Episode 47: New Orleans Food & Sports with Chef Scot Craig

Scott Vicknair, attorneys, we fight for the win.

Good afternoon, everybody. Or is it I think it’s morning. Welcome to the Overruled podcast, brought to you by Scott Vicknair Law Firm. It’s a great week in New Orleans. It is Super Bowl week. And in anticipation of a big week for us with that big game, we have a very larger than life guest here today. The owner and operator of two of the best restaurants, in my humble opinion, in New Orleans, Mr. Scott Craig. Not Scott Vicknair. Welcome to the podcast, Scott. Hey, Scott. Scott with one T. Scott with one T. Scott Craig, for those you don’t know, is the owner and operator of both Katie’s in Mid-City, which has been open since 1984. October 1984. Yes, I bought it in 1994. Gotcha. Yes, this is my 31st year. It’s incredible. Congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you. Also, a restaurant I was just mentioning to you before we went on the air, is Francesca’s on Harrison in Lakeview, and a really, really good restaurant. Which is a bit of a different model, but I was hoping before we get into both Katie’s and Francesca’s, with two fantastic restaurants in the city, Scott, you could tell our listeners a little bit about you and how you got into the restaurant business. Well, I started, in college. I started bartending. My first bartending job was at Nick’s on Tulane. My fraternity hung out there, on a Tike. I was a Tike and UNO. Oh no, and I liked you before you said that. And I’m a Brother Martin guy, and a Tike. Well, I’m an SAE, so it was like, oh. So I started bartending and while I was in college and, you know, I went from there to Papi’s for a very short stint because I didn’t like the quarter. I didn’t want to work. I love the quarter. I didn’t want to work down there. And then I moved on to Parlays. And I and I always took management positions in my jobs, you know, when it was offered because I wanted to grow in management and learn how to manage people.

You know, when I was in high school, I managed a gas station. I was the night manager at a gas station. So when you do that, you learn how to work with people. But, and then Parlays sold, and I started working at Bart’s on the Lake, which was, where Landry’s is now. Right. It was a very large seafood restaurant, and a hopping, hopping seafood restaurant. And I worked my way up in positions there, and when I graduated from college, I was General Manager and I worked for about a year at that, and then I decided I wanted to go out on my own. So I bought Parkway Tavern on Canal Boulevard in late 1989. And during this time, I was trying to decide whether I wanted to go to law school or not, because I wanted to be like you guys.

And I, you know, I was looking up to my brother, who was almost 18 years old than me, and he was a successful attorney in the city, but I decided I didn’t want to do that for a multitude of reasons. And I was enjoying the bar business, but I missed the restaurant side of it. So we bought Katie’s in 1994, and the rest is history. I sold Parkway and O3, and but I’ve learned a lot through the years being in the bar and restaurant industry that, good and bad. Interesting. Well, you, you kind of went down the path of your experience that hit two of the places I really went to a lot in my old school, which is both Parlays, great bar. I didn’t realize that, you know, had changed ownership a couple of times. And then I loved I used to go with my friends, Candice and Gary, a lot to Parkway’s Tavern. Little wooden chips for the beer credits. I don’t know if they were doing that when you owned it or if you started that. Yeah, I had it for 15 years. Wow. So, the wooden chips for the beers. Was that, how old are you? I’m 39. So you’re not old enough, really. That was, yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Maybe it. I don’t remember a whole lot about the 90s. I partook. It’s a cool little bar. It’s a cool little bar. It was a lot of fun. It was, and we’re talking about Parkway Tavern on Canal Boulevard. Yeah, right next to. I think weren’t they in a big fight recently with Blue Oak? Like, No, no, that’s Park View. Oh, that’s Park View. Okay. That’s where you confused me. This is on Canal Boulevard.

Okay. In O3, we sold it to the Bulldog. Gotcha. So now it’s the Bulldog. Gotcha, gotcha. So, yeah, we had a lot of fun there. Awesome. And it’s, it struck me that you mentioned that all the managerial positions that you took along the way. And I’m assuming that and could you speak a little bit to how much that was the foundation of you understanding how to manage people and prepare you for when you did start to own your own restaurants and bars and manage them. Oh, there’s no question. I’ve learned over the years that corporate management, blanket management is really not my style. And I don’t think it should be anyone’s style. I think you need to manage people individually, know their personalities, understand their personalities and manage them that way. And so, and that’s worked for me over the years. I treat everyone like I’d want to be treated, and I try to teach them what I’ve learned. And I like them to follow those that, that rule of, you know, my management style. And it’s hard to find people that know how to communicate, as well as you would think. Yeah. And also, I find, you know, with communication, it becomes one of those things, unfortunately, we think we say it once and people hear it, but you have to say it a lot of times. But, I’ve learned a lot of lessons from that over the years too, but I want to get back to starting with Katie’s, because Katie’s I want to make sure we have enough time to talk about it because I think it’s just. What’s been some of the keys for how successful that restaurant’s been? It’s one of my favorite restaurants. I know it’s a Mid-City favorite, but really a city favorite. I mean, it’s one of the best places, in my opinion, to have brunch, in the city.

What are some of the things that have led to it being so successful, Scott? Well, it’s, it’s been my life. Yeah. You know, and I’m dedicated to it, first of all. But it’s my hiring practices. It’s the great people that I’ve had working with me over the years. My management now is never been better. That’s great. And that’s really important because managing employees right now is as difficult as you could ever imagine. It’s, it’s a whole different style. And, I’ve got really good management at Katie’s right now. And at the Deli. Right. Christine and Chad do a phenomenal job there. And, you know, I spend most of my time at Katie’s because it, I have created a monster there. It’s big. And it’s nothing that I ever thought it would be. And there’s a lot of issues that come with that. I mean, there’s a lot of upkeep, there’s a lot of, you know, just costs that come with it that have made things different since the pandemic.

