Al Copeland, Jr.

This episode of NOLA Famous was mixed and mastered by Soul Sonics. That's S-O-U-L-S-O-N-I-S. If you're looking to get the highest quality recording, check out SoulSonics now. Tell them we sent you and get 20% off your first session. Today's episode of Nola Famous is sponsored by Lavish Lemonade, a delicious blend of lavender and fresh lemonade, all organic and vegan friendly, locally made and bottled here in New Orleans. It mixes great with vodka too, just saying.

So make sure that you always shop local, buy local, and buy lavish lemonade. That looks good. It's really good, too. You know, actually, this would make a good margarita, too. I mean, it's really good. That's good. Tastes like spa a little bit. Like I taste something I would get from a spa. Yeah. Because it's that lavender. So we had tequila to hype us up and we had the lavender calms down. Perfect. It would be a good day.

Live from Landing Zone Studios, this is Nola Famous. I'm your host, Tatum Gardner. Happy Friday, everyone. Hola, y'all. If you know who the guest is today, that's a hint. Hola, y'all. Wherever you go in New Orleans and see that sign. Today, my co-host is the always beautiful Dr. Amber Lee. Hello. Like my partner in crime these days. Yes, it's so fun. She's always ready to come back and we're always glad to have her.

Thank you. Our special guest today is CEO and chairman of the Al Copeland Investments. He is a member of the most distinguished entrepreneurial family in New Orleans. Mr. Al Copeland, Jr. Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate you. No, I'm honored to be sitting across from you. Thank you. It is. It's an honor. Yeah. So is this your first podcast? Yes, it is, actually. Oh, we love it. Yes.

We're going to go easy on you. All right, okay. Right? Yeah, of course. I need an office class first. Yeah. So I just want to set the scene. You know, Mr. Copeland comes in. He's got two big brown bags.

And when he opens those bags, it's filled with margaritas and fried chicken tortillas. Like, what gets better than that? Nothing. Right? Absolutely nothing. And it's delicious. And if you think Popeye's chicken is good, this chicken is good too, but it's just different. It's like a more southern...

Right? Different recipe. It's an herb fried chicken. Yeah. We have the onions and the peppers and the celery components into the spice. So it really gives a, it really wake up to your mouth and get your mouth watering for the next bite. So I really like it. recipe that we came up with about seven years ago. It's on our Copeland's menus, and then we put it on a lay menu, and we thought, what would be better than New Orleans? A fried chicken fajita. So we do that. You get it grilled.

But the fried chicken fajita is one of my best sellers. Definitely. And once you've had it, why would you ever eat a grilled chicken? I'm not going back. It's so good after having it. It's like the most robust flavor. It's so good. Yeah. Once you go fried, you never go back. No. It's all about marrying flavors too. The sauces, the habanero ranch, I love with it. Top it off with a little guacamole and a little pico de gallo. And it's really, really good.

Yeah. So this is a little surreal for me. Like I just sound silly or whatever, but I'm a huge fan. You know, I mean, when you grow up in New Orleans and the Copeland name, you're just your family and your legacy. So now you are in charge and CEO and chairman of the Al Copeland Investments. So tell me, like there's so many different facets to that. There is. So it's broken down to really four main businesses. We have a manufacturing business. We still do all.

proprietary recipes for Popeye's fried chicken and we have we do business manufacturing business so we do custom foods for large companies like 300 unit change and more okay and that's what diversified diversified food and then we have the restaurant division in which you have copeland's restaurants cheesecake bistro and a little concept called batch 13 and we just opened no leg so i mean born and bred in restaurant business love the restaurant business uh it's uh

It's the hardest business we're in, but it's rewarding. And then we have the hotel business. We've got the Copeland Tower in Metairie. We've got the St. Charles Coach House downtown. And we have one restaurant, I mean, one hotel in the front.

So, you know, that's really a fun business and a hospitality business. And the third thing that we do is run the Al Copeland Foundation. We've done some amazing work there. And that's been a key initiative of mine since my father died. I made a promise to him to try to find a...

cure for the cancer that he had and we did so it's it's that it's really a miracle that we're able to accomplish that so those are the that's my daily routine right yeah let's break it down a little bit though we so let's start i guess with on delay because that's your latest Restaurant Project, right? And you guys have been open since March of this year? Yeah, no, yes, that's exactly right. April 1st. April, okay. No joke.

