It must have been around late-2003 to 2004 when I made my first call to Charlie.
Steve May and his wife Cherry Fisher May had returned to Lafayette in 2003 to launch The Independent, an alt weekly that promised to be “relentlessly local,” and for a couple of weeks I’d been gathering information for a story that would have lived up to that mission — even if it was one none of us wanted to tell.
The immensely well-respected restaurateur Charlie Goodson had his back against the wall. His venerable Charley G’s was struggling financially, and Charlie wasn’t sure he’d make it…