OK, so it’s kind of old news now, but I’m thinking that not everyone in Slidell goes on Facebook and may not have known our little city had some excitement last week. Apparently, Hollywood movie star Ashton Kutcher and his fiancée, Mila Kunis, were seen in quite a few of our Slidell businesses and were very gracious in allowing photos with locals.
The couple was seen eating at Slidell’s Sunrise on Second restaurant, also seen at Tacos & Beer in Olde Towne, and also at the Slidell Old Town Soda Shop.
Mila is pregnant with Ashton’s baby and most of the photos that surfaced on Facebook from locals who got a snap or two, were clearly showing the baby bump for Mila.
Rob Howell, owner of Sunrise on Second, has a private dining area in his restaurant and had a chance to serve “someone special who was coming in.”
Everyone gets a kick out of seeing someone who is famous and certainly Kutcher qualifies, so it was interesting to see how fast the news and candid photos were making the rounds on Facebook, including a shot of them walking down Gause Boulevard with friends.
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One thing that really encourages me about living and working in Slidell is the way I see so many people truly want to support our community and make it better.
One of the best ways to do that is by supporting local businesses and I’ve seen a couple of great examples lately, all from locals trying to make Slidell more successful for us all.
The first example was a couple of weeks ago when my daughter, Vicky, and I headed for the Waffle House to have an early morning breakfast after she got in from her job in the Slidell Memorial Hospital emergency room, where she works the overnight shift.
We sat down and weren’t there more than a few minutes when a good friend walked in. Mike Perkins has been owner/operator for Deep South Gold here in Slidell for over 30 years. I’ve done his personal story about how he got started long ago and has been successful ever since. He also owns Causeway Coin in New Orleans and has made a living by being fair with people when it comes to the “we buy gold” operation, which has been taken advantage of by too many other individuals.
Mike walked in and had a copy of The Slidell Independent under his arm, and said he liked to have time at breakfast to read the paper, then he mentioned “I really like your paper.”
That’s always nice to hear, but Mike has also been one of our best advertisers since we started five years ago. He has done what many of us preach about, and that is to “buy local,” or support other local businesses, and that’s the reason why I buy everything I can locally. If we support each other, it would help in so many ways, from keeping local people working in Slidell, to ensuring the local businesses survive and grow.
We talked about it for a minute and he flatly stated that he wants to support local businesses, like mine, and like others, and he has put his money where his mouth is in that regard. I always liked Mike personally, but I had an entirely new level of respect for him after Vicky and I left.
I have seen the same thing going on with the work to help our Olde Towne historic district get moving, and grow to a place where many more businesses operate from there. I know a lot of people find different things to criticize about the Olde Towne area, but I see a lot to like about it, and I see such great potential for it to grow it into a vibrant, fun, successful place for businesses.
And the quickest way to see that happen is for the businesses in that region to take the bull by the horns, and do what they can to give the region a spark.
I saw more of that happening this week when I got an e-mail from Denise Arredondo, owner of Café du Bone on Carey Street, who was informing me that the businesses on Carey Street will start holding a monthly “Carey Street Crawl,” that will encourage people to come to that region the first Friday of every month.
There will be over 30 artists set up on Carey Street in an open air market. Many of the Carey Street business owners have come together to start the monthly events, doing it on their own after the recent Arts Evening again reminded us how many people will come to Olde Towne if we only give them a good reason.
I also talked with Brandee Santini, owner of the Green Oaks Apothecary on Carey Street, and she said the hope is for these events to show other business owners what a viable location it is to do business, hopefully getting others to relocate there.
To date, the problem in getting our own Olde Towne to expand much is that we have pockets of success—like Carey Street and the antique area near First and Front—but too many stretches in-between without many other businesses.
The hope is that more local events can eventually build out the entire block that includes Carey to Cousin to First to Robert. That gets closer to the antique area and hopefully it keeps growing from there.
There are already a few other businesses on Robert, such as the Who Dat Shop and Hair Port, but we need more businesses to locate in Olde Towne to keep it growing. The Carey Street Crawl parties are a great step in that direction, so mark your calendars for Friday night, May 2 from 5 to 10 and show up!
Kevin Chiri can be reached by e-mail at kevinchiri@gmail.com.