But the success is the people I’ve hired. And I’ve done a good job at hiring really good management. Really good management. Well, I can definitely relate to you from the standpoint of, I feel like we’re in such a what I do for my business is such a competitive industry, being in personal injury. Right. But you also are in a hyper-competitive industry because restaurants in New Orleans, I mean, it’s like restaurants in New York or Chicago or where else in the states is there going to be a more competitive industry. And for you, right, it’s like you have to deliver. We were talking about that before the show. It’s so hard to consistently deliver the type of food that is going to, by and large, please 9 out of 10 of your customers. What are some of the biggest challenges that you face in consistently providing the type of product that Katie’s does, and Francesca’s does? I don’t want to leave Francesca’s, we’ll get to that next, but Katie’s for so many decades, has consistently produced such excellent level of food and service. Well, one of, one of the going back to the success of my business, having a wife that understands what I have to do. Yeah. And my wife, Stephanie, has been with me through thick and thin. And, through the loss of Katie’s, Katrina. From Katrina. Yeah. The five years it took us to reopen.

Yeah. I mean, it opened in March. You had to, you didn’t reopen until March of 2010, is that right? March 2010. Yeah. We built it together. And,. That’s incredible. You know, I was working at Holy Rosary School, doing the school lunch program. They were wonderful to me. They let me use their kitchen for side catering, anything we could do. And Stephanie’s the business manager at Lakefront Arena, so we worked hard together to rebuild Katie’s. So having that, that powerful wife behind you that understands what I have to do is very important. But, consistency is everything in my business. My menu is gigantic. Yeah. Had I, had I had a chance to do it all over again, I would not have a menu as big as mine. It’s been fine over the years because I’ve had the right employees to push it out, to execute it. But consistency and employees and having employees working for you for years, with me for years is crucial. That is how we’ve remained successful. When you start having turnover in the restaurant business, you’re gonna have problems. Yeah. Because you can’t, you’re constantly training someone to do the job the way that you expect it, and the way your management expects it. So consistency and in staff. This would be my answer. Well, I think also, I mean, I’ve met you a couple of times before the show.

We don’t know each other that well, but I feel like I definitely know something about the kind of person you are, because after Katrina, right, it would have been really easy to not reopen. And that was a big, that was a big hurdle that or a big roadblock that you never expected, because prior to that, right, Katie’s had been successful operating. You’d had it for almost 12 or 13 years. Yeah. And then you get seven feet of water in your restaurant and, you know, do you have even enough from the insurance claim to reopen it and fix? I think you were living above the place at the time. I was living above Katie’s. I lived above Katie’s for 20 years. Yeah. But you, you came back. And probably, I’m, not knowing the ins and outs of your business, but just from the outside looking in, probably way stronger than you were before, which is a testament to you and your wife and the team that you’ve got at the restaurant. Well, you know, first of all, something like Katrina tests your will and tests your character. You find out what you’re made of and what the people around you are made of when you lose something like that. Right. And yes, the insurance company screwed me. There’s no question about it. I had to hire an attorney to get paid, and it still wasn’t enough. Right. My attorney was great.

He hooked me up. He took care of me, but, you know, business interruption. I mean, they just, they didn’t, that was forget about that, you know, it was a mess. So, yeah, I got down. I was, I was at a point where I’m like, what am I going to do? I was looking for a job. I was working at Holy Rosary and doing my little thing there, and I loved it. Probably the best job I ever had was working with those kids. Because they, they have, you know, they, it’s for challenged kids. And it was an unbelievable school. And my friend Mike Bender, the president, and I mean, the principal and the president, Patty Glazer. I mean, they just, they helped me through all of that. And, but, you know, you find out what you’re made of. And I decided one day with Stephanie, I said, we’re going to reopen this restaurant. I think we need to. And, we did it, you know, we go over to Home Depot. There was a Home Depot on Carrollton back then. And there were tons of Latinos, all from Central America and Mexico, looking for work. And, you know, I learned a little bit about hanging sheetrock. And, you know, some of my best friends, plumbers to this day. Scott Hahn, my electrician and Ben Armbruster, my plumber, and we all got together and just kind of rebuilt it. That’s awesome. So, yeah, and then, you know, it was, it was great. It was it was really great. Awesome. And I can’t go without working for CNN for a year and a half. They hired me after Katrina. I didn’t know that. And I had a blast. I could cook anything I wanted to every day. They were so good to me.

The CNN blackberry ribs, jalapeno blackberry ribs were on the menu. Oh, wow. But CNN was incredible, incredible to me after Hurricane Katrina. But I mean, it was a three-month contract and they kept me for a year and a half. Yeah. I was cooking for six people for the last six months. Because they knew I needed a gig. That’s pretty cool. And they loved the food, you know. That’s pretty wonderful to me, so. I’m going to try the ribs next time in there. And that segues into I wanted to ask you, do you know, you may not, what is the most popular, because it is a huge menu at Katie’s and a lot of really good options on there. What is the most popular menu item? The charbroiled oysters, the crawfish beignet, the boudin pizza, and the, Redfish Nola. Okay. Which is redfish over fresh veggies, it’s awesome, man. Sounds delicious. I don’t think I’ve had that one. I’m gonna get that with the ribs next time. Miles, you may have to help me with it. What is your favorite thing on there? The ribs. The ribs. Is that the ribs that you made for CNN? Yeah. And, and they’ve, they’ve grown, they’ve improved over the years because I was working back then, I was working with limited. Limited items. Limited product that I could make these ribs with. But they were sending them over from Atlanta. And we had this, the walk-in freezer and walk-in cooler, and they just sent food. Nice. Until I got to a point where I could actually order it myself. So CNN was like shipping it from their headquarters in Atlanta to you. Wow. That’s incredible.

