Celebrate National Dessert Month at 5 Fifty 5 in New Orleans

by Katie Hammel on

October is National Dessert Month! Okay, it’s actually National Pizza Month, National Pasta Month, National Pretzel Month and National Pork Month too, but I’m putting my weight behind this one. (Oh who am I kidding, I’m sure I’ll put my “weight” “behind” them all!)

To celebrate this all-important occasion, 5 Fifty 5, the restaurant in the New Orleans Marriott, is offering an incentive to those guests who want to “eat dessert first!” Those who rise to the challenge will receive 20% off their entire bill.

If you can’t quite bring yourself to follow a decadent chocolate cake with lobster macaroni and cheese, crab meat sliders, or a 20 ounce steak with truffle fries, you can still enjoy these delicious desserts after your entree. Special creations unveiled for the promotion include Oreo sandwiches with Creole cream cheese shooters, seven-layer chocolate cake with an Absinthe shake, and a strawberry napoleon with pecan crunch. Can’t decide on just one $5.55 dessert? Order all five for $25.

5 Fifty 5 has won two “Best in Show” awards at the New Orleans Food and Wine Experience, and makes all desserts (plus breads and pastries) in house. The Marriott hotel is located on Canal street in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

If you can’t make it in for a dinner of dessert in October, don’t worry: at 5 Fifty 5, National Dessert Month will extend through November.

Daily travel deal – 3 nights in New Orleans (hotel + air) from $219

by Scott Carmichael on

Looking to get away from it all for a couple of days? New Orleans awaits you!

Our travel deal for today will fly you to New Orleans, and put you up in the Comfort Inn and Suites in Downtown Nolo for 3 nights for just $299 (based on a Chicago departure).

There are plenty of dates available in May at that low price, and high season (June onwards) dates only go up about $20.

The really cool part about this deal is that the low price can be found for most departure airports in the country – even as far as Las Vegas and San Francisco! In fact, if you are flexible with your dates, you’ll be able to find this deal for as little as $219.

The Comfort Inn and Suites is conveniently located in Downtown New Orleans, just 4 blocks from the French Quarter. A complimentary continental breakfast is included, and all rooms have free wireless Internet access as well as a microwave and fridge.

New Orleans could cut efforts to keep the French Quarter clean

by Jeffrey White on

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans’ City Hall poured a lot of money into spiffing up the French Quarter, the thinking being that the best way to get the Big Easy back on its feet was to attract even more tourists to the likes of Bourbon Street.

The results have not been lost on anyone who has visited the city in recent years. Once a collection point for puke, trash and a host of unpleasant odors, the French Quarter now shines. But for how long?

The global financial crisis isn’t sparing the French Quarter. The city is talking about dramatically cutting back on the extra $4 million in cleaning and sanitation services — including having workers on the streets 20 hours a day — it has been spending in the district in recent years.

Starting January 31, there will still be trash collection, but services like street washing and mechanical street sweeping are likely to be eliminated, and 75 sanitation workers could be removed from the streets.

So, as Mardi Gras fast approaches, is the French Quarter destined to return to its past grimy state? Some neighborhood denizens fear so.

The Associated Press has this good report on the Quarter and the current budget battle that is putting its cleanliness and overall transformation in jeopardy.