And that is actually attached to one of the hotels on St. Charles, the Stagecoach, correct? It's Coach House. Coach House is a 44 room. hotel. Big rooms, high ceilings, fully renovated, and it has a theme. explore like a local stay like a guest so it's got a big map on the back of the wall and we can tell uh tourists how to get through the town like a local would yeah it's got 40 it's got 44 cubby holes everybody's got their own cubby hole for their room

so we can leave them little goodies in there that they can take to the room. And it's all centered around transportation. The building is always, it opened as a Packard dealership back in the early 1900s when it was built by the Tabet family. And so we then.

and then it was a catalytic dealership and ended up closing as a mercedes-benz dealership so we really took that into the design and under the choice brand ascend and we created like our own thing our soft a soft brand called coach house st charles coach house and so attached

to that i mean you walk out the doors there and you walk into nolay and nolay is uh the cuisine de las americas it's really paying homage to uh latin america and its influence on new orleans or spanish and its influence on new orleans see that spread that kind of culturally or environmentally spread through the entire menu in the space.

Yeah, it's one of my favorites. So it's like a marrying of the French Cajun cuisine and the Latin American cuisine, which is something totally different for the city. That's right. You know, New Orleans is so competitive. I always believe, you know, we do a lot of...

business in the suburbs. And I really want to get ingrained in the community, wherever we have restaurants. And when we go into New Orleans, that's a big pot pie to fish in. So we wanted to have something unique. We wanted to meet an unmet need. to host really huge events there. We can have 280, 300 people to smaller rooms broken off into really fun spaces to everyone enjoy.

Yeah, we went, my husband and I, to a tequila dinner there, actually, the Herador dinner. And so it was like pairing the different tequilas with the different dishes that Nole offers. Yeah, I think you were there. Yeah, we were in the terrace room. Yeah. And we did.

a little pairing of tequilas with food. It was phenomenal. Everyone had a ball in there. What a night that was. Look, when I left, I'm telling my husband, I want to go to the Haradora place and see where they make the tequila. Like, that's possible. Have you been? No. No? No. I have not been, but I like drinking and I compare it well with the food that we do. Yeah.

But no time for that yet. No, that was fun. That was my first tequila tasting dinner that I had ever been to, you know. I mean, I've always done wine pairing dinners, but that was such a great concept. I think you need to do another one. No problem. That was fun. I'll sign you up.

Stop me off, always. Nolay's one of our favorites. And so let's talk about, you said events. I know that you guys have a lot of events coming up this month, actually. First, Drag Brunch, right? Yes, we have the Drag Brunch. That is happening. October 19th. Oh, thank you. October 19th. We haven't done one of those before. And so I understand that they're very popular. My daughter, Allison, is the vice president of restaurant operations. It was her idea to do this. And so...

you know, I agreed to do it and I think it's going to be a great time. We'll have a lot of fun. A lot of people really enjoy going to drag brunches. Yeah, it's really fun. It's so popular right now. It is so popular right now. And I think just brunch in general. I mean, that's like our favorite thing to do. Brunch is the best. It is. Yeah, brunch. It's a reason to drink on Sunday. That's right. Morning.

So you've been involved in the family business always from a very young age. And now I heard you mention that your daughter was in charge of what was her role? She's the vice president of restaurant, the restaurant division. So she reports directly to me. And she's been working with me for about maybe eight, 10 years now. And she started in HR and worked her way up. She's doing a great job. The way that it started for me was Popeyes was founded when I was nine years old. So I can recall.

everything about it and we lived very poor and in some bad neighborhoods and gunshots outside and it was when i was a young kid a lot of scary moments but to see this evolve into what would happen when i was nine i'd come home from school and i didn't realize what i was asked to do but i was supposed to bag seasonings and and tear off labels of bottles for the first

of Popeye's chicken restaurant. So it was always a proprietary secret. And so our first manufacturing division started in our garage. And I was the only employee. That's so awesome. I love that. And you're one of, like, you come from a big family. Nine, nine. Wow. Eight others. Okay. So, yeah, and so we grew through that. And so I started working for Popeyes when I was 12 years old. Wow. And worked there every single summer that I possibly could.

And I just worked myself on the way up at the organization. That's such a great story. And so it's always been a family business. And do you feel like now that you've taken over, it's kind of the same? Like it's mostly a family business. Are all your children involved, all the family? I have... three of my daughters that are involved in the business now. And Allison runs it. I've got one that's the director of purchasing.