What a story. Yeah, they were great, man. We had our own bureau and we had our own kitchen. It was. That’s pretty cool. Yeah. And our listeners may or may not know a bit about Francesca’s, which used to be causes on Harrison and Lakeview. Did you own it when it was causes too? No, no. Max Gruning and his dad, Gary Gruning, who was cause, who has causes out in Haar. Okay. But, Max wanted to get out of the business. He was, he knew he wasn’t 100% in, like, you know, like I believe you have to be in this business, you know, just going into the restaurant business. If you don’t love it, you need to get out of it. So, Max wanted to sell and he told me one day, and I was looking for anything. And I was like, Hmm, I’ll buy it. So my wife and I bought it. We named it after her middle name, Francesca. And we decided to do this little St. Louis, New Orleans, fusion of deli items, and it’s been a blast. It’s got a lot. I, I really, really like the sandwiches there. I try to make it a point to stop when I can when I’m in Lakeview, to get a sandwich there. What, what is the most popular menu item there, do you know? There’s a lot of popular items there. The Cuban sandwich. I’ve had it. It’s fantastic. The muffuletta is second to none. The Moon sandwich is very popular. Our corn beef. What’s the Moon? The Moon is a Charlie’s Deli special sandwich. It’s on a muffuletta bun with, ham, roast beef, Swiss, and coleslaw. It’s really good. That sounds fantastic. But I brought it because I used to get it at. At and, Charlie’s. Okay. Yeah, before it was even cause.

Okay. But I remembered it, so I brought that back. Those are the most popular. And the roast beef. I mean, yeah. I’ve had the Cuban. The Cuban’s really good. And I’m a sucker for a good roast beef. I’m gonna have to try the roast beef too. And this lunchtime, I’m starting to get. I’m starting to get hungry. What is your favorite menu item at Francesca’s, do you have one? The roast beef. The roast beef. I love a great roast beef sandwich, and we’ve tweaked it to where I just think it can’t be better. It’s on an awesome gen Dusa French bread. I’m a Bear’s roast beef guy. I think Bear’s roast beef is unbelievable. I was excited about it. Is unbelievable. But I wanted ours to be as good as Bear’s. So we’ve tweaked it to where I think it’s. I eat, I eat, I eat once a week. The roast beef sandwich. You know, I’m trying not to eat so much. Well, I want to shift gears from the two incredible and successful restaurants that you have, Scott, and talk a little bit about your time on ESPN radio. I don’t know if our listeners know that you have been guest hosting ESPN radio for a while now.

You do it once a week, huh? We don’t anymore. They sold the station. Okay. It was New Orleans ESPN and Truck sold the station. Truck Trust, Claire. From down the bayou. From down the bayou. I knew that coincidentally because I just started running some radio segments. It was a really good man. Great guy. Yeah. He, he sold the station, but Gus Catanagel, a Brother Martin grad. Was the host. Not Dez. We’ll get to that in a little while. Was the host? Remember, you had a choice. It wasn’t me. It’s him on the camera, but we’ll take care of Dez with. So Gus Catanagel and I, we’re friends. And he asked me to come on the show. Told him I loved talking about sports. And so we ended up doing the show. We had such a great report together. He and John Fourcade and Rafael Aspurza was our, was our, gambling, Is John Chase’s dad? Yeah, uncle. Uncle. Okay. I thought, okay, right. And, because Chase, I went to Nicholls, undergrad and Chase, an excellent quarterback for four years. He had a great career there. But he’s just got a job coaching. Awesome. John told me it’s in my text, but, we’re very, very close friends. We became really close friends doing that show. And John and I argue like brothers. You know, he thinks he knows everything and he doesn’t. I do. So, and, but we’ve become the best of friends. We still talk every day. We text every day. We have a group text. Gus is now working for the Pelicans. He got a really good job with the Pelicans. He is the, the media manager. So, he’s on radio row right now.

So the show, just, it ballooned and we had callers and we just, it really started doing really well. And we just had so much fun doing it. And to go there and be on a sports show where you can, where you can speak your mind. Yeah. About sports. Yeah. And nobody cares. Right. They just laugh at your opinion, you know, it’s not like politics where, you know. But it was, it’s just, I still do it. I’m on Eric Asher’s show every Wednesday evening. I did WBOK with Garrett Saury yesterday. I love doing sports radio. I’m kicking myself for not taking communications in college more seriously and rather worrying about law school. I would have loved to have been in media. It’s just a missed love. That I do as a hobby. And I’m on with Ken Trahan and the late Ed Daniels, who was just, what a loss. Right. Ed Daniels was as good a man as you can find. Right. But I would do the show with them on Saturday mornings, live from the Deli. And, but yeah, I mean, the ESPN show was awesome. And we are discussing doing our own podcast, but it’s hard for Gus. You know, he’s working for the Pelicans and the Saints. Yeah. So, you know, and not only does he not have the time, but you can’t be opinionated, really. I can. John can. Rafael can say anything he wants. But, it just, it just, we’ve got the equipment, not this beautiful stuff. Yeah, right. But we’re talking about doing a podcast like this, a room like this, where we’re taking calls and we’ve discussed it, but Gus just doesn’t have the time. Gotcha. Yeah, I mean, I, I think it made it was an awesome show. And obviously you have a talent in doing this, right? For me, this has just been a fun journey when we created this podcast, where I get to meet people like you and learn a little bit from each one and build relationships.

