Building up and serving your community with Ray from Pepperoni Rays

In an industry largely dominated by white men, it was meaningful for me to hear the perspective of a Black pizza business owner because I myself identify as a person of color. Meet Ray, the owner of Pepperoni Ray’s Cafe serving his local community in New Orleans, Louisiana. I almost didn’t release this episode as I wasn’t happy with the initial quality of the recording, but after lots of editing, Im really proud of the end product. More importantly and most importantly, I’m proud of the story Ray shares with us in this episode. We talk about:
@IG PepperoniRays
#blackownedbusiness #pizza #thebigeasy #nola #pepperonirays #letseat #bigeasy #neworleans
Full Transcript Here
Ray: So I'm looking for people with vision. So I can share that vision with them and give them a piece of that vision. Teach one, share one
Eidref: What's happening? What's good dough? It's your boy Eidref. How are y'all doing today? I'm doing great in case any of you were wondering. Today, we have a very special episode with Ray from PepperoniRays cafe in New Orleans, Louisiana. I'm really excited to share this episode with you all today. In my last episode with Craig, we talked about grabbing perspective from people you normally wouldn't hear a perspective from. I truly believe in inclusion and diversity. As someone who identifies as a person of color myself, it's good to hear another person's perspective, because quite frankly, in the pizza industry, it's no lie that there are a lot of white males. But when you hear from someone else who doesn't fit that description, what you can see is that we have a lot more in common. We all want to provide some great pizza. We all want to build community. We also talk about how he impacts his community and how he builds the youth up. And so that's a really, really great topic that we discuss. And last but not least, we also talk about, you know, the current state the world. It would be great if y'all listen and heard what's up. It's a great episode y'all. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show. And remember to always ask what's good though? Trying to start all of my podcast shows like this. The title of the show is called what's good though? There's no right or wrong answers. What's good?
Ray: Good dough is the dough that tastes good. That's it. Yeah, find a recipe you stick to it and don't change anything. People get accustomed to what they like, and if you have them, keep them don't change anything.
Eidref: You have a very strong community following.
Ray: Most definitely. They step up every time, every time. They are here for me, I'm here for them. We're all the hurricanes that come and stuff like this. I'm still the needs of mine. That’s going to be there is pizza, but people like you know, people love it. So I do my part in whatever I can do.
Eidref: Out of all the food in the world that you could have cooked in that basement that you were working at first, why pizza?