You'll Need a Boarding Pass to Access New Orleans' Latest Café du Monde

New Orleans is one of our favorite places on the planet, and in 2019, it's going to get a big upgrade. The city's Louis Armstrong International Airport (MSY) is undergoing a major renovation and expects the brand-new terminal to be open sometime in February. The almost $1 billion project is going to include some solid perks for travelers, but quite possibly the most exciting part to-date was just announced:

There's going to be a Café du Monde right in the center of it. The catch? You'll need to have a plane ticket, since it's going to be past the new, consolidated security checkpoint.

What better way to take home a little bit of NOLA with you than some fried dough and powdered sugar? (That's a rhetorical question.)

Other New Orleans staples you'll find there include Ye Olde College Inn, PJ's coffee, Emeril's and MoPho, among plenty of others. While the restaurant selection is so good you could certainly just eat your way through the airport and be very happy about it, be sure to go out and explore the city and all of its amazing food, too.

Last and most certainly not least, the airport is also getting a Shake Shack (!!!). It's going to be the first one in Louisiana. So if you find yourself at the airport anytime after next February, go get yourself the Shack Stack and a beignet — and thank us for the tip later.

*This post has been updated to reflect that the new terminal at MSY is a $1 billion project, not million.

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