It’s good exposure for the firm. It’s good exposure for their businesses and different people who come on. And so for the ESPN show for you, right? Like, what kind of fun, what kind of who wouldn’t have fun talking sports and get an able to get exposure for your restaurants, right? And make those relationships. It’s just talking shop with friends. Yeah. You know, and that’s the way we treated it. Yeah. You know, and people would come, call in or come on to the show that hadn’t been on radio before, and you could tell they’re nervous. Right. There’s nothing to be nervous about. You’re just talking shop. Yeah. I know, and I think you should do a podcast. I mean, I think people liked listening to y’all. And, well, we actually started one when we were doing that. We were doing the show. Gotcha. But Gus didn’t have time and, you know, and we need Gus. Yeah. You know, the other option is, you know, we have some friends. We’ll talk about that after the show. Maybe we can loop you into their podcast network and y’all be a part of them. But I have to get, because we only have limited time and I don’t want to keep you too long. I really want your opinions on some Saints items. I’m going to go down a line and I just, you know, a lot about sports. You’ve been covering. As we just talked about, covering sports for a long time. And some of these things have just been marinating in my brain for the last four or five weeks, and I’m genuinely curious about your perspective on it. The first is ownership of the Saints and the future of ownership.

Obviously Gail Benson owns, owns the team. She has no heirs. And there has been some, I guess, I don’t want to know how pushes the right way to say it, but I’ve seen more and more commentary online of people saying they feel like the NFL should step in or make some comments that at least push the Saints to have some level of succession plan. I know they published one like two years ago that it was going to go into a trust. Nobody believes the NFL is going to really allow them to do that in my humble opinion. Like, I think they should give it to us. Where do you think, where do you see the future of the ownership of the Saints going? I have no clue. I know that she’s promised to never let it get out of the city’s hands, the city ownership, or local ownership. Look, we’re fortunate to have an NFL franchise. Yeah. After Hurricane Katrina, we almost lost our NFL franchise. But hadn’t been for Arnie Filgo, we may have lost the franchise because he pulled the cat out of the bag. And, and it caused him his job with the Saints, but he felt that the fans needed to know. And we did. You know, I mean, we’ve supported that team through thick and thin. Yep. And, to move them would be just devastating to the city. Yep. You know, I love this city. I love where I live. I love Orleans Parish. I will be a New Orleanian my whole life. Always have been, always will. But the Saints are a big part of it. Absolutely. Now, I don’t know what their plan of succession is. Succession is. I don’t know what they’re doing. I know that the management seems to be the ownership. Yeah. Because they’ve made a lot of bad decisions over the past, well, even when Peyton was here. They made some really bad decisions. There’s players playing in the NFL right now that were on this team that were castoffs. Yeah.

Makes me sick. Yeah. Because the last year he played here, the last six games, they started playing him at edge. And he took off. And they still let him go. Yeah. So, there’s been some questionable decision-making, and when you do that, you need to look in the mirror. If you’re making the decision on your own job, you need to look in the mirror. I think he’s going to give it one last whirl. And I think Kellen Moore’s probably a pretty good hire. Yeah. It depends on who he hires. Right. But, they’re in a bad spot right now. Yeah. This kicking the can down the road with Drew Brees, you know, I’ve I believe we all supported it when it was happening. Sure. But it was kicked down the road a little too far. I mean, they’re in salary cap hell. People are talking about how this is the worst job in the league and blah blah blah. It’s a bad job for a year. Right. In 26, they’re pretty much out, depending on what they do now, they can be out of cap hell in 26. Right. And they can get a quarterback then. I think I’m getting off. No, I don’t think you are at all. Okay, I’m getting off of with the ownership because I really don’t know. I don’t know anything. No, I agree with everything you’re saying. It was like, you’re getting me all revved up because I, I, I 100% agree with your assessment, which is like, we were all complicit. We all should look at the mirror. We knew the cap games that were played. We wanted to win.

We wanted to win. And then we all went into depression after that Rams, NFC Championship game, which was. Yeah, and I mean, the devastating thing about the Chiefs, that was supposed to be our quarterback. I know. I know. And those are our championships. That’s why I don’t like the Chiefs. If not for us, yeah, they moved ahead of us and we ended up drafting Ryan Ramczyk. Yeah.. No. Lattimore. Lattimore. Okay, I’m sorry. I thought it was. Ramczyk was later in the draft. Gotcha. So, going back to the direction of the Saints. I don’t like to use the word tank. But they need a top three pick next year. Yeah. They need to knock it out of the park in this draft, like they did in 17. And come on, man. We know Peyton was complicit in that draft. Sure. He’s not here anymore. Right. So we’ve got people making decisions. And the decisions they’ve made since Peyton has been gone, other than Fuaga last year. Good pick. Good pick. Haven’t been that great. Right. So, I’m hoping they’re bringing someone into the building, whether it’s Randy Müller, I think he’s involved. On this draft, and next year’s draft. And this team will be out. It won’t be the worst job in the league that everybody in media is talking about right now. Right. I think that’s a little unfair. You get to come to New Orleans and work in New Orleans.

