Elmer's Fine Foods, or just Elmer's, is a snack food company based in New Orleans, Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

. Started in 1946, Elmer's makes snack products like its popular Chee Wees (a common New Orleanian phrase for any cheese puffs

Cheese puffs

Cheese puffs, cheese curls, cheese balls, or corn curls are a puffed corn snack, coated with a mixture of cheese or cheese-flavored powders...

) and Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras

The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...

 cheese curls sold in various southeast states. The Elmer's mascot is a mouse

Mouse

A mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles...

 in a tuxedo and spats. Their plant and offices are located in the Ninth Ward, a part of New Orleans that was heavily flooded by Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

. As of December 26th, 2006, Elmer's offices have been rebuilt, and they are currently taking orders and shipping products.

In popular culture

The name of a local New Orleans cover band

Cover band

A cover band , is a band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs. New or unknown bands often find the cover band format marketable for smaller gigs, and these bands may be known as a wedding band, party band and function band. A band whose covers consist mainly of songs that were chart hits is...

 The Chee-Weez

The Chee-Weez

The Chee-Weez is a New Orleans, Louisiana area cover band that was formed in 1997 by Kris LaCoste shortly after parting ways with his previous cover band "Black Diamond". After Kris left, its remaining members went on to form Tom's House and played original music until they disbanded just prior to...

is based on the Chee Wees snack.

External links

• Elmer's Quality Snacks - The Original Chee Wees (company website)