re: Bellegarde Bakery is Closing edit: NVM

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This combined with the hostile business environment of New Orleans, articulated perfectly in a recent post by Chef Eric Cook, has only made things worse

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Does anyone have a link to this post?

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Gris Gris posted it on this board

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Found it....had to google Eric Cook tigerdroppings....real hard one.

I feel terrible about this—but as much as I love his bread and appreciate his zeal about local food sourcing and disrupting industrial ag and food production, he didn’t exactly operate with business sense during the shutdown. Everyone was going nuts for flour: you could hardly find it in retail quantities: he stayed closed, and for a period of weeks, you could only get it mail order, even if you were local.

Suddenly people were paying attention to food sourcing, thinking about food supply chain disruptions: he was doing pre-orders only, with very limited pickup hours.

There was an opportunity to pivot, quickly, and he missed it. When he shut the first time, plenty of long time supporters placed orders—but he didn’t exactly seize the opportunity to broaden his audience at the precise moment every random person decided to bake sourdough bread.

Change is hard—and I can appreciate your business model collapsing bc your wholesale accounts dried up. But hell, prop up a cell phone in the corner of the bakery and start live-streaming basic baking tips that will sell your flour—and your bread. Haul it to the several area farmers markets that never closed throughout the pandemic, shout about it’s availability from the rooftops, or on all the media you can manage.

He’s an artist and a philosopher and a dreamer. But he’s not a businessperson, at the end of the day. He wants to lead with the ideals, and sometimes you just gotta sell stuff, any way you can. Hustling is a skill, not everyone has it.

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He’s an artist and a philosopher and a dreamer. But he’s not a businessperson, at the end of the day. He wants to lead with the ideals, and sometimes you just gotta sell stuff, any way you can. Hustling is a skill, not everyone has it.

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He sounds like a liberal so he can’t be very smart. But I see your point. Look at what the local food distributors did during the same time.

Some comments on the reddit thread regarding the closing in r/neworleans could add some context to this discussion- but most of it is clearly hearsay.

I think he/she is talking about the multi million dollar FEMA grant that was given to the city. The city then contracted with Chef's Brigade and Revolution Foods. Chef's Brigade is a new non-profit originally set up to help feed first responders and healthcare workers in New Orleans during the pandemic. This FEMA grant is for meals to over 65, covid positive residents, homeless, adults with high risk, etc. Revolution is the California company (Headquarters in Oakland) he is talking about, but they have a facility in Kenner. Chef's Brigade and Revolution split the grant money. CB takes care of the food organization, etc. Revolution takes care of the packaging. The restaurants who participate receive money for their meals so it is helping them with needed revenue while feeding the most vulnerable at this time. Any restaurant or chef can apply to be a part of the program. Not sure why he didn't take advantage of it ???? Check it out at chefsbrigadenola.org

Rev Foods is very prevalent in the local school sector, and like you said, they have a kitchen in Kenner. They have feeding the masses in a safe packaged way down to a freakin science so it’s no shock they’re using them for packaging.

Like you said, restaurants could apply to assist (exactly like the local nonprofit currently feeding out of school Louisiana children — though it’s local to here) so it kinda disappoints me it is framed the way it is in that post.

A random standalone restaurant with zero experience feeding mass quantities of people with grant money is not going to be given millions to do this. This is why it goes to the professionals and restaurants can apply to be a part of it.

Chef’s Brigade does awesome stuff. Check out Three O Clock Project, the BR nonprofit helping kiddos.

Part of the issue was debt carrying. Forgot the exact time frame, but those small restaurants had to front all the costs and carry they debt for a month or two before repayment.

Not many restaurants were in a position financially to do so.

Not sure how it was setup. Krewe of Red Beans has a lot of capital right now so maybe they are paying the restaurants upfront or covering their base costs and will give them a profit when the money comes.

Think there was an initial tight deadline that made securing capital difficult for the restaurants.

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our country and our city need an organ transplant

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I agree. About 47% of the population needs a brain transplant. Somebody call Dr Hfaaaar.