This is a great city, man. Yeah. I mean, we’ve got our little bumps and bruises and whatever. But we’re still New Orleans. And I’ve traveled all over and there’s nothing like New Orleans. So, I think the future of the Saints is just fine. I think next year’s gonna be should be, and probably will be ugly. Yeah. But I mean, they’re old. They’re, you know, but they’ve got to move on from all of this. Yeah. I couldn’t agree more with you. I think we definitely, like, aside from the Brees years, we kept kicking it and said, we don’t want to just take our medicine and deal with the cap scrap that has to come. Right. And it’s time to deal with it. The Derek Carr move was, obviously, like, seems like a wonderful guy, great athlete, got the arm of everybody, but he’s not the answer. Clearly. Long-term for the organization. And, well, not long-term. But he’s been good. Sure. He hasn’t been terrible.

But he’s been injured. Yeah. And he hasn’t had players around him. So, sorry. No, it’s okay. I 100% agree. I just, I think he was brought on and at least it was presented to us as if this was going to be a solution. Well, okay, we can win eight, nine, 10 games with this band-aid and not us not dealing with the cap issue. My only real issue has always been that I feel like some of the public statements that Mickey Loomis has said have maybe unintentionally on his part, but have kind of shirked accountability for some of the decisions where he’s said things like results don’t matter. And like, come on, that’s not fair to the fans. In a press conference. Yeah. You know, some of the things he said. And look, I’m a DA fan. Yeah. I really like DA. But comparing him to the greats of the past was a reach. Yeah. He had not proven that yet. I, I really thought he was going to be a good coach. Yeah. You know, I’m really he’s going to be great in Chicago. Yeah. Watch out for the Bears. Yeah. They’re going to be good. But, yeah, he needs to look in the mirror. I agree with that. And, and I like Mickey Loomis and but he needs to look in the mirror. And I think he’s a little bit too confident in himself. And I can’t imagine that when he looks in the mirror, that he’s really that confident. He’s just trying to project that to the fans. And it’s not a good look. Yeah, I agree. I think it’s, I think the fans would me personally, at least, I’d appreciate it more if he said, look, you know what? We made some mistakes. Here’s the mistakes we made. Here’s what we’re doing to fix them and to put the organization back into a better direction. Right. I don’t know about you, but when I was about 12 years old, my parents taught me that admitting your mistakes is a respectful thing.

Yeah. People respect when you look at them and say, I was wrong. Yeah. Because we’re all wrong sometimes. I’ve never heard that guy say he was wrong. That’s, that’s my issues with it. Where do where do you see, I mean, I think we’re all expecting right now as we’re talking about the Saints, that we think the general consensus is that Kellen Moore is probably going to be the next coach. Do you believe that there’s been, any plan or assurances to him as far as like, the number one position in the league, unfortunately, rightly or wrongly now, is the quarterback position. Like whether or not he gets to make decisions on bringing in and drafting a quarterback or if it’s developing Spencer Rattler. What are your thoughts there? Well, I think it cost Mike McCarthy any chance of becoming the Saints head coach because he came in and said, and he said the right things in my opinion. It, I think this is what was said. I want control. Yeah. And any coach coming here right now needs control over his players. Right. They’ve got to have a huge voice in the room. Simply because the right decisions haven’t been made. Right.

So, if I’m going to take this job and I know I’m going to look bad next year. Yeah. Absolutely. I need to make decisions on who my players and coaches is going to be. So, I would think, yes, you know, I would hope that he’s been given some assurances. You know, you kind of look like him. Like Kellen Moore? Yeah, a little bit. I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not. Let’s see if he wins. No offense, Kellen. Let’s see if he wins. We are, you know, no offense. If he wins, maybe it’ll be like, hey, shit, Scott Craig said I look like Kellen. Kellen freaking Moore. How about that? All right, so All interesting. I was dying to hear your perspective on some of that. But I also want to know, you know, this is going to be airing after the Super Bowl. Do you have a prediction on the winner and the score? Man, I wanted Buffalo to win so bad. Oh, me too. Once just. I wanted. I wanted Washington to win so bad for Jaden. Me too. And I bet Washington against Philadelphia. And I was all in on the Bills. Until I watched that game. And I said, man, I’m not betting against the Chiefs. This, I’m not betting against the Chiefs. I don’t really like Philadelphia or Kansas City. Like I would like the Bills, you know, I’m a Bengal fan more than any other. Other than the Saints. Bengals, another organization we gave away a great player. Offensive into. Henderson. Yeah. Henderson. Don’t get me started, man. I’m just, I’m just winding you up here, Scott. I mean, for a guy that I don’t, he can’t even stay on the field. David Port, in five years, has probably played one season. It’s horrible. It’s such a bad decision there. But, anyway, but I, I, I’m leaning towards Philadelphia because they’ve got an incredible defense. But Kansas City’s got a good defense.

