New Orleans measures time in sugar. The praline came before the beignet made the travel blogs, and the Italian ice came before either of them. This city’s relationship with sweets is older and wider than most visitors realize, spread across a dozen traditions and neighborhoods that have nothing to do with powdered sugar on a café table.
Loretta’s Authentic Pralines
Loretta Harrison was the first Black woman to own and operate a praline company in New Orleans, and she built a following over decades that turned her French Market stall into one of the most talked-about sweet stops in the city. She passed away in 2022, but her family has continued running the business with the same recipes and the same spirit she brought to it.
The pralines are the foundation: hand-dropped in the old-fashioned spoon method, sweet and creamy with jumbo pecans throughout. The praline beignets are what made the shop nationally known, fried dough stuffed with gooey caramel and pecan filling that reviewers have called the best beignets in New Orleans, period. The crab-stuffed beignets are the savory version, and they are not a novelty. Get there early. The specialty beignets sell out before the end of the day.
Loretta’s operates two locations: French Market Stall 9 at 1100 N. Peters Street and a second location at 2101 N. Rampart Street. The French Market location is open Monday and Wednesday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Tuesday. Call ahead to confirm Rampart Street hours, which vary.
Southern Candymakers
The doors opened on Leap Day, February 29, 1992, at 334 Decatur Street, and Southern Candymakers has been handing out free hot praline samples ever since. The original pralines won Best Candy at the Atlanta Gourmet Show and were later named Best of the USA by Bon Appétit magazine. Bon Appétit is not wrong.
The texture here is the key distinction: creamy rather than brittle, soft and yielding with whole pecans throughout, made fresh every day in the store. The chocolate and rum praline variations are worth trying alongside the original.
Beyond pralines, the shop produces tortes, almond toffee, divinity, glazed pecans, and a full line of chocolates, all made in small batches on site. The smell alone on Decatur Street is enough to pull you in from a block away.
Both French Quarter locations are open daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The flagship is at 334 Decatur Street; a second shop operates at 1010 Decatur Street inside the French Market. Call (504) 523-5544 or order for shipping at southerncandymakers.com.
Angelo Brocato’s
Angelo Brocato Sr. was born in Cefalù, Sicily, in 1877 and began his apprenticeship at a Palermo gelateria at age 12. He came to New Orleans in 1905 and opened his first ice cream parlor on Ursulines Street in the French Quarter, introducing the city to gelato, granita, spumoni, cannoli, and biscotti at a time when most New Orleanians had never tasted any of them. After nearly 80 years in the Quarter, the family relocated to Mid-City. The neon sign reading “A. Brocato Spumone and Cassata Ice Cream” still glows above the North Carrollton entrance.
The interior is old-world unchanged: slowly turning ceiling fans, apothecary jars of colorful candies, glass cases filled with pastries, and white-topped tables. The cannoli are filled to order, their shells crackling as the ricotta cream goes in. The spumoni is layered and dense.
The gelato comes in flavors including praline, straciatella, pistachio, and tiramisu, and none of it tastes like anything from a grocery store case. The cucidati fig biscotti, the biscotti regina, and the pignolati are all worth wrapping up to take home.
Angelo Brocato’s is at 214 N. Carrollton Avenue in Mid-City, steps from the Canal streetcar line. Open Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Monday. Call (504) 486-1465.
Levee Baking Co.
Baker Christina Balzebre built her following at farmers markets and Saturday brunch pop-ups at Mosquito Supper Club before opening Levee Baking Co. on Magazine Street in the Irish Channel in 2019. The name carries two meanings: the French word “lever,” meaning to rise, which governs everything in bread baking, and a nod to Margaret Haughery, the 19th-century bread woman of New Orleans who operated her bakery on what was then called New Levee Street.
The bakery works with locally milled regional grain for its sourdough loaves and sources eggs and dairy locally for its pastries. The galettes, both sweet and savory, rotate with whatever is in season from the farmers’ market, which means the menu changes week to week. Cinnamon rolls with orange, morning buns, kouign-amann, chocolate babka, savory croissants with seasonal fillings, and seasonal fruit tarts round out a counter that sells out on busy mornings.
Levee Baking Co. is at 3138 Magazine Street, with the entrance on 9th Street. Open Thursday through Sunday; check Instagram @leveebakingco for current hours and weekly menu.
