where I am, and I'm like, Well, what are you doing? And he says, Swags. I said, What the hell is that? Now we probably both have had several cocktails time. I said, What? He goes, Oh swags. Small wins equal great success. I go, Mike, that sounds cool. What is it? He goes, We're gonna make medical meals, we're gonna make meals that have high nutrition for pregnant women and for sick people. And he's like, What do you think? I said, I think it sounds amazing. And he says, Awesome. I'll keep you posted. I gotta go. And then he he bolts off to, you know, be Mike and and continue to spread the massage in that was right around that time. And people thought it was swagman's.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:17

So I'd like no no no no so so so the name is has been a t a tough sell in the marketing, right? Because swags, but once you know what it stands for, a small win, so you've got great success, then you can play off of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:30

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:31

Right. So pregnant women, right? So I brought in an advisory board, so to speak, from a fertility doctor, from doctors that are watching a w a woman while she's pregnant, pediatricians, oncologists, cardiologists, dermatologists, and anyone else that wanted to be on is a chiropractors, Dr. Robinson. It goes on and on. So we'd have meetings about the the newest and latest drugs, the newest and latest nutritional facts. Now, this was 13 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:07

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:07

This is before today, before food is medicine. So it kind of went over everybody's head, especially here in New Orleans.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:16

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:17

You know, so we opened up, we we did, right? Seven locations, and we had them around the city, and it was, you know, go in and the menu is excellent. The food was great, but it was no sodium, no sugars. So my friends eat there, Mike, I had the red beans there, but they were kind of bland. I said, CJ, but that's what it is. I said, that's what it's about. Well, this is New Orleans. I said, okay, not a problem. So a year goes on, a year goes on. And the reason why, again, we opened it is because my my child, Michael, 13 years ago, right? And and to this day, you know what? He all he eats is fruit and vegetables, mostly. I mean, when when kids have birthday cakes, he's eating a fruit cake. To this day. It's really incredible. And his mindset right now, and and Woody is excel. It's it's pretty neat. And it's it's carried over to my twins, Michaela and Mason, who are nine years old. So 13 years we've been doing this, opened up a few locations, just the sales wasn't there. They it was okay, we weren't losing any money, but it was just, you know. But the strategy of this whole thing was to get this understand that we're trying to help people. Right. Like you mentioned, the sweet potato casserole has the sugar in it, has the butter. So we took that out. So I had to bring in food scientists, nutritionists, and dietitians. So I could understand, all right, we're gonna pull the butter out. And they would say, well, you need to use this oil, this oil. I said, okay, then I had to go to Chef George. Hey, Chef George, we've got to pull out the sodium, which chefs. I was always worked with sugar, sodium, butter, right? Because it tastes so good, right? I said, George, you need Chef George, you need to pull this out. He goes, Well, we can't do it. I said, well, just think about it. Nutrition meets culinary. Lab coats meet chef coats. That's what it's about, right? So we were able to take that sweet potato casserole, take the sugar out, the butter out, and add oil, carrots for the sugar contact. So it's now natural sugars going in, not added sugar. So Dr. Peter Foss contacts me. Mike, are he what you doing? I said, Doc, what what does that say? I'm almost out of time. Okay. All right, I'm I'm gonna zip through this real quick. So we were able to to uh establish that. So we not only have sweet potato cancer, but we have 150 recipes that we do. So with that, we zeroed on on diabetics.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:53

Diabetes. I mean, that's a big challenge here in the country, right? And what a diabetic should consume before he and she would go into a planned surgery. So we can get the glucose level stacked at the at a level where he or she's not turned down the day of the surgery. So we were able to to come up with items that that that diabetic could could consume. But the whole population can, because if just because it's a diabetic she's a he's a diabetic, any one of us can consume it too. It's healthy.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:27

It's a healthy.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:28

We were able to take that same flavor profile and what we accustomed to, and it's tastes almost the same. The red beans, the lobster bisque, everything that we're so that's where we were able to do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:40

Shrimp and grits are mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:41

The shrimp and grits, yeah, the barbecue shrimp and grits. There's no butter in it.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:44

I attended the restaurant association convention here in Louisiana. And with that, and people we were serving the shrimp and grits, which is a cauliflower-based grit.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:53

Remember that?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:54

You were I literally, first off, I think it's absolutely delicious and have used it at at parties we've had, but I've kind of become accustomed to be eating healthier.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:03

What was absolutely awesome was at that conference having people come out who were in the in the restaurant food business, taste this dish, and then they would literally challenge the fact that it was healthy. They're like, this is impossible. The the quote unquote butter sauce with the shrimp and the grits is is incredible. And and you've done an awesome job of taking all of what you learned over the years about Creole food and figuring figuring out how to make it how to deliver it in a healthier, in a healthier format.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:32

And I'm glad you were able to experience that firsthand.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:35

And well, I remember we used to have Acewegs when we were at the Benson Tower, like downstairs. There was a little vacation. And it was it was probably one of the nicest things as far as like someone who likes eating healthy, and maybe not all the time, but just having that option right downstairs in that building. Like, I can go downstairs and eat healthy. And and you mean and you don't get that a lot still today. I mean, there's all these fast food restaurants, but for people that want to eat healthy, there's not a lot of options. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:03

