A New Orleans native and promoter of South Louisiana cuisine and Louisiana restaurants has become a viral sensation for his TikTok videos celebrating small businesses, their owners, and their cuisine, according to his NOLA.com profile piece.
Gerald Gruenig, now age 32, revealed to NOLA.com that he was born and raised atop the Po-Boy Bakery, a Gentilly hot-plate and sandwich shop that was owned and operated by his father Gary “Koz” Gruenig. Gerald’s family home was located on the second story of the restaurant, which provided him not only a unique perspective of the patrons, business practices, and meals of a mom-and-pop style restaurant but an appreciation for the one-of-a-kind cuisine as well.
Gruenig reflected on his childhood experience by saying that by growing up in Gentilly in such close proximity to the University of New Orleans, he was always exposed to “the full monte of people,” referring to professors, students, athletes, and regular neighborhood folk. He also said, “it gave me an appreciation for the working class of everywhere. It was one of those things where you don’t realize how unique or lucky you are to be brought up the way you were.”
Gerald Gruenig, who had established a routine in serving and supporting the patronage of his father’s restaurant, had his journey altered by Hurricane Katrina destroying the Po-Boy Bakery with floodwaters in 2005. Soon after, Greunig’s parents gutted and sold the building in 2006, moved uptown, and opened Koz’s, a new restaurant in Harahan, which remains in business to this day.
Gerald then stayed on the Northshore for four years, graduated from Fontainebleau High School, and earned a full athletic scholarship to Nicholls State University where he started on the offensive line and eventually worked his way up to team captain. When asked about his time in Thibodaux, he said that the city had “introduced me to rice and gravy culture.”
Upon graduating from Nicholls, Gruenig took up a career in sports broadcasting with his internship at WDSU-TV in New Orleans, became a weekend sports anchor at KALB-TV5 in Alexandria, and then eventually joined the Sports team at KLFY in Lafayette in 2014.
After a year of working for KLFY-TV, Gruenig began his highly-popular Acadiana Eats segments, which afforded him the opportunity to highlight the Southern cuisine at Louisiana restaurants that he had been enraptured by since birth. Later in 2016, he transitioned to hosting KLFY’s long-running morning show, Passé Partout, and according to Gruenig, “my focus drastically changed from sports to jumping into the food scene.”
Since beginning Acadiana Eats, Gruenig has visited over 300 locally-owned restaurants in the Acadiana Area. In speaking about this feat, he said, “I really fell in love with the Lafayette area. I’m making friends with people in New Iberia, Breaux Bridge, and all over. I’ve never had a problem jumping in anywhere, so when we go shoot a segment, I’ve been in that type of place before, because I’ve lived all over the state. The reward is not the food. The reward is the phone call I get from a restaurant after a segment airs. We’ll put a restaurant on Acadiana Eats, and they’ll sell out completely. We’ll put someone on TV, maybe, that’s struggling, and they’ll call me in tears because that segment saved their business. And this has been going on for years. Like I say, we ain’t new to this, we true to this.”
Gerald Gruenig’s Acadiana Eats segments have attracted a dedicated and devoted following of fans who follow his journey from one mom-and-pop restaurant in South Louisiana to another via his social media presence on TikTok and Instagram. He is heralded for his featuring of South Louisiana restaurants and cuisine, the small family-run establishments. It’s also his “down-home approach and crackling bonhomie” that sets him apart. His tone isn’t “encyclopedic, analytical, or critical,” it’s an honest showcasing and championing of South Louisiana cuisine and those who make it. Gruenig said of his aim, “I’m just trying to put a restaurant in the best light because I know how hard it is on families, the people who work at these restaurants, man. It’s not an easy life.”
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