They’ve got the best running game the NFL scene in a long time. They do. That’s right. It’s almost it’s it’s like old school NFL. Yep. And I love that. Yep. But I, I haven’t made up my mind. But I’m probably going to fall on the sword for the Chiefs. Probably. I don’t want them to win. I think you’d have been hard pressed to find. No offense to Chiefs or Eagles fans, that trashed you last week on the podcast, both. But I think it’d have been hard pressed to find, a person in South Louisiana on the main, who was not rooting for both Jaden Daniels and the Bills to end up in the Super Bowl. We really wanted that match up. And now we got the dose of reality with the Eagles and Chiefs. A replay of two years ago. Which was a good was a great game. Yeah. Yeah. I think this will be a more. I think this will be a really good game, honestly, because I agree with you. Yeah. Eagles have a great running game. I actually really like Hurts. Just his backstory and what he’s done. Yeah. He’s a great compliment to that running game. Agree. You know, it’s funny, I like all the Eagles players, I just hate the Eagles fans. Oh, man, I was at the game in 03, I think it was. And I was with some Paul Sanz, Judge Sanz and you know, really good friends of mine. And I got my Deuce McAllister jersey on. And we’re walking to the game. And we’re walking past his parking lot with a really tall chain link fence. Taller than legal. And they started throwing eggs at us, man. Yeah, it sounds about right. That tracks. I mean, they are. Don’t feel too bad. They booted Santa. So if they, don’t like Santa, I mean, you know, I got to the stadium and I went to a cop, I’m like, am I gonna be okay? And we had really good tickets, thank goodness, you know, but when it was like, I mean, them and Chicago, I mean, I can go.

I’ve been to a lot of games. I’m sure as a New Orleanian, you’ve also kind of, it’s been a whirlwind. I’ve been explaining to people the last couple months for me personally, watching the city beautify in the matter of two months. It looks beautiful right now, the murals, everything. Yeah. It is. But really like some of the stuff that just, you know, the upkeep that the city has not done a good job. The smallest things like they’ve pressure washed some of these old art deco, like the 60s, 70s buildings. They look great. Like I’m like, when did we just pressure wash these buildings five years ago? But in any event, obviously that, I know you’re probably with me, that kind of stuff’s awesome. That we’re gonna have that even after the Super Bowl. But talk maybe to our listeners, a little bit about what you’re anticipating at the restaurants, but how this is going to impact your businesses, your hope, and the different businesses, this week as we are welcoming, anticipate over 100,000 people in town for the Super Bowl. Well, we’re open and we have reservations available. Right. So, my experience in with the 2013 Super Bowl was. We got some. We got some fans that came in. But the NFL has gotten so corporate. And they’ve bought up everything down here. Yeah. In the CBD. The people that want to get away from downtown and get away for a meal or two, will come to our restaurants, you know, or Mandina’s or, you know, local legendary restaurants, old school restaurants. I’m sure. And because we’re on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and so much. And we’re doing the tail gate with Guy Fieri this weekend. We’ll get plenty of that business. But as far as getting business from the NFL, I mean, they have parties every night. Yeah.

You know, we’ll get some lunch business maybe. We’ve gotten some phone calls, but I, I, I, it’s gonna be a good week. It’ll be a good week. Awesome. All right. One thing I want to make sure we do before, we go into our next segment is talk bad things about Just because you went to Brother Martin. I did. Your brother Martin alum and very involved with Brother Martin. Why don’t you tell Miles why he made a mistake and going to Jesuit? Well, you know, And had to be a lack of character moment. You know, did you go to Miles? Did you go to the Brother Martin open house? I did go to Brother Martin open house. I actually used to go to their basketball camps as a kid. Well, you know, my dad went to John Curtis. So I had no connection. So you had a chance. I made a wrong decision. It’s. We should ask him why he chose Jesuit. Why did you choose? Rather than the school with 80 clubs and diverse student body, you know, why? Wow, so putting me on the spot. You know, just seemed like the right decision, right business decision at the time as an eighth grader. I was very wise, obviously. And when I walked into the blue and white, I said, it just looks better than crimson and gold. So, and I said, this is the place for me. No, listen. I think you, in my opinion, or the two best schools. This is my mother’s schools. But they’re two of the best schools in the city. Yeah. And they’re different in their own right. Absolutely. And it’s, you have certain kids that fit in Jesuit. And you have certain kids that fit at Brother Martin. And we’re lucky to have both schools. Honestly. I couldn’t agree more. I just wanted to take a shot at Miles. Where’d you go? I went to Holy Cross. I’m from. Oh, yeah. So I’m not a part of this debate. But I’ve wanted to stoke the fire a little bit.

But we do. We do. We do by lot. But we are what we are and they are what they are and what they are. Scott, tell us a little bit about, your involvement in Yep. For those people who are listening and don’t know much about Yep. What a great awesome organization. Youth Empowerment Project. I have a close. We talked about my friend Shelley, who’s very involved with the organization. And it’s just does amazing things. Why don’t you talk a little bit about Yep. And give us your why about why I know you’re very involved with the organization. And I know you believe strongly in it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Me and you have had when we were at lunch the other day, I could see in your eyes how much you believe in it. It’s, I’m really proud to be a part of it. Just a small part of it. I was asked to go to a lunch by Chris Lobato, one of my bankers, 10 years ago. Said, hey, man, come check something out. Come have some lunch. And I met these people. I met Melissa Sawyer. Darren. I mean, I could go down the list. Right. And I was just blown away. And I wanted to be a part of something to help my city. Yeah. And, they’re making a difference. For sure. They’re educating young people that don’t have what we joke about. Right. ED White, Jesuit, Brother Martin, they don’t have those opportunities. Right. And we’re offering them an opportunity to get that education and go to summer camps. And mold these young people into successful citizens. Right. They come from some pretty rough backgrounds. And, it’s heartwarming to see what Yep. Does. And I only see it at the meetings and events that I go to and, it’s impressive to see these testimonials from these young people. Yeah. And, Melissa Sawyer started this. Last year was 20 years. We had our 20th anniversary. And, she started it as a, as a charity to help, young juvenile Pete, young juveniles coming out of detention to get them adjusted to society. Right. And it’s blown up into this amazing, amazing group. Just the board members are, just the most caring, giving people. And that’s what it takes. Absolutely. And the people that work there have been there forever. Yeah. Miss Sandra and St. Charles Parish. Nicole.

