In a Commander s Palace first, the Garden District restaurant will auction off the Feb. 2 seating at

Reservations at top-flight New Orleans restaurants on Super Bowl weekend are going as fast as game tickets. Several restaurants have been booked for months with private parties on Feb. 1-2, but as of right now a few tables are still up for grabs at places like Commander s Palace (for tables for four or less), Emeril Lagasse s restaurants, Caf Adelaide and other eateries up and down the price scale around town.
High-dollar events are where the off-field action airline lowest airfare online tickets will be, but everyday folks can get inside the door, if they re willing to act like a high roller for the night. Restaurants airline lowest airfare online tickets and venues throughout the city are holding viewing parties, game-day menus and promotions to roll out the welcome airline lowest airfare online tickets mat for Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers fans as well as locals who just want to ogle the celebrities and soak up the Kardashian-watt energy. The events aren t cheap, but many of them are open to the public by ticket.
In a Commander s Palace airline lowest airfare online tickets first, the Garden District restaurant will auction off the Feb. 2 seating at its most requested table you know the one, the corner spot in the Garden Room where Tom Benson typically sits with proceeds benefiting Girls First, a nonprofit that provides sports and educational programs for at-risk girls in the New Orleans area. See more details below.
Walk-On s , the sports bar practically within field goal range of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, plans to take over an entire parking lot and fill it with a climate-controlled mega-tent, airline lowest airfare online tickets live entertainment, open bar, food and, the weekend s buzz words: potential celebrity sightings. For a cool $400 per person, airline lowest airfare online tickets you can claim a spot in the tent for a Super Bowl Sunday pregame tailgate party. For half that price, you can get a seat inside the restaurant. More details below.
Jan. 24 - The Taste of the NFL concludes its series of preview dinners benefiting Second Harvest Food Bank with a six-course, $65 menu with wine pairings on Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. at Caf Giovanni , 117 Decatur St. The meal, by Chef Duke LoCicero, includes: baked oysters, roasted garlic and tomato bisque, spicy seafood caprese, Cajun duck breast, fire-roasted filet and chianti macerated berries. Reservations: 504.529.2154, www.TasteoftheNFL.com .
Jan. 30 - NFL Pro Bowler and Carolina Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith will hold a cocktail party and five-course airline lowest airfare online tickets dinner benefiting Samaritan's Feet on Jan. 30, 7 to 11 p.m., at Restaurant August, with ESPN analyst Marcellus Wiley serving as master of ceremonies. The event includes an auction of signed game-worn cleats donated by NFL players (hopefully the shoes are not near the food) to raise money for the Samaritan's Feet , a relief organization that provides new shoes and socks to homeless families. Tickets airline lowest airfare online tickets are $500. To purchase: www.showclix.com .
Jan. 31 - New Orleans native and NFL Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk will hold a live-music, open-bar and passed-hors d'oeuvre party on Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. at The Columns Hotel. Students from the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts will perform, and there will be silent auctions airline lowest airfare online tickets of signed sports memorabilia. The event will raise money for Africa for the Future, NOCCA and the Marshall Faulk Foundation. Oh, and lots of celebrities plan to be there. Tickets are $250. For details: Africa-for-the-future.org.
Feb. 2 Commander's Palace's table auction will put the restaurant's prime seat up for grabs on a night when tables around town will be booked solid. The auction will be for dinner for up to six people at the corner Garden Room table (Barbra Streisand and Leonardo DiCaprio airline lowest airfare online tickets have sat there) on CharityBuzz.com , and the minimum bid is $1,500, with proceeds benefiting airline lowest airfare online tickets the nonprofit Girls First. The winning bidder will get dinner, but alcohol, gratuity and tax are not included. The link to the auction should go live later today (Jan. 22), and the auction will close on Feb. 1 at noon. Details at CharityBuzz.com or Commander's Palace, 1403 Washington Ave., 504.899.8221
Feb. 2 The Taste of the NFL, the league s swanky Super Bowl food fest benefiting anti-hungry programs around the country, airline lowest airfare online tickets takes over Hall J of the Morial Convention airline lowest airfare online tickets Center, and fills it with dishes by chefs from NFL cities, including airline lowest airfare online tickets Commander s Palace s Tory McPhail, who acts as this year s co-host of the event with former New Orleans Saint Morten Andersen. The Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board is a co-sponsor, so local shrimp, crabs, oysters and fish will get top billing in dishes such as Baltimore chef Nancy Longo of Pierpoint Restaurant airline lowest airfare online tickets s crispy Louisiana blue crab gyoza with lemongrass oyster stew and crispy leeks, San Francisco chef David Seavey of North Beach Bistro s Louisiana shrimp over stone-milled grits with black hog farm sausage, and McPhail s grilled Louisiana airline lowest airfare online tickets crawfish with Hennessey Cognac-flamed winter mushrooms, Creole cream cheese gnocchi, double airline lowest airfare online tickets truffles and spicy crawfish boil cream. Celebrity sighting potential: Travel Channel's "Bizarre Foods" host Andrew Zimmern . Tickets: $600 per person, www.tasteofthenfl.com .
Feb. 3 Three blocks east of the Superdome, Walk-On s Bistreaux Bar, at 1009 Poydras St., will be one of the closest restaurants to the actual game, so it s going super-sized. The restaurant is filling the adjacent parking lot with a 15,000-square-foot tent. On Super Bowl Sunday, the tent will feature a tailgate party from noon to 4 p.m. with live music, a seafood buffet and open bar for $400 per person. Celebrity sighting potential: Troy Landry of Swamp People, the Saintsations and the Hornets airline lowest airfare online tickets Honeybees.
Inside the restaurant, Walk-On s will be open by ticket only, which should airline lowest airfare online tickets make it easier to get a drink than on regular game days, when lines for this place wrap around the block. For $250 per person downstairs, and $200 per person upstairs, the restaurant promises open bar and a four-course spread of Louisiana cuisine.
More than 5,000 members of the media are expected to descend airline lowest airfare online tickets on the city over the next two weeks, and in between telling stories about the Harbaugh brothers, airline lowest airfare online tickets they ll be eating and drinking all over town, and hopefully writing about their favorite bites.
The Super Bowl Host Committee has planned a food-filled welcome party with more than 50 local restaurants serving up dishes. Also in the media center which is open only to credentialed members airline lowest airfare online tickets of the press chefs Chris Montero, Greg Reggio, Duke LoCicero, Kevin Belton, Aaron Burgau and others will be building a 47-foot shrimp and oyster po-boy, and Zatarain's will host a crawfish boil.