You most likely know the face, but chances are you’ve never heard the whole story of how this well-known personality made it to Acadiana. Gerald Gruenig’s journey from New Orleans to Lafayette is seasoned with a bit of good luck, a dose of misfortune, unexpected detours, and a cast of characters that have greatly influenced him to become the person – and persona – we know today. This is his story.

Franklin Ave.

Gerald Gruenig is one of three siblings, sandwiched in age between brothers Max and Sam. Parents Koz and Shawn raised the boys in a three-bedroom apartment above the restaurant Koz operated for decades: The Po-Boy Bakery on Franklin Avenue in Gentilly. It was there, growing up in the frenetic energy of a bustling eatery and living in the middle-class area known for its diversity, Gerald learned about hard work, about adjusting to his surroundings, and about the nuances of the food industry, which would later prove invaluable in his career.

“My bedroom was right above the restaurant kitchen,” Gerald recalls. “You could smell the day’s specials, red beans, gumbos – all the time. It was super unique.” Koz had worked at The Po-boy Bakery since the age of 12, then he managed it with its founder Jerry Seely (Gerald’s namesake) for the next 40 years. Like his son, Koz has a booming personality, and together with wife Shawn (a teacher who retired as an administrator), they demonstrated the energetic sticktoitiveness that personifies the area.

From an early age, Gerald showed talent on the football field and began pouring his energy into the game.

He had an easy time making friends and staying involved, but the road wasn’t always smooth and straight. “I bounced around a lot from public to private schools,” he says. “The energy I have now that people appreciate used to drive my teachers and parents crazy. I’d go from a public school in my neighborhood to a private school in Lakeview, jumping from different neighborhoods to different friend groups.” The experience, while challenging at the time, paved the way for Gerald’s skill at reading a room and fitting in – a characteristic that would serve him well in the years to come.

A Perfect Storm

In 2005 life had a detour in store for the Gruenigs in the form of Hurricane Katrina. The levee breaks devastated the Gentilly area and set off a series of events that would change the cadence and trajectory of Gerald’s life forever.

The Po-boy Bakery and the Gruenig home were damaged beyond repair, and while Koz and Shawn would ultimately move to Uptown New Orleans and open Koz’s Restaurant (a popular eatery that still thrives today) in Harahan, there was more uncertainty ahead for Gerald. During his high school years, Gerald jumped from Pearl, Mississippi to an aunt’s house in the Mandeville-Covington area, and finally to live with the family of a good friend living on the Northshore. “It was culture shock,” he admits. “Here I was all the sudden living in the suburbs. It felt like a movie.”

It was at that last stop, though, living with his buddy Nick and the Thompson family on the Northshore, where Gerald describes his own transformation from “knucklehead” to someone who recognized the value of working towards a goal and aspiring to be better. It was there he honed his football skills and worked to get his grades up. And it was there, during his sophomore year, he would meet his future wife Ariel Moore, who helped him begin to envision a life outside of the box he’d always assumed for himself. “She made me want to be a better version of myself,” he says. “They all really made me – those friends and Ariel. If Katrina doesn’t happen and I don’t meet them, I’m not who I am.”

Influencers

While Gerald’s New Orleans roots are deep, he will tell you it’s the 15 years or so of living in other parts of the state that have fine-tuned his ability to fit in wherever he goes and to embrace the culture of his adopted region of Acadiana. “One of the reasons [Acadiana] is so special to me is it’s sort of a melting pot of all the places I’ve lived in my life,” he says.

After high school graduation, Gerald attended Nicholls State University on a full football scholarship, where he played offensive line and served as team captain. He left Nicholls in 2013 with some great friends, a portfolio of stellar football stats, and a mass communications degree in broadcast journalism. (He admits with a smile, he majored in communications so he wouldn’t have to take Algebra.)

The immediate plan after graduation for this self-professed “football head” was to work at the family restaurant and coach football in the afternoons, or maybe give college coaching a shot as a graduate assistant. But a chance encounter with family friend Travers Mackel (WDSU reporter and identical twin to sports anchor Fletcher Mackel) while Gerald was working the door at Gold Mine Saloon in New Orleans led him to an internship at WDSU in New Orleans working in sports under Fletcher. That gig led to a job at KALB Alexandria as the weekend sports anchor. A year later he accepted a position at Lafayette’s Channel 10 on the sports team, which he did until joining the Passe Partout morning show team in 2015.

