Painting Mardi Gras giantsThe Friday before Fat Tuesday is one of the busiest days of the year for Galatoire's, which has been in business for more than a century. The French Quarter restaurant takes no reservations, and lines several blocks long are common at lunch time, especially on Fridays. For the last weekend of Carnival, customers have been known to camp out to get a spot.
"It just kept getting earlier and earlier, until five years or so ago people were arriving -- or actually paying someone to get in line -- as early as Tuesday to secure a table for Friday," says chief operating officer Melvin Rodrigue.
In 2006, the restaurant started holding auctions for the space and donating the money to charity. So far, it's raised a total of $3.5 million. The Historic New Orleans Collection and New Orleans City Park will benefit this year.
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