That that is the. She’s the. The. The. The hand that makes the whole thing tick. Right. It’s just they’re great people, man. And it’s, it’s I love going to the meetings. I had to miss a meeting last year because I was out of the country. Obviously. I wanted to call in. Yeah. You know, because there’s always something that makes you feel uplifted and, it’s just, you know, I’ve made, I’ve had my son, you know, I do cooking classes and it’s for the summer camp. I haven’t done it in a while for some reason. Not me. I don’t know why they don’t, we rather don’t have a place. But, but, I brought my son to see. You know, how these kids are being affected by Yep. And to show him what he has and what he’s so lucky to have. Yeah. And, you know, so it’s just about giving back to your city, man. For sure. That’s the bottom line. And Yep. In my opinion, if you have extra money and you want to donate money, please give it to Yep. Yeah. Because we’re making a difference. 100%. It’s an incredible organization. I actually think, one of the Yep. Yep. Students or mentees, who I just saw in past years. I think Julian Gumbs, who was an all-conference running back at Nichols. It was a Yep. Success story. Out of New Orleans. And y’all have a lot of success stories. And we just have so many. I’ve been there. Oh, we’ve got kids that have become nurses. And I, I mean, it’s it’s incredible. Teachers. Yeah. You know, it’s, you know, education becomes such a big part of the foundation of being, having a shot at success in life, right?

And. Unless you get NIL. There you go. Seems like education doesn’t matter anymore. In some cases. But those. I’m kidding. You know, but in those cases, it’s like, what about the education? Oh, yeah. I mean, if you’re Arch Manning, you’re kind of like set, right? Or. He was set anyway. He was set anyway. Maybe he’s a bad example. Okay, if you’re, I don’t know. Pick, one of the top, any of them. The guy who that Michigan just signed away from LSU. I mean, like Underwood. Okay. I mean, like he’s set. He’s good. Thanks to NIL. Yeah. But look what LSU did with that money. That’s fair. That’s fair. And so it’s going to be. Brian Kelly got smart. Fair. You know, what, I think from that experience, we’re going to shift gears here to LSU. I think Brian Kelly showed me. He’s not a dummy because he shifted gears and figured out how to take a bad hand that he got dealt with Underwood. And how to play that hand to his favor, right?. And learned something from it. 100%. You don’t pay these high school kids the money. You give it to transfers. There you go. Got to have skins on the ball. And, two lanes doing it too. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I’m I’m impressed with both. Both programs. Yeah. I think the coach at two lanes got some good guys. He’s unbelievable. Doing a great job. Man, I sent out and talked to him. And it’s all ball, man. I’m gonna be honest. This is maybe me being mean. But I didn’t really understand how the old coach was so successful from what I watched of him. But like, I watched the new coach and I’m like, man, this guy’s good.. He hit a home run. He’s going places. Harris hit a home run. Yeah. The ADs, the real deal too. Nice. I didn’t know that. Okay. Good to know. And Harris. He’s he’s the real deal. Okay, shifting gears with an incredible organization, Yep. We’re going to put it in the show notes. Please donate if you can. I want to shift to this new if you’ll allow me. And this new segment we’ve been doing is sponsored by Super Witch Ice Cream. Have you heard of Super Witch Ice Cream? Yes, I have. Have you tried it yet? I have not. Okay, you’re going to have to. Is that the one out in Harahan? It is. And you can only get that ice cream on Wednesday nights.

But Super Witch, batch ice cream is the sponsor of this session. Overruled. And so the rules here, Scott, are you either Overruled or Sustain something. If you Sustain it, you’re in favor of it. If you Overrule it, you’re against it. And Miles got some questions for this session. He’s going to ask you now. You ready? Let me ask about the, the Super Witch Ice Cream. Does it just plain ice cream or does he put stuff in it? Oh, no. It’s like a, a journey. That’s a different. Does he do every. So, every now and then he’ll do like a plain like during Thanksgiving. Or just like a cookies and cream? Yes, yes. Because I understand he throws a lot of stuff. He does. Yeah, there’s different. I think there’s different. He’ll do a plain vanilla every now and then. He’ll do a just a cookies and cream. But yes, he does. He does take a lot of pride. Okay, I got to try that. I’ve been I just forgot about it. Gotta be on that. There’s a guy in Mid City that does it too. I don’t know. Oh, really? Get the name. But I don’t forget the name. Super Witch was the first one. Yeah. Well, Briggs, Briggs is a good. He was been on the podcast. He’s a good friend of mine. So I obviously highly recommended. He owns Super Witch. He makes ice cream. Oh, Super Witch. He’s the witch of Super Witch. I’m going to go out and see him. He wears a witch hat. You have to get there early. What times at ready? Well, it’s kind of complicated. I don’t think we have time to talk about it. But if I go there at 6 o’clock, is there going to be ice cream? You get set times that you have to pick the ice cream up. So you have to be on. You have to order it. You have to order it on Wednesday night at 7. And you got to be on there. Or it’s going to sell out. Can’t order before Wednesday? Nope. No, you got to be on there at 7 o’clock.