And one that's in marketing. And it's great to have them a part of the business because you can't depend on your family to help you run the business. Who can you depend on? Well, I think it's a testament, too, to you. I've met your father before. Everyone in your family, I feel, is so... nice and humble and it's just such a testament that to have family members want to be involved in the business right so uh i think it's great yeah it is and do you find

too with having the name like Copeland it's hard sometimes like you know like the Bensons I mean everything is just out there you know anytime you do something your family falls and stuff but y'all manage to fly under the radar like there's not a lot of press about you guys you know We're people's people, you know, and I think we blend in well. I mean, I'll high-five the dish cooks, the dishwasher cooks, you know, in the kitchens, and we have fun.

at what we do and when you when you raise from humble beginnings and and you happen to have success the american dream comes true for you then you really you know take that to heart and you want to try to help everyone get there yeah well you've learned you learned working every summer since you've been 12. And so still to this day,

Is the Popeyes recipe secret? I mean, I know... It is secret. About five years ago, I sold a recipe to Popeyes in exchange for a 20-year supply contract to supply them with that recipe. So it was a really good deal because we were heavily invested in Popeyes and had anything going wrong with that business, the family would have, I mean, that was its financial income. So to be able to cash out the recipe allowed them to do some things that they wanted to do with the company.

And we got in return our supply business for 20 years, which were 15 years left on our contract. Yeah. What an amazing deal. I know. I'm sure your dad was smiling down on that one. Yeah. That and $43 million. Yeah. Exactly.

No big deal. Yeah. But you know, I read too, because you hear that and you're like, oh my God, $43 million. Somewhere where you said, you know what? It's not like anybody got a big sum of cash and we're like riding off into the sunset. I mean, like, you know, you're still working. Everyone's still working. Yeah.

So it wasn't like anybody could run off in a sunset. We'd have a less debt to pay. But it was a good thing to do to help us balance the portfolio a little bit. And we're happy with the supply. It's a very profitable business, and we supply over 3,000 Popeyes locations currently. Wow. Yeah, and you still own a few Popeyes, correct? I do. I own three Popeyes on the West Bank. I've always had it. When I was...

25 years old, my father gave me, he said, I want to let you get into your own business. So he said, I want you to pick one or two restaurants and I'll turn it over to you. And it was a restaurant that was profitable. And he said, you're going to take over the restaurant.

You're going to take over the debt. You're going to take over the employees. And this is going to start your own business for yourself. So I did. I ended up buying another Popeyes, franchising another Popeyes, and then franchising a couple. of churches fried chicken and then I sold off to churches.

fried chickens and added another Popeyes later on after Katrina. But it was a great learning lesson for me to understand how corporate world work and then having my own business, my own franchise, you know, in addition to that. And so today I actually own the three popeyes and i have the copeland's franchise on in kenner almost as planade and uh i was able to franchise that from copeland's before my father passed and it was in march of 07 that we opened it and he died in march of 08.

So it wasn't long after that. He looked so healthy and so perfect, you know, during that time to think one year later, he could be gone. It's amazing. Yeah, I know. And it can happen anytime. And it does, and it happens fast, too. but owning chains of fast food restaurants and then owning restaurant chains.

What is the difference and what would you rather? Like how is one harder or one easier or is it just the same? Restaurants or fast food like Copeland's and Popeye's. One of them is more of a transactional business and the other one's more of a hospitality business. Is one harder? Yeah. Well, it's two ways to look at it. I mean, the transactional business is kind of a minimum wage plus type employee base with the entry level for management. And then when you get up to the casual dining segment.

the higher level management, higher level of crew, you know, cooks skill, actually. And so you really, it's a high, it's just a higher level. So it's really the hospitality component. both cooking great food we're both sober serving good food but at Copeland's you really the dining experience measures in a lot of ways the success of the of the visit unlike just at Popeyes you know you get the food it's a transaction

Hopefully they're nice and we get this transaction without any frills and they leave happy. Okay, I'm just asking because I'm thinking... Mardi Gras, Popeye's chicken. Like, is that the busiest? Hand in hand. Right. It is.

boxes of chicken to go out to the praise all day right good thank you for that yeah it's yeah you know popeyes became the official chicken of mardi gras when my father came up with popeyes doubloons uh back in the early mid-70s okay and so we It was, if you got a Popeye's the balloon, you could walk in and get two free chess pieces of chicken on the spot for free.

Oh, wow. I didn't know that. And we did that for the first year and it was crazy. That should probably come back. The police were asking us to please stop throwing up because people were going crazy. I mean, they were treating it like, you know, it really was. It was like worth two bucks or something. at that time. And that was like throwing money off the balcony. Oh my gosh.

