Robert LeBlanc is the founder and CEO of LeBLANC+SMITH, a New Orleans-based hospitality group that includes some of the city’s best restaurants and bars. Upon graduating from Loyola University New Orleans in 2000, LeBlanc started a record label, Renaissance Records, that evolved into an event planning and guerrilla marketing firm called The Renaissance Initiative. Three months after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, he opened the music venue Republic New Orleans, his first hospitality project, followed by the two hotel bars LePhare and loa New Orleans, and his first restaurant venture, Sylvain. In 2014, LeBlanc founded LeBLANC+SMITH, the boutique hospitality portfolio that he oversees as CEO today, which now includes Barrel Proof Bar, Meauxbar, Cavan Restaurant and Bar, Longway Tavern, Barracuda Taco Bar, and the group’s first-ever hotel, The Chloe, which opened in October, 2020. LeBlanc lives in Uptown New Orleans with his wife, Danielle, and their two sons, Bear and Will, where he enjoys cooking, entertaining friends and colleagues, and coaching his sons across various youth sports.