BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — With a big weekend of parades ahead, revelers throughout Baton Rouge are gearing up for a weekend of food and fun! The owner of Fresh Cravings, Coco Howard, is preparing for an extremely busy weekend. She said she's ready for the boom in business at her rest aurant. "We’re really preparing, expecting a crowd," said Howard. "Of course, we’re going to be serving outside of the restaurant and we’ll also have a block party in the back,” she mentioned. Howard said she's anticipating shoulder-to-shoulder crowds right outside her door on Third Street. “We’ll have crawfish, quesadillas, whatever you’re craving or in the mood for we'll have it," she added. "We’re serving breakfast out here for Spanishtown," said Christian Howard. "We'll start serving that at 8:00 a.m. We’ll have breakfast sandwiches, egg quesadillas. It’ll be a good time, people’s bellies will be full!" "They’ll get pummeled all day long at the restaurants," said downtown bar owner Brian Otts. "They’ll eat before and after the parade; people will be drinking and eating and just having fun day!" Across town at Parrain’s Restaurant on Perkins, seafood lovers are gearing up for the Southdowns Parade. "We’re going to be extremely busy tonight; we're going to be slammed after the parade," said Parrain's Elvia Davis. Meanwhile, Laura Cating with Visit Baton Rouge said with the great weather, the Super Bowl lead-in, and Bowling Championships at the River Center, this weekend in Baton Rouge is looking at an economic boom. "During Mardi Gras weekend, visitor spending tends to go up five percent; we’re looking at retail, hotels and those restaurants,” she mentioned. Latest News The Most Reliable New Cars for the Money for 2025 Is there a secret behind the Netflix intro sound? Some viewers seem to think so FedEx plane makes emergency landing after bird strike WATCH: 2 window washers rescued from 'spinning' scaffolding in New York City 4 ways to maximize your tax refund ...read more read less