Coffee & Treats in Gretna

Armed with just a single, generations-old cookie recipe, Great American Cookies opened its first store in 1977, and the rest is history. Today, the franchise boasts locations in malls across the country and nabbed a coveted spot on Entrepreneur magazine?s 2012 list of Top 500 Franchises in the baked-goods category. The shop?s reputation grew, and so did its menu as chefs churned out a mouthwatering roster of gourmet-cookie recipes, each created and carefully tested in Atlanta. The tempting options now include snickerdoodle, peanut butter with M&M?s, and chewy pecan supreme, as well as freshly baked fudge and cheesecake brownies and cookie sandwiches stuffed with frosting. The real showstoppers, however, are the giant chocolate-chip cookie cakes, which can be customized with sweet, celebratory messages or shopping lists penned in colorful icing.

Chef David Gotter brings his mighty cache of culinary insight to the fresh, sophisticatedly simple menu at Gambit award-winning Gott Gourmet Café. House-cooked meats mingle with organic herbs, and produce schmoozes with artful interpretation in dishes such as the slow-braised pulled-pork wrap, a tortilla snuggler hugging ancho-honey slaw, roasted tomatoes, avocado, greens, and chili sour cream ($9.95). Salads and soups are also conjured by hand, evidenced by the blue-corn fried-oyster baby-spinach salad ($11.95) and the loaded gumbo, chocked with andouille, chicken, shrimp, crab, ham, okra, and a small wallop of potato salad ($6.50−$8.50). Members of the environment will be glad to know Gott Gourmet is committed to sustainability, with to-go containers derived from corn, sugar cane, and everlasting gobstoppers.

M's Coffee & Cafe' (New Orleans Coffee House) is your neighborhood spot for a hot delicious cup of coffee or a nice hot press sandwich from our cafe'. M's offer a wide array of pastries, bagels and muffins just in time for you're morning commute.

The decor of the Kupcakes Etc., with its alternating lines of dark and light lime green, brings to mind the crinkled ridges and grooves of a cupcake wrapper, perhaps putting visitors in the mood to select from the menu's 20 cake and frosting flavors. Strawberry-shortcake, lemon-meringue, and red velvet cupcakes can be consumed in one of four sizes, ranging from bite-size minis to gigantic cakes that feed up to 10 people. Cakes can be decorated with chocolate candies and multicolored sprinkles, which sends out a festive vibe—much like hitting a piñata with a folded Ouija board does.

Located in the heart of the French Quarter, Mr. Apple is the place to go to savor crisp granny smiths coated in creamy caramel and other dustings such as nuts, cookies, and holiday-inspired decorations. The shop also outputs inventive concoctions, such as chocolate-dipped bananas and strawberries, pralines, almond clusters, and practically anything a witch would use to spackle her gingerbread drywall.