Health Management

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

A changing health care environment convinced a boutique hospital’s 32 doctor-owners that a national partner could enhance their 7-year-old model.
By Lisa Hanchey and Leslie Turk

On March 15, Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital celebrated its seventh anniversary. But this year, its 32 physician-owners shared the helm with Chicago-based National Surgical Hospitals, which has just closed a deal to purchase a 58 percent interest in the boutique surgery center on Kaliste Saloom Road.

Inner Circle

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Lafayette’s yarn shops are producing a new generation of knitters.
By Erin Z. Bass

When Kim Gunniss opened Yarn Nook in 2004, it was the only yarn shop in Lafayette. She’d taken up crocheting again while pregnant with her second child and went in search of supplies. Realizing that Lafayette didn’t have its own yarn shop, she decided to open one and teach herself to knit at the same time.

Where’s Gabe?

La Fonda’s Gabe Bako has been absent for weeks. By Leslie Turk

The conspicuous absence of what was once the most visible face at La Fonda is leading to lots of questions — and very little answers.
Gabe Bako is no longer managing the iconic Tex-Mex restaurant.

In his book, The Spirit of La Fonda, restaurant founder Leebob Cox writes of choosing Bako as his successor in 1996; Cox died in February 2008. At some point in time, Bako was cut in as a 50 percent partner, sharing ownership with Cox’s two children, Sherwood and Stephanie. Sherwood, whom Cox hoped would one day take over, has since moved out of town, and it now appears that Stephanie is in charge.

“The status is that he’s on vacation,” longtime Office Manager Pat LeDoux said of Bako in a brief phone conversation Feb. 16. “There’s not much we can say right now.” With Stephanie in the room while the interview was taking place, LeDoux added: “Things are out of our hands right now.”

Bako could not be reached for comment.

For more than five decades, La Fonda has managed to maintain a loyal following among the city’s movers and shakers. Bako’s departure, if permanent, is certainly a blow to its rich tradition.

Raw Deal

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Snubbed by one of its longtime rivals in a takeover attempt, IberiaBank marches on. By Heather Miller

A little more than a month after Whitney Holding Corp. announced its merger with Mississippi-based Hancock Holding Co., Whitney shareholders were jolted by the discovery that another bank had been in the buying picture for more than three months before the Whitney-Hancock agreement came to light.

F Bomb

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce dropped a bunker buster on the Lafayette business community when it gave longtime state senator and chamber champion Mike Michot an F on its legislative scorecard.
 
When the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual banquet Thursday, Jan. 20, at the Cajundome Convention Center, it was the customary gala affair — a catered, white-tablecloth dinner, oratory dripping with optimism, Lafayette’s titans of industry and movers and shakers rubbing shoulders and patting each other on the back. But there was one conspicuous absence from an otherwise boilerplate business fête: state Sen. Mike Michot.