Not long after his move to Passe Partout, he approached station management with the idea of going out into the community to highlight locally-owned restaurants. Although there was a period of proving his concept, Acadiana Eats has become an integral part of his television persona and his weekly lineup, which now also includes a music segment, as well as spots covering festivals and outdoors. He has visited north of 300 restaurants and hundreds of musicians since starting his show, and is grateful for the confidence his team has placed in him. “I can’t thank KLFY enough, because they let me do me, and the viewers have responded,” he says. “Kenny Lawrence, Kyle Brinkman, Fran McRae, Michael Sipes, John Weatherall, III (best friend and videographer), and the viewers all facilitated what I do at work and let me do my thing. The fact they let me support so many of our locally-owned restaurants, musicians, events, venues and nonprofits and the fact that it’s taken off is incredible. I’m so thankful for it. I don’t want to say it’s come full circle, because who knows what will happen, but right now it’s super.”

Notoriety, for Gerald, is not what gets him up in the morning. Rather the influence he’s built to be able to choose and showcase small, diverse restaurants is what motivates him. “I remember what it meant for my dad’s restaurant to be on TV in New Orleans and how big of a difference it made to his business,” he says. “I know what it means to be able to have 20 minutes on TV as a locally-owned restaurant on the most watched station in our area. I grew up in it.”

Reflections

When Gerald thinks about his life, he can’t believe what’s transpired. Today the 31-year-old is enjoying a booming career at a top-rated station that supports and believes in him (he just signed a multi-year contract). He’s married to his high school sweetheart and love of his life Ariel, a fifth-grade teacher at Katharine Drexel Elementary School in Broussard. And he is the proud dad of 18-month-old daughter Adeline.

“Sometimes I just have to stop and take it in – it’s been such a whirlwind. I think about how often I’ve been blessed in life and with what I do for a living,” he shares. While his segments appear seamless, he works tirelessly to make them run smoothly and to make sure he honors the restaurants that invite him inside. “As much as people think everything is so off-the-cuff with me, I take a tremendous amount of pride in everything I do and everything I present.”

So immersive is Gerald’s approach to his segments, when he started hanging out with local Zydeco musicians for his on-air music spots, he decided to learn how to play the accordion. Now, in addition to his work at Channel 10, he can be found at live events playing accordion with his band Gerald Gruenig and Gentilly Zydeco. His next gig will be Friday, November 12 at the Port Barre Cracklin Festival.

Any thought of going into the restaurant business promptly went away when he helped out at his family’s restaurant while his father was severely ill with COVID. “I hit Orleans Parish, and you can see a vein pop out of my forehead. I’m a different person there. Super high strung.” But being back in the stress and pace of the area and the business reminds him where he belongs now. “Lafayette’s my happy place,” he says. “I’m my best self here, for sure.”

He seems to wear his local celebrity well, easily calling on the cultural influences in his life to make interactions comfortable and familiar. Switching schools as often as he did, he learned how to white-knuckle the transitions (some were much more difficult than others) and figure out a way to find his place. Sometimes his swag would turn into arrogance, and he recalls putting on airs more than necessary. “I think that was my way of fitting in.” But Gerald remembers the exact moment he felt whole and authentic again – when he found his own worth. “My sophomore year, we were the second-best team in the state,” he recalls. “I remember playing really well that night and walking off the field, and me and my dad holding each other and crying because of how much had built up to that moment. From all the years of my high energy driving people crazy, to all the school switches, to Katrina. Everything had built up to that moment.”

Today, he’s thankful for all those experiences that give him a deep appreciation for different cultures and allow him to get the most out of his interactions in life and work. And each on-air segment is a love letter to the culture he embraces, to the community that has adopted him, and to the diversity of the region he now calls home. “What else is there to ask for in life?” he asks, with his trademark smile.

On the Spot with Gerald

~ Album worth listening to beginning to end: “ComingDown”by Anders Osbonae (with the family); ” Exodus” by Bob Marley (by himself).

~ Favorite food to cook at home: Red beans and rice, smoked sausage, and cornbread.

~ A segment that went terribly wrong: February 2015, doing sports after a particularly celebratory Mardi Gras weekend, he had to run back and forth between updating scores and doing his segment. Carrying extra weight at the time, he had to do a six-minute spot without a break and was completely out of breath.

~ Amount of coffee before work: Half cup before leaving for work, so his wife can smell coffee when she wakes up.

~ Go-to podcast: The Rewatchables.

~ Last binged show: Entourage; also he re-watches True Detective season 1 every fall.