KLFY’s Gerald Gruenig seems to be everywhere lately. His Acadiana Eats and music segments on channel 10’s Passe Patout are as popular as ever. His band Gentilly Zydeco has been featured on stages across south Louisiana, and the list of music legends that he has played with is lengthy. But don’t think any of that has gone to his head. He is just as surprised as anyone that he has found his “happy” just two hours away from his childhood home in the Gentilly section of New Orleans.
Last month, we sat down for a planned 15-minute conversation that ended up lasting an hour. He calls Acadiana the crossroads of all things that excite and inspire him. And I’m more convinced than ever that Gerald Gruenig is exactly where he’s supposed to be.
THE ROAD TO ACADIANA
Growing up, Gruenig’s family owned and operated a po-boy shop (then called Po-Boy Bakery) that they lived above. He calls the neighborhood “rough” but says its impact on him was real. His dad worked seven days a week and his mom, a teacher, pitched in too. Next door was a gas station that provided a young Gerald a chance to interact with people from all walks of life. He said, “There were all kinds of people there. Customers at the restaurant and just random people and I always talked to them.”
Hurricane Katrina in 2005 changed the Gruenigs’ lives as a family. The restaurant and their home were severely damaged by flooding after the storm. They were forced to split up the family, and Gerald, who was a freshman at Brother Martin High School, moved north of the lake to Mandeville. He quickly adapted and made friends at Fontainebleau High School. He was a stand-out on the football team and from day one, was a person that people just gravitated toward.
[I know this because I was the Fontainebleau High School senior who gave an apprehensive Gerald Gruenig his first tour of the FHS campus back in 2005.]
After high school, Gerald moved to Thibodaux to play football for Nicholls State University. He made the most of his time there. It was during this time that he got his first taste of Acadiana. A college friend of his lived in Rayne, so he made the trip through Lafayette often. Little did he know he would one day call Lafayette home. At this point, his goal after college was to continue in sports as a coach. Gerald was competitive and thought a job on the sidelines would be a dream. That didn’t happen right away, but a call from KALB-TV got him to move north on I-49 to Alexandria. It would only be just 10 months before he would accept his second TV job at KLFY.
ACADIANA EATS
Gerald arrived in Lafayette in 2014 as a weekend sports anchor for KLFY. Initially, he spent all the time he could back at home in New Orleans. Whether it was covering the Saints, LSU or Ragin’ Cajun football, he always found a way to be with family and help out at the business.
The po-boy and plate lunch restaurant had since moved from Gentilly and had a new name: Koz’s of Harahan. Gerald was conscious of the hours of work that it took to keep the doors open and the business afloat. But back at home, he was getting to know the people and places that made Acadiana great.
In 2015, ahead of the fall “sweeps”, Gerald pitched a food feature. He wanted to take viewers into the kitchen and show them how much work and passion it takes. The series got some pushback initially from management. But Gerald knew that putting a spotlight on something so important to the people of this area was a win-win. He said, “I knew if I could tell the stories of these small businesses, we could make an impact.”
The four-segment series, which started with a stop at the newly opened Pop’s Poboys in Downtown Lafayette, took off. The limited series became a regular feature. But, to be clear, Gerald never wanted to be a food critic. He said, “There are far more qualified people than me to critique food. I didn’t go to culinary school. I’m not a chef. I’m a food appreciator.”
He wanted to show the hard workers and the way restaurant owners handle running the business and turning out world-class food. At the same time, Gerald was able to show a side of himself that had until then been kept off-air. He says, “I saw Acadiana Eats as a way to invest in the people and the place I was falling in love with.”
In the years since, Acadiana Eats has become one of the most recognizable features on KLFY. Gruenig’s steady stream of energy and in-your-face delivery is unmistakable and authentic. That’s because he takes the footage shot by videographer John Weatherall and edits it himself. It should be noted that Weatherall has been the man behind the camera since the beginning.
Gruenig is humble when talking about the excitement around the ‘Eats’ segments but concedes that he’s just carrying on KLFY traditions that started long before him. He said, “I think about the people that came before me, Maria Placer, Jim Olivier, Floyd Cormier, and more. I’m just doing what they did to connect with people in Acadiana.”
It’s a full-circle moment for a guy who grew up watching New Orleans heritage station WWL and seeing the impact a single on-air feature had on his family’s business. “The best compliment these restaurant owners can give me is that we saved their business. We hear those places are struggling and then one segment drives customers in. These are free segments; they don’t pay for us to come. So that is the best compliment.”
INVESTING IN ACADIANA
Gruenig’s newest effort is another nod to the culture of Acadiana and south Louisiana as a whole. The Acadiana Music Spotlight is another passion project that is getting a lot of attention.
The local musicians who are featured give insight into their process and inspiration. It also stems from Gruenig’s interest in doing something he had always dreamed of doing — playing an instrument. After tries and fails with drums and bass guitar, he picked up a 10-key accordion. That was his instrument. He hopes it may inspire others to pick up a new hobby or skill. “People have come up and said, man I can’t believe you learned how to play the accordion. I’m like, you can too,” he said.
Spending time with him on location in Lafayette, it was quite common for people to stop in traffic to yell or honk at him. He delivers, smiling and waving back because he’s truly just excited to see them.
In all of this, he thanks the management at KLFY who have put Acadiana Eats and Music Spotlight in his hands. They invested in him, and he is focused on the future. Most people in TV news come to the Lafayette market for a couple of years and move on to bigger markets. Seven years in, it seems like Gerald Gruenig is just getting started. He follows his heart and, no, he does not eat all the Acadiana Eats food himself. The bottom line is that the stories he tells are deeply personal to him, and the only way is up for Gerald Gruenig.