He ran out of doubloons one day and he started throwing dollar bills. That was funny. He was such a big personality. Like larger than life, big personality. Yeah. You know, and to know him is to love him, right? That's right. Well, you know, coming from nothing and then having something and then, you know.

feeling good about that, sharing that with him, his family and his friends and even people we didn't know is what it was all about. Some people liked that, some people didn't like that, but that's who he was. I feel like that is so imbued.

the energy of Popeyes itself like you just want to celebrate when whenever you have Popeyes I feel like you're celebrating something like a Saints win or Mardi Gras or getting together tailgating whatever it's it there's so much fun yeah perspective yeah it's fine so it's good for your soul it feels like you you really are um

filling your soul when you eat it. Yes, 100%. It's so different from, I feel, all the other chicken franchises. I mean, we're not even going to bring up the chicken sandwich situation. I was going to bring up the chicken sandwich situation. Okay, fine, we'll go there.

Okay, because I haven't tried it yet. So have you had a chicken sandwich? I've developed it. Yeah. I mean, we developed it in the R&D lab over at Diversify. We sell them the marinade, the batter, and we actually... we actually created the breading and uh someone else supplies that okay but But we pretty much supply everything for it. I mean, they do have a marinated pickle and they have a great bun also. And Popeye's committed to a station just for chicken sandwiches.

It was a full-on commitment for all the restaurants in the franchise community to do this. And the chicken sandwich is phenomenal. I mean, you've seen them. to videos. You've seen the taste test. I mean, everyone is put up against a taste test. I haven't seen Popeyes lose. No. I mean, it's streaming on all social media sites. Like, yeah, everywhere. It's like, okay, who broke the internet? Yeah. It's Kim Kardashian and the Popeyes. Yeah.

And not only that, there were cops, like, in every single Popeye's drive-through line, there were cops around Mandeville and Covington, and I was like... What is going on? And then I saw on social media, I was like, oh, traffic. Oh, yeah, because the lines were so long out into the highway. Yeah. Yeah. It's not good. Yes. Yes. It'll be back. I mean, just no one could sustain no supplier. Employees were just.

worn out. So they're staffing up. They're getting all the equipment that they need. They're getting all suppliers stocked up, including us, and they're going to relaunch. very soon oh my gosh it's gonna be more chaos your family should be used to like all that the police every time y'all do something like Christmas lights your dad used to have to have the police escorts right into the city yes Yes. Another line for another Copeland's event. Yeah. We try to do it big.

Exactly. Big and right. Perfect. So I know we talked about a little bit off the air about the Christmas lights and stuff, but, you know, I'm a kid of the 80s. That's where everyone went. It wasn't Christmas season until you passed by the Copeland lights. And you grew up in that house. And, like, how was it to be living there, seeing that? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it felt normal to me, actually, because it was part of my life.

I knew the story behind, you know, he said that he saw the Centennial House and if he ever had enough money, he was going to do it. And he's always told us that. So when he had enough money to start it, he started doing it. And it wasn't a big phenomenon overnight. So it just... I mean, it started pretty big, but then it got bigger and bigger and bigger. Like Popeyes. And the wax got larger and larger and larger. Yeah.

And the neighbors got more pissed and more pissed and more pissed. He seems like a guy that really didn't give a shit about that. No. Until they took him to court. Yeah. And the judge said, take him down. Right. But that's a whole other story. You know, what is the best piece of advice do you think that you've ever gotten from your dad about business? I think work hard and be true to who you are and what you are and try to have a vision of where you're going.

and lead the teams to get there. We're not in this alone. It's about teamwork and working with people. And you're going to be successful if you have good people who work for you that are on a path to go. we wanted to go. And there's confidence in that when you structure it that way. How do you feel like you're the same as him in business? And then how would you say that you're different from him?

He was very reactionary, I would say. He's a true entrepreneur. I mean, it was like, what are we doing today? How are we doing with that? How are we doing with that? This is tomorrow's idea. What are we doing? How's it going? So I'm a little more strategic because I was the executor of that. My daughter tells me I'm a lot like him because I'm kind of the entrepreneurial visionary now.

And so, you know, I have a little more compassion for the strategic part of it, but not as much as I did back when I had to do it. So it was, you know, something that I think, you know. I would say that's a big part of it. Growing up, working in every single department that we had within the business and doing it through a concept development position that I had.

back in the Popeye's days really got me in tune with to the business, the people, and how each department worked. And so I was able to be more strategic in my efforts. My husband inherited the family business from my father-in-law who, much like your dad, you know, he started from nothing and built it up and was very successful. And then when he passed away, my husband inherited it. And I just remember him talking to me and saying, you know,

To start it from nothing is so hard, but to get it and keep it going, that's a big pressure too. Like, have you ever felt that? Well, that's been my job. And so I look at my job as two things. One is to try to...

maintain the business and the legacy, you know, that we have within the business. I mean, he created these businesses. We have to continue, I want my job to continue to run them and then add to it. As times change, we continue to, I mean, to have relevant businesses. Copeland's is 36-year-old company plus.

