LRA Education Foundation announces Five Star Futures Live Auction items

The LRA Education Foundation will hosts its annual Five Star Futures Gala, Saturday, August 2 at 6:30 p.m. at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. The event will recognize the 2014 class of 30 scholarship recipients who will receive a total of $61,000 and this year’s LRA award winners: Associate Member of the Year—Mickey Freiberg; Advocate of the Year---Rep. Erich Ponti; Hall of Fame Inductees—the Marino Family of Gino’s Restaurant; and Restaurateurs of the Year—Ruffin Rodrigue and Peter Sclafani.

The gala features a live auction, led by guest auctioneer Mark Romig, CEO of the New Orleans Tourism & Marketing Corp.

Get in the Tunnel Zone

New Orleans Saints vs. Minnesota Vikings, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014, This package includes: 8 tickets to the game; 8 special credentials to access the Superdome field, positioned next to the Saintsations on the field, on the field recognition: scoreboard & PA announcement, 8 t-shirts and limousine transportation for 8 to & from the Superdome,

anywhere in the GNO area.  Courtesy of Coca-Cola & American Luxury Limousine, VALUE: $2,500

What Happens in Vegas

This package includes: 2 Southwest Roundtrip plane tickets, 2 nights stay at Caesar’s Palace and 2 tickets to Elton John, Shania Twain or Celine Dion. Courtesy of Southwest Airlines & Caesar’s Entertainment, VALUE: $1,500

Instant Luxury Wine Cellar

25 bottles of exclusive wines from the private collections of New Orleans’ finest cellars. Minimum value per bottle is $75. Courtesy of the LRA Greater New Orleans Chapter, VALUE: $2,400

George Rodrigue Print—“The Three Amigos” (2010)

Courtesy of the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts, VALUE: $3,000

Private Dinner for 10 with Chef Peter Sclafani

This package includes: Exclusive 7-course dinner prepared at the venue of your choice by Chef Peter Sclafani, dinner must take place on a mutually agreed upon date (no Fridays, Saturdays or Holidays), no restriction on location. Courtesy of Ruffino’s Restaurant of Baton Rouge & Lafayette. VALUE: $5,000. 

The gala will also feature a Silent Auction and a Wine and Spirits cork pull. The Silent Auction features: 2 tickets to the Saints vs. Vikings, Sept. 21 in the ATMOS Energy's 50-yard-line suite; dinner for 4 at the soon-to-reopen Brennan's on Royal Street; 2 tickets to the Saints vs. the Bengals, Nov. 16 in the Lodge Club Area; and much more. 

Restaurateurs: New Orleans has it all, August 2-4

Come for the #LRAEXPO14, experience New Orleans like never before

New Orleans is the place to be during the first weekend of August! It’s hot here, but the air conditioning will be on at full force at the 61^st Louisiana Foodservice & Hospitality EXPO at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center. And don’t worry about breaking a sweat getting to the show, we have designated shuttles to get you to and from the host hotel with minimum effort and it’s complimentary.

The EXPO boosts hundreds of companies that supply the restaurant industry. Think of it one giant shopping mall featuring everything you need to run your restaurant successfully. You can also learn a thing or two by taking a seat in the IDEA ZONE, a series of express presentations with topics ranging from promoting profits and preventing loss behind the bar to energy efficiency equipment to save you money, and more.  Rest your feet and gain some valuable knowledge at the same time.

With special room rates of just $99 a night at our host hotel—the Hilton New Orleans Riverside—and four complimentary passes to the EXPO if you are a LRA restaurant member, you can afford to take advantage of all the wonders New Orleans has to offer.

LRA EXPO 2014 Host Hotel
$99 per night during the
EXPO!

Round out your trip to the Crescent City during EXPO weekend with will magnificent dinners out at our world-class restaurants and imbibe at some of the city’s most fabulous cocktail bars. Take a few hours here and there to visit attractions like art and history museums, the Audubon Insectarium or Aquarium, take a walk down Royal Street and pop in and out of countless galleries or hop on the live oak tree-lined St. Charles Ave. street car and see elegant mansions of yesteryear.

To see the full EXPO line up, visit our website here. Register to attend the EXPO today here.

New Orleans has it all for you August 2-4, 2014. What are you waiting for?  

Thank you to this year’s Platinum Sponsors!

Heartland Payment Systems, Louisiana Cookin’, CapitalOne, Republic National Distributing Company, Louisiana Restaurant Association Self Insurer’s Fund, UnitedHealthcare and the LRA Education Foundation.

Gold Sponsor—Midlands; and Silver Sponsors—Fisher & Phillips, LLP and Johnson, Johnson, Barrios & Yacoubian.

Brace yourself for the "fiscal cliff"

By Stan Harris, President/CEO, Louisiana Restaurant Association

Stan Harris is a former restauratuer
and has more than 25 years of
experience as an owner of
multi-unit operations in a
number of U.S. States.

It seems hard to believe that another year is almost over. The year began with the election of over 40 new legislators (out of 144) and ended with a national election.

This week, I had the opportunity to visit with several members of the New Orleans area Legislative Delegation. Of note, the discussions entailed the re-districting borders for many of their districts and others statewide. The rationale for the re-districting was sugarcoated in many respects, when in essence much of it was done to skew the boundaries to the benefit or detriment of a particular incumbent.

When you turn on the news right now, on the federal level it’s all coverage of the impending “fiscal cliff,” or the mandated sequestration that implements across the board cuts to federal departments and programs.

More concerning to the business and restaurant sectors is the approaching expiration of the “Bush,” and now with the extension in 2011 renamed the “Obama,” tax cuts. Payroll tax rates will return to prior levels and marginal tax rates resulting in an immediate tax increase. The President and the Democrats on the Hill want to keep the rates the same for all but the highest earners and this is proving to be problematic without agreed upon reductions in entitlement programs which are unsustainable at current revenue levels.

The interesting part of this debate is that instead of being at home, Congress will remain in Washington looking busy but until a real compromise can be debated, I don’t see the “cliff” being avoided. There may be a quick extension for 60-90 days, but the spending reduction and tax rate discussion will take more effort.

With the continued rise in food costs, the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the above mentioned, the restaurant industry’s future is one with an even tighter profit margin.