I’m always going to be respectful of them. Everything I know came from that place. From the Giacalone family, that’s where I learned everything. Putting my hands in the kitchen on the food, on the ingredients, that’s where I learned everything. I love Italy like I love Mexico (Chef Andrade’s native country), and I love the United States.

“If you get somebody in with a deal, they’re likely to purchase more things while they’re there because they will see the menu and all the other things the restaurant has to offer,” said Katharyn DeVille, the bureau’s vice president of marketing and communications.

“Our biggest concern that has really been occupying my time is the rain event and worrying about Cross Lake,” Arceneaux said. “We dodged the major ice storm. That was very good news. It appears if we have flooding, it will be relatively minor flooding. We don’t think the lake is going to get to the level that’s going to be a tremendous threat.