And and and it it's a shame that we had shut that down, it was after after the COVID. But you know, we were doing a full swell swag's kitchen there and the sales were okay. And we were getting complaints from the whole deal was that it was supposed to be for the auction employees, so to speak, and so they could eat healthier. So it was okay. So so what we did, we did, it was like if you maybe known as half kinkrio, half swags. And the sales double. You know, again, it went over give to people. It went over the major population's heads, but not the diabetics, not the people who had COPD, not the people who had cardiovascular problems, cancer. So they're looking for that. That's the the population swags is center and order. Let the other big companies, whatever, handle the population. I'm fine with that. We're going right after because that person, right, needs to get back on their feet. Right. Like that light, that person needs to get back on their feet through nutrition. Yes, prescription. See, Alino, you follow me, I get that. Doctors, you know, the doctor has something to do with it if it's a surgery. Right. The prescriptions, but the food, but they can go hand in hand. Just to get through that 30 days or 60 days of a problem. So the Sweg's kitchen is post, as pre- and post surgeries. Operative, right. As well as afterwards. Because once the the individuals consume this this product, they want to continue to do it because it's not only uh physically, I mean nutritionally great, but they're losing weight.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:39

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:39

They're feeling better, they have more energy, and the lifestyle is a little bit different. Yeah. They they can still go to Ruth Chris, right? Acme, but you know their limitation. It's like the 80-20, right? Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:51

Moderation. You're doing what you need to be doing to 20%.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:54

You can But uh but on top of that, you're you're packaging it in a way that's just making it easy. Right? If that's the hard part about dining, it's it's hard. You have to know nutrition, you got you have to go to the grocery store, you gotta buy all this health. Then you have to make it. And so now look at all the time, but it's it's like a grab and go, basically.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:14

And we're not a HelloFresh or a blue apron or a factor. Got it. Okay. We're swags. Right? And and it's it's a c it's different, right? And it it was made for, like I said, swag's kitchen, small wins, eagle, great success.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:29

Which what I find the great irony in that is is if you listen to your whole story everything has been incremental. Been a small win, another small win, and that's a small win.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:42

And that's what it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:44

From nineteen eighty-six to where we are today and and beyond, and we're not stopping.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:50

Well, we could literally well, you and I, when we get together and uh maybe have a couple couple glasses of wine, and you're saying which is one of your other famous coaches, let's have one more. And you call it a final, which leads to another one, which is the final final. And when Mike says final, final, final, you know that you probably should be calling home saying it's gonna be a little longer. Um But we only have about a minute and a half, so when you look at this 40-year run you've had and and hopefully another thirty or forty more, you know, what's the thing you're the most proud of and you've got this is rapid fire in your career. In your professional career, what's the thing you're most proud of? About what is what's the thing you're most proud of?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:37

Oh family? Number one. That's what I'm I'm really most proud because without family, I wouldn't be where I am today. Right? So that's that's number one. And then the passion of what you want to do, and the passion without. I I don't know how to turn that light bulb. I don't know how to unscrew that light bulb. I have no idea. But food and hospitality, bring it on. I'll I'll I'll answer it, I'll make it happen. There's never no, I have no in my vocabulary. It's just yes, yes, and yes. So I guess that's the main thing. Family and yes, and you have to love what you have to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:16

A yes attitude. I love it. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:18

Well, we wrap up with everyone with the same question, and it's kind of a rapid fire, and it's two parts. So I'll kick it over to Anna.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:28

So the first part is if you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?

SPEAKER_01 1:26:33

My wife.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:34

Oh, would you go to dinner?

SPEAKER_03 1:26:37

And with my children and my mom and dad.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:40

Oh, that's nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:41

And my my my my family, my brother, my sister, right? And where would you go to dinner? But really, you know, Neil Dahmen is is one of my favorite artists out there, you know, because I've I've I've been known to belt out the little Neil Dahman at certain times.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:55

I've heard.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:56

You know, like Whitabegans, yeah. Elvis Presley from King Creole. Um but the the answer But where would you go to dinner?

SPEAKER_04 1:27:05

Where do I where would you take Neil Dinner?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:06

I'm Italian. I I love I love Italian, you know. Um the Italian restaurants, you know, all Italian restaurants are good. Some are better than others, and it's okay, but but Italian. That's that's my number one food item. I love it. I love cooking. I cook a great acceptca. I'm 10 and oh in competition. So if anybody has another good cook, asebuca, come on. In fact, Roy Zapato, he bowed down to me on a No, I'm just sitting. But Italian and family. Awesome. Love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:39

Well, while I have the opportunity, I just want to say thank you. You've always been awesome to me. Um, a great mentor. I learned so much from watching you operate the restaurant, but all your other businesses, and that was very, very influential. That was the first time the light went off in my head that said, one day I want to be like Mike and have my. Multiple businesses that I can oversee, be passionate about, but also have them operating when I'm not there all the time. Present, obviously, but working on a lot of things and and I learned that from you. And I've enjoyed our our friendship. But I've also really feel like you've been a really big part. And even in my second stint with you a couple of years ago, I always learned so much from you. And and most importantly, the the way you treat people and and you're charitable, which we didn't get into, but you've got more food being donated than anyone I know, and you do it under the under the covers. You don't ever really ask to be, you know, to have your signs up and all that stuff. You're just a very you're just a good guy, and and I really appreciate it. So with that, we're done.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:45

Well, thank you, Chris.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:47

Thank you.