And to be relevant in today's world still is a hell of an accomplishment. And look at Popeyes and its relevancy now with the chicken sandwich and the way that they're developing. It's phenomenal that they're able to continue to get. you know new groups of people younger generations stay relevant with them well chicken brings everyone together let's be honest especially down here in the south yeah it's like

Yeah, it connects everyone, I feel. But I feel like we're chicken snobs too. Like, I mean, we like good fried chicken, you know? And so the fact that Popeye's still is relevant to this day, it's because it's good. It's just good. chicken period it's good hot it's good cold it's good the next day yeah it's good when you're hungover yes no matter what so um how how soon after your dad died if you don't mind let's talk about the um

Al Copland Foundation, right? That's such a huge part of what you guys do. When did you start that? It is, it started while he was alive. It did, okay. We've wanted the foundation at that moment to try to find a cure for the cancer that he had while he was alive. I mean, the first intention was, you know, he said, you know, during Thanksgiving time, we stand up and...

say what we're thankful for. Everybody goes around the table and he says, I'm thankful for life and I want to, my wish is to find a cure for the cancer that I have. And it was a rare cancer, so that was a long shot. And so we, you know. We made a promise to him that we would get that done. So we went to work on it immediately to try to save his life. And when that didn't pan out, we continued the path.

It was a near impossible path. I mean, how it came was really heaven sent and spiritual in a way that it had to happen. The stars lined up perfectly. opened a clinical trial here at the LSU Health and Science Center for Merkel cell, which we passed a patient walked in with stage four Merkel cell carcinoma was given three months to live.

and uh he went through our treatment protocol that we had developed and bought equipment and to do and uh two and a half years later he's traveling the world you know in complete remission of cancer wow We feel like we've... It played a part in curing cancer as it relates to Merkel cell. And it's all through immunotherapy programs where your own body is used to fight the cancer. It opens up cancer receptors, tumor receptors, so your body can fight it 24 hours.

hours a day versus chemotherapy which is really partially would cause some problems for him because that's just killing all the cells in your body. Whether it's good or bad. So did you say immunotherapy? Yes. And is that, are you guys testing it on other types of cancer besides the cancer that your father passed on? Yeah, we have 17 open trials now. Bladder, kidney, colon, breast. I mean, it goes beyond. unbelievable. We have two other patients that have

And when you go to clinical trials, that means there's no standard protocol for treatment. So this is a high-risk situation. And so we have two more patients that have come in with bladder cancer that are now cancer-free. through the program. That's amazing. So wait, that's three people now? Three people. That's amazing. Saving their lives. Save lives, one life in your life. Sounds like an accomplishment. I was about to say, how does that make you feel? Are you just like, I want to save more.

yeah yeah i'm not gonna stop here no we we got we have a lot more work to do and we need everybody's support yeah you know i i really try to embrace the community with this so we have events we do our chicken jam during the summer and we do a national fried chicken day matter of fact and we do an event called crew to cure and a golf tournament and And it's at alcoplanfoundation.org where you can donate and read all about what we're doing.

People really gravitated to this. This is the latest and greatest form of medicine. And it doesn't hurt your body to take this protocol. And that's what's most important. And it's having an amazing success. How do people get involved or get enrolled to participate in these trials? Well, you go to, there's a trial.

I don't know exactly the numbers or how to get to it, but for LSU Health and Science, they've got theirs all listed. And if you go through the Al Copeland Foundation, we can guide you to any open trials that are open and available in the United States. So if you come through us, we can make it happen for you. Congratulations. That's an amazing, amazing story. So amazing. Yeah.

So, Mike, are you a spiritual guy? How big of a role does spirituality play in your life? Well, I'd say more after he died than before. But it always takes something like that to get you a little more wired and connected. I am spiritual. I don't take it over the top, but I do believe in God and I believe that I've got high power that's guiding me through all this because there's no way it can happen on my own. I can't do this so well.

i say that all the time i believe that too i mean like you know i believe there are people kind of positioning things and i mean otherwise how else would you be sitting across from me i'm like yeah like i need alcohol from the show and you're here somebody made that happen

all my people up there yeah so we do let's get back to nolay because i feel like we have not touched on that enough and it's such an amazing restaurant it's one of my favorites in the city amazing margaritas plug Yeah, we're toasting the margaritas right now. Cheers to Friday, yes. Fried chicken and margaritas. So we talked a little bit about the Dracula brunch, Dragula brunch, on October 19. And then you guys have a Day of the Dead.

on the 31st and November 1st. So it's like $4 tacos, $4 margaritas. Are y'all having an event for Halloween? Yeah, it's going to be like, I mean, people can come up in costume and there'll be some prizes and we're going to just have fun with it. It's going to be... Just a place to go for Halloween. And it's going to be through the first. So it's October 31st through the 4th. First, you'll be able to all each and all those days. You'll be able to celebrate.

