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In the middle of it all, his business partner says, "The Business Report is here." Ortego comes over. "What a day," are the first words out of his mouth.
Glory days
In another life, in the not-so-distant past, Ortego often spent his days organizing scavenger hunts for his five children at a place he owns called simply "The Camp" in Woodville, Miss.
"You can literally go there and never hear a sound or see a light from the outside world," he says. Ortego and his wife, Gwen, would relax on the front porch, the kids would play and worldly pressures would melt away.
Later in the evening, Ortego might take a boat to the middle of his pond, which is stocked with trophy bass and sizeable bream. But he wouldn't use the moonlight to fish. He'd just sleep under it.
But that was then and this is now. Today, Ortego, 41, can only dredge up months-old memories of life in the woods.
"We'll try to go back for a day or two around Christmas," he says. "You just try and get out there as much as possible."
"I couldn't pass it up"
After graduating from Catholic High School and LSU, Ortego left the Bayou State in 1984 with a wealth of restaurant knowledge collected from a stint at Ralph & Kacoo's and $125,000 in start-up capital from his partner, local attorney Roland Kizer.
He headed to Destin, Fla., and opened what would be the first Louisiana Lagniappe seafood restaurant. Three years later, the average wait time for a table was two to three hours. Then Ortego bought out Kizer for an undisclosed amount.
In 1999, Ortego sold Louisiana Lagniappe while it was producing nearly $3 million in annual net sales and retired at the age of 38. The extra time wasn't a problem, though; a few years earlier, he had purchased 750 acres in Woodville from Georgia Pacific for $350 an acre.
The pond
After bulldozing about five miles of roads through his property, Ortego built a fully stocked, 20-acre pond out of an 8-foot-wide storm creek.
From his front gate, the pond is about two miles. Beyond it is a hill with an oval canvass of multi-colored trees reflecting on the pond's surface. Three boats are docked at a pier. A covered extension gives shade to a child's swing.
Ortego says creating the pond was quite simple.
"We created a man-made levee system and dammed off the creek. Then we inserted a drainage system so we could control the volume of the pond."
Six years ago, Ortego stocked the pond with 20,000 bream and 2,000 bass. The bream are fed 300 pounds of catfish food a week through a time-release feeder. The bass--when not feeding on bream--are treated to 1,000 pounds of live crawfish a few times a year.
According to Ortego, the bream have reached up to pounds and the bass up to pounds. The occasional catfish or turtle might pop up on your line, and Ortego has caught a 6-foot gator on the banks.
Ortego has erected about a dozen raised boxes around the pond and several wood ducks have moved in. But he and his visitors don't hunt the wood ducks. It's just one of several rules to follow if you end up hunting or fishing at The Camp.
Serving the land
"We usually take all the bream out we catch to control overpopulation. The rules, as far as harvesting bass, are we only keep the larger ones. We wait and catch the smaller ones when they get bigger," Ortego says.
Ortego pays close attention to fish management. There may be as many as three feeders on the pond at one time, depending on the time of year, and the population is accounted for on a regular basis. The same philosophy applies to hunting.
Only bow sportsmen are allowed at The Camp. Found within those 750 acres is a "sanctuary" for deer, he says. Noise pollution is kept to a minimum with a ban on four-wheelers. Only supped-up golf carts are allowed, equipped with all-terrain tires and a camouflage paint job.
Several acres of food plots are also maintained year-round for deer with winter wheat, rye and clover.
Ortego believes every sportsman should be a conservationist, and he practices it on the water and in the woods.
"You don't shoot it unless you know you're going to mount it," he said.
If one kept score at The Camp, then the prizes for biggest catches and racks would go not to Ortego, but to his wife, Gwen.
"When we got married, she knew if she wanted to see me, she would have to hunt and fish. Now she's a better shot and has killed more deer than me, bigger deer than me. She's also caught bigger fish," he said.
The camp
A year after the pond was finished, the Ortego family broke ground on their dream camp. A two-story structure sits atop a hill (300 feet above sea level) and overlooks a small portion of the property. The "home away from home" is protected by a natural gate of thick oak trees, pines and other hardwoods.
The 2,200-square-foot camp features inset lighting, nearly hidden inside a 22-foot peaked ceiling of white ash.
Stone tile floors lead you through the $100,000 hunting/fishing camp, which resembles what you might find in a ski resort loft. The plush living area, with its stone fireplace and overstuffed furniture, opens up to a dining area and kitchen with an elaborate island counter.
Two bedrooms on the second floor are open to a balcony. A small hallway under the balcony leads back to another bedroom for the kids and a master bedroom for mom and dad. All sport white ash wag coverings.
"I love it there. I just wish I could get there more often," Ortego said.
The real world
Hunting fishing and relaxing will have to wait. Ortego is busy with his new partner, former Ralph & Kacoo's Executive Chef Leon Lemoine, working to get their new Louisiana Lagniappe location open on Perkins Road at Bluebonnet by early January.
He's hoping that $250,000 worth of start-up capital from his personal savings, coupled with an effective management style and exquisite menu, will pack diners in.
"Look, if I can get one-tenth of 1 percent of all the cars that pass by here, I'll have more work than I can handle," he said.
For now, Ortego will concentrate on how to fill 100 tables. But in moments of solitude, he can rest assured that The Camp will be there when he needs it.
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