"If you’re unsure about how you want your birthday to end up, Hotel Clermont in the Old Fourth Ward gives you options. Start downstairs at Tiny Lou’s with a dinner of things like steak tartare and duck confit. As you’re finishing up, you’ll have to choose from the elaborate dessert cart they wheel to the table before making an even more important decision: upstairs or downstairs? You could keep things casual with a final drink on the rooftop bar. Or, if you’re ready to give in to your friends that keep insisting that birthdays are meant for bad decisions, go downstairs to the legendary Clermont Lounge." - nina reeder, jacinta howard