Just fun. There'll be entertainment there. There'll be costumes for that day. And it's just a great day to come celebrate. When you go to eat somewhere, you want to have good food, good drink, and you want to have a purpose for being there. Absolutely. Yeah.

And I think it's just a reason to celebrate. You know, I love Noli just obviously because of the food, but also I have three children and one of them is a very picky eater. And so, you know, he doesn't like typical Mexican restaurants. So when we go there, he's like, I just want the fried chicken. I'm like, this is perfect. It's great family friendly, you know, because what kid doesn't eat fried chicken, you know, so even bring your picky eaters there. True.

All right, and then we have, which I love this, knocking one back for the knockers. Yes. That is all month of October. Susan G. Coleman, we're going to support breast cancer. Here we go. Frosé all day at Nole. Tito's for the tatas. I love that. Yeah. But it's going to be just some specials that we're running all of October. We're doing Frosé out for the breast cancer.

And we've got different specials that are going on for that particular time. And some benefits will go to the Susan T. Coleman breast cancer. Yeah, so that's the whole month of October. And so Tito's for Tatas is going to be at the Copeland's location. Frosé all day is at Nolay. And all the proceeds in the month of October go for immunotherapy, breast cancer research. Okay. Perfect. And then we have other stuff too, right? Y'all have a regular brunch on Sundays.

Yeah, we do a brunch on Sunday, and we're going to be bringing in entertainment for October. But I think the thing about Nolay that I think is so important to get out to the people so that they understand what it's all about is this is a New Orleans concept. that really plays homage to latin america and if you look through the menu we've got things on there like pickled okra smoked pecans we do our chips and salsa with crackling we do fried pickled okra we have tasso and our nachos with pickled

jalapenos and red beans. We do a duck-cut confit, Creole cream cheese on our blue crab street corn, which everyone is really loving. We've got fried chicken fajitas. We do a Mexican barbecue shrimp. and grits. um pecan mole where mole is uh yeah is really it's something that latin uh spanish or mexican take very very seriously and we do ours uh with like a pecan smoking in it and it's really delicious

And then one of my favorites is we do a coucheon de la paella. So it's pork, shrimp, crab meat over a paella in a pan. And it is phenomenal. Really good. Very popular. And it's not as popular as the fried chicken fajita, but it's good. I mean, you know, we are still New Orleanians at heart. It's like we love to try new food, but if you put fried chicken on the menu, a lot of people are going to get it. And you're right. It's important to mention that the menu is a true marriage.

of French Cajun cuisine and Latin American cuisine. That's right. See, my mother's side of the family, my mother was a true Cajun. But they hunt what they ate, they grew from the garden. And I was raised as a young kid. Before Popeyes, I moved to New Orleans, I lived in Houma, Louisiana. And in Houma, we have... We had lots of land and gardens and my great grandfather would come with his prey from the day.

And my grandmother would pick from the garden, and she would defrost from the freezer from the night before, and she would have supper cooked by 7 a.m. I mean, it was true Cajun-style cooking. And that's how my father, meeting her and marrying her really led to Popeyes. because he didn't know flavors like that. He didn't even know how to cook. And so he learned all this by watching them do it. And so when I take that heritage and I looked at, I said, I want to find a chef to partner with.

on this project and i found chris lusk and chris lusk has the same exact family background as i do on the latin side so based out of texas so he When he and I came together, it was like pure chemistry. So I said, show me all your traditional cooking. which he did and i said now i'm going to show you my traditional because we're going to bring these things together and we're going to be new orleans first and we're going to layer in

this Latin, Mexican, Spanish kind of flavor profiles. I would have loved to be in the test kitchen at that point. And that's how that fried chicken fajita was born. Right. Well, I'll tell you, one of the things that we did, we really created... You know, dishes that have layers of flavor. It's amazing how Latin food has a lot of similarities to ours. They use a lot of peppers and onions and base bases. They sauce everything. The mullets like our gumbo. A lot of spices.

flavors, very high flavor profiles in their food. So it was actually a lot easier than you would think to bring them together. Some of the things like we tried tamales and we could not get a tamale. You know, with a Cajun tamale and a Latin tamale. Yeah, right. We just have, though, we figured it out and we have them launching on a menu very soon. Yes, I love tamales. I do too. Love them. Is it a seasonal? Like, do you do seasonal menus or are you just kind of...

