“We’re not reinventing the wheel by any means,” said Morvant’s CEO, Bob Thames. “Hospitality groups are pretty common in and around Shreveport-Bossier. The idea is to be able to function different restaurant, food and hospitality concepts under one umbrella, with the hope you can allow folks to work a full 40 hours.

“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.

If you're ever sent to interview Chef Ernest Palmisano Jr. at Ernest's Orleans – the restaurant that he and his late mother, Marjorie, opened on Spring Street in 1988 – here's a word of advice: Don't try to interview him near the door.