That’s kind of the allure of. Wednesday, 7 o’clock. You get a pick up time. You got to go out there and get the ice cream. You know, Kroll Creamery is really close to me. It’s very close and very convenient. Briggs, you know, Briggs. Briggs, I’m coming. I’m coming, buddy. I’m coming. All right, Miles, let’s go. Three questions for Scott. Overruled or Sustain. Well, obviously for you as well. I mean, so let’s see how we go. All right, first one is an easy one. Pineapple is great on pizza. Overruled or Sustain? Overruled. It depends on taste. I mean, Sustain. Okay. Okay. A little surprised by that. All right, this next one, Saints related. Spencer Rattler is the future of the New Orleans Saints. Overruled or Sustained? Overruled. Overruled. Overruled. I think. And the last one, this was a David requested this. Bottomless Mimosas are better than bottomless Bloody Marys. Overruled or Sustained? Sustain. I’m going to say Overruled. Bloody Mary, you like Bloody Mary? But you have both. You have the option of both at Kaden’s. But you can only drink so much Bloody Mary. That’s a fair point. I’m more of the Mimosa guy. More like a lunch. Yeah, but I’m going to just have two of them and move on to a different drink. I’m not I’m not bottomless she’s drinking anything anymore. So, you know, I don’t drink much, you know, it’s like those days are over. All right, that’s been our Overruled session brought to you by Super Witch Ice Cream. And last Scott, I want to wrap up the show. First of all, it’s been an incredible time talking to you.

But I was hoping you could share. Man, so many decades of success and challenges that you faced in the restaurant industry. I, I was telling you before the show, I always am amazed at the lack of understanding from people who vitify owning a bar or restaurant. And how truly difficult your industry is from the cost of goods sold, the people, both internally and externally, and the challenges and the consistency of the product. Could you just tell our listeners, maybe some of the, the top three, if you can, distill it into three lessons you’ve learned over the years? Because you’ve been a very successful, operator of multiple restaurants in the city. That you would like to impart. Well, if you own a bar, and owning a bar can be, very lucrative. You can do very well. But treat it like a business and not a playground. Yeah. It’s, you can do really well in the bar business if you treat it like a business. The, what I’ve learned in the restaurant, you know, how to deal with people. But, you know, my parents instilled that in me to, to, to like people. And, and, you know, I always try to, if someone’s in a bad mood, I try to help him out and flip it. If someone’s grumpy, you know, and, well, he, you know, that guy’s an ass. Right. No. Get down inside and understand who that person is. So, I’ve learned to, to, learn, understand people, care about people. That’s taught me a lot over the years. And I think you can learn that anywhere. And it’s sort of instilled in you at a young age if you’re going to be if you’re going to really care about others. And it’s taught me to care about others and be charitable. And in my business can be really good for charity. I mean, we can, we can help with food and.

And raise money. And, you know, we talked to so many people. You know, I have problems with names because I simply can’t remember everyone’s names. And as I get older, it gets worse. But, it’s just, you know, understanding people, and appreciating people. And, you know, also, it’s taught me consistency in life, you know, and being, you know, having a consistent, what’s the word I’m looking for? Routine. A routine. It’s taught me to be more routine oriented, and I’m still not great at it, but because I’m ADD and I’m kind of all over the place.

But I’m Dido and a lot over here with this. Teaches you to, you know, you’ve got to be consistent in what you do. And that, that’s ends up, you know, making the food better, and your employees better, and everything, your life can just be, you know, it gives you structure. Yeah, I think the, the interesting thing about all the lessons that you just shared is one of the things I’ve been thinking about a lot recently is most things in life become perspective and how you shift things between the two years that we each have grown on the sides of our heads, right? Like the bad customer experience that I talked to the team all the time and I’ve seen Miles, some other people on our team recently have had success, which we have a client or a customer who’s had a bad experience. Like, let’s let’s use that as an opportunity to win them back and get that deep down into that and really turn around as opposed to blaming them and deflecting. And, you know, what I mean? So, really good lessons. And it’s also taught me how to fix things, to fix issues and how to deal with issues. Like the worst thing you can do to a restaurant is leave without telling someone you weren’t happy. Yeah. Give us a chance to fix it. Right. Give us a chance to do better and teach us to not make that mistake again.

But, you know, and social media, just it’s the old double-edged sword. It is. It is what it is. It is. Well, Scott, thank you so much for being here. It’s been an awesome discussion. I’m definitely going to drop both Francesca’s and Katie’s and the show notes and link to them, two great restaurants in the city, which you should be have a lot of, pride in and what you’ve done and growing those two restaurants. I also love talking about the Saints. We’re also going to link to Yep. Please consider donating to Yep if you don’t know much about it. And we’ll link to Brother Morton for Miles’s are, just so we can really jab him a little bit. You realize we could do this all day. I know. I guess we all have to go to. Guys, thanks for having me on. Yeah, it’s been a pleasure. Pleasure and honor. I love doing this. So if there’s something you ever want to talk about, give me a call. Well, we appreciate that. And we may do that. So first off, thank you to all of our listeners for listening to this show. Like I said, we’ll link everything below for you to get to Katie’s, Francesca’s and to Yep. Thanks to Scott for being here. This is as always, has been another great episode of the Overruled podcast brought to you by the Scott Vicknair Law firm. Thank you all for listening. We will see you soon. Overruled. Scott Vicknair injury attorneys. We fight for the win. Information is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute tax, investment or legal advice. Always consult with a qualified investment, legal or tax professional before taking any action.