give them the menu the same we know we change it we have probably five new menu items that are on the menu that weren't on it opening and we've taken about five off so we'll continue to move the menu as far as long as you know the seasons as the season change as the local producers change as the proteins availabilities change and we'll bring it on like we're not going to sell you know we're going to sell if it's crawfish season we'll bring crawfish in and so forth

Cool. Yeah. And let's talk about the Frosé. Yeah. Because that's like the best in the city. I've never even heard of Frosé before. I went to... No, like. Have you? Yes. I had not. So it is... delicious well that's my daughters they they they love frose they this is hot dad we need to do this and so they uh we started working on the recipes with our vendors and coming up with stuff but does it have tequila in it too yeah yeah oh my god it's so delicious

It is phenomenal. And people are really loving that. We have a blackberry margarita, frozen also, and one other, just a regular margarita, a frozen margarita. But they're going very well. People really love it. We have two bars there. It's interesting because one bar is a hotel bar. that we've developed, which is really close to the patio where we can do events. And then we have the Oleal bar, which is the bar that was kind of in place before, but we've remodeled everything.

The biggest, what has really been gravitating for No Lay is events. We have people doing 60, 70, 80, 110 or more events using our tequila room.

uh in the back which has got all the mystique almost like a speakeasy kind of room back there if you didn't get a chance to see it it's it's phenomenal yeah i think it holds around 50 people and then the terrace room is just right on saint charles avenue watching the streetcar pass and all the windows can open and and you can sit out there and it holds about 60 to 80 people and then the whole restaurant uh the booths move in the center so that we can hold like

300 in there for a nightclub event. So a lot of different ways to use it. Holidays coming up. It's like the perfect place to have a holiday party or any kind of birthday party, anniversary party. Because it's a huge event. Venue space. It is. It is. It really is. And it's connected to a hotel. Like your guests can fly in, stay at the hotel.

walk down come to the event it's perfect eat play and stay that's right you got it all figured out so did you and you said you own a hotel in the quarter too as a hotel we have a it's called the best western Best Western Landmark Hotel in the French Quarter, and it's 204... Rome property right across from Armstrong Park off of Rampart. And it's got a beautiful courtyard, open-air courtyard in the middle of it. And it does really well. It's a good property for us.

That is like directly on the parade route right there in Noli too. Y'all going to be doing any kind of events for Mardi Gras? Yes. Because y'all have that huge, like almost parking lot next to you, right? Yeah, we have an off-site... Yeah, we have off-site parking for 100 people. And, you know, it was a used car dealership. True.

double stack parking behind it. So we offer complimentary valet and off street parking. So people really enjoy that too. That's good. That is good. I love going there because they have the valet. So we opened a catering company. I was very patient. when I decided to open an off-site catering company. What does it mean? So that's the French version of the Holy Trinity, you know, the Holy Trinity is, which is the onions, celery, bell pepper.

In the French, their mirepoix is our holy trinity, and it's onions, celery, and carrots. So we love that name. It shows commitment to freshness and commitment to quality.

So, Mirepoix Catering is an event caterer, and not to be confused with Copeland's Catering, and that's why Copeland's is not in its name, because every one of our restaurants have their own... catering that they do out of the restaurants we do about a million dollars a year just in catering out of the restaurant and we'll go to cater copeland to someone's house we'll go cake uh cater your event we'll we can come pick up catering pans uh for you

event that you want to do to know you can take them out and drive drive up to the restaurant we have curbside pickup you can order stuff and pick up at any copeland's restaurant that you want to but you're limited to copeland's food And what I wanted to do was go into our library of all the creations that we've had over 35 years and just go through that library, put together an off-site catering menu that would be more corporate.

wedding base, action stations, you know, past foods, you know, just really a full... on event caterer. And so we've done that now and we launched in February. It's doing really well. I'm really excited about it. The thing that we do a little bit different than most is not only do we have the culinary expertise to do this, but...

Having about 700 skilled employees and a 60-mile ring in New Orleans that we can pull from. We still use some temporary help occasionally, but a lot of people rely on all temporary support and pull-off events. We have a lot of employee base we can rely on. own so we feel like now's the time to do it now it's time to do it right yeah so do you have like a set menu or yeah if you if you explore on miraport.com miraportcatering.com you can see all the menu we've got hundreds of items on there

that you can choose from for different types of events. Yeah, and for those of you who are not Cajun, it's M-I-R-E-P-O-I-X.com, right? That's correct. Mirepoix. And yeah, tell us, so let's make sure that we mention too. Where we can, so Nolay, the address to Nolay, was it 2001 St. Charles Avenue? Yes. And that's the same address as the hotel. Yes. Right? That's correct.

