Certain kinds of dining necessitate the invention of new utensils: Asian cooking begat chopsticks, clam chowder brought about the crazy straw, and now there are forks long enough to keep cheese away from hands. Skinny dip with today's Groupon to The Melting Pot of New Orleans. Choose from the following options:

• For $35, you get a three-course meal for two (up to an $86 value) Sunday–Thursday.
• For $35, you get a three-course meal for two (up to an $86 value) Friday or Saturday.
  
  The meal for two includes:
  • One cheese fondue to share (up to a $16 value)
  • Two salads (up to a $6 value each)
  • Two sampler entrees with a variety of meats and vegetables (a $21 value each)
  • Two glasses of house wine (up to an $8 value each)

• For $69, you get a three-course meal for four (up to a $172 value) Sunday–Thursday.
• For $69, you get a three-course meal for four (up to a $172 value) Friday or Saturday.
  
  The meal for four includes:
  • Two cheese fondues to share (up to a $16 value each)
  • Four salads (up to a $6 value each)
  • Four sampler entrees with a variety of meats and vegetables (a $21 value each)
  • Four glasses of wine (up to an $8 value each)

The Melting Pot's cooks serve up a menu of fondue cheese and Swiss-French cuisine, enabling parties of two or four to revel in the warm, gooey glory of a three-course dinner. Diners choose between two house pours—a chardonnay and a merlot—before embarking on a voyage across the steamy sea of mouthwatering melts with a selection from the cheese fondues. Each fondue is escorted with an entourage of fresh bread, vegetables, and apples, which are captured by spears for convenient dipping or fencing matches across the table. Morsels dive into fontina and butterkäse cheese to mingle with spinach, artichoke hearts, and garlic in the spinach-artichoke cheese fondue, or plunge into the Fiesta cheese fondue, in which lager beer, jalapeño peppers, and salsa latch onto tidbits for a safe ride into mouths. Servers then whisk out a tasting platter loaded with uncooked morsels of shrimp, chicken, pork tenderloin, teriyaki-marinated sirloin, and fresh vegetables. Diners skewer meats and veggies, dip them into a miniature cauldron of broth, and dunk freshly cooked bites into an array of dipping sauces.

While the platter is meant to provide a chance to sample some of the menu's most popular items, vegetarians may sub out meat for more veggies, shrimp-averse eaters can ask for more chicken, and obstinate vending machines can feast on a bowl of quarters.