Right. So, and it would be, to me, the perfect place for a staycation. Like, even if you live in New Orleans and you have kids like me and you just want to, like, get away for the weekend. i think it would be the perfect location it's great you have a street car and they take you right into the uh wherever you want downtown or you can go deep into the garden district and it's a fun ride it's a reasonable ride and a fun ride

I like the location. It's very connected to different things. A lot of good energy there. Yeah. I love it.

Just like in this room, just like you. Yes, please. Do you still race cars? I do. I'm so jealous. matter of fact i'll probably go to nola motorsports this weekend i've been a member out there since they opened the track and i have a need for speed so i was born i got my first motorcycle when i was five years old i couldn't even touch the ground and just ever since then it's been

Nothing but a disaster. That's so awesome. I don't have to own it by now. Yeah. I raced motocross, offshore powerboats with my father. Yeah, cool. And then now the car. So, but... But I love, cars are a lot safer. They're good, and I have a lot of fun doing that. Thank you for asking. I'm so old. I remember when your dad used to race at the lake. We would all go, what was the name of that restaurant?

Oh my gosh, right there on the lake, that's not there anymore. Barts or something. Barts. That's it. Barts on the lake. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Oh, gosh. That was some good old days back then. I'll tell you. That's right. Let's create some good new days. I know. You really need to. What happened to the racing on the lake? Yeah, it's really not our fault. It's theirs. I mean, the sanctions got all blown up.

And they had all kinds of problems and they fought amongst each other. And they just like a business needs an organization, need leadership, need someone to keep them together. And they just get that disjointed. You know, some racers go here and there and here and there.

to come together as one group in order to really pull it off and get back together again. I feel like you could spearhead that. Yeah. If I was back into it, I would. What happened to your dad's boat? We sold it. Actually, before he passed, we had a... He was in the middle of building a boat. It was supposed to be the world's fastest propeller speedboat. I ended up driving that boat, building it, finishing it, driving it 200 miles an hour. Oh my gosh.

on the water. And it was at that moment that I realized that I wasn't in control of that situation. I said, I said, I got too much to live for to be in this boat at 200 miles an hour. We just decided to get out of it and sell it. We were shooting for a goal of 238 miles an hour.

We didn't quite get there. Now, personal life, you're married, correct? Yes. Okay, that's one way you're different from your dad. Oh, yes. You've been married like 30-something years ago. Yeah, 35 years, 36 years this year. Yeah, and so, yeah, this is great. She's definitely a great balance for me. She definitely is my friend and my partner in what I do. And we had five girls. I tried to have a boy, obviously.

But that didn't work. I wasn't in the college, but I do have five grandsons and a granddaughter. So I got on the backside. Was she like, okay, that's it. Like even if this fifth one is a girl, like you're done. Would you have kept going or were you done too? No, when I had the fifth girl, I was done. That had to be it. But you have brothers that carry the Koopa name, yes? Yes, I do. My brother Chris had it first. boy as Chris Jr. and they've had boys along the way.

So now I just have my kids, boys to play around with. I'm just a little bit older to play with them now than I was back then. My husband was an only child, so he's like, we're having a boy. So the third one was a boy. Thank goodness I didn't have to go five. Oh, fine girls is fun. Expensive as hell though, right? Yeah, it was crazy. I actually married my youngest daughter off. January 4th. So by January 4th, I've graduated five of them from college and married off all five. Nice.

So that's a hell of an accomplishment. Yes. I know another thing I wanted to ask you too. So when you knocked down your dad's house, you actually built there and now you live where you grew up, right? Yes. How cool is that? Very. That's cool.

You know, we made a decision. We're supposed to downsize when the kids all moved out. Yeah, they have room for the grandkids. So now I just have this free bedroom, 10,000 square floor house. But it's for the kids to run around and play in. So it's an amazing... house. It's a lifelong achievement award there. Wait, why for your bedrooms? You don't want them to sleep over? No. That's strategic. You can come over, but you must go home. He told you he was the best at strategies.

I'm just thinking it through. Just proves our case. Well, this has been amazing. I mean, I feel like, you know, people got to know you a little bit better. You know, that's why I like podcasts because. It's getting to know you personally. It's not just like two seconds of the news or whatever. Yeah. Sit down, drink a margarita.

hear your story so i want to thank you so much for coming today enjoyed it look if you ever want to come back if y'all have some events going on you want to send somebody if you can't make it you know just to come and bring us some margaritas and hang out and talk about what you have coming up we'd love it this. Y'all been fun. Yes, it's been fun. It has. So cheers. Happy Friday. So glad that New Orleans got to know a little bit more about you.