In honor of Fat Tuesday, the final day of Carnival Season, Sarah Ruffin Costello offers up five ways to navigate Mardi Gras like a local.
This creative multi-talent (she writes, styles, and decorates), moved with her family from downtown Manhattan to New Orleans’ Garden District after getting “snagged by the spirit of the town,” on a trip through the South, she says.
“It’s a privilege to watch tradition gloriously marching forward,” she says of Mardi Gras season and the preparations—especially the marching band practices—that begin months ahead of time. “Ultimately, I sort of forget about floats and beads and get lost in the percussion.”
1. Best way to enjoy Mardi Gras with kids:
Even though this town is steeped in booze, boobs and bourbon, Mardi Gras is actually fantastic with children.
Get a ladder with an empty tool box affixed on top (Ace Hardware sells them—pre-made for the parades) and stick your kid on top for prime bead catching and stashing.
2. Favorite seasonal cocktail
Any drink that bartender Chris Hannah crafts at Arnaud’s French 75 bar in the Quarter will not disappoint.
3. Favorite Mardi Gras tradition
What I really look forward to is an ice-cold, tangy Bloody Mary at eight in the morning on Fat Tuesday.
I make them with Bronson Van Wyck’s spicy Bloody Mary mix from Arkansas and any vodka that’s still left, and top it with a few French spiced beans.
4. Favorite parade
By a wide margin Muses is the winner. It’s restricted to all-women riders who work for 12 months at glitter get-togethers decorating high-heeled shoes to bestow on a lucky few.
Cheeky political themes kept top secret until the day of and the thrill of catching a bedazzled shoe make it the one parade we never miss.
5. Way to recover when it’s all over
Quitting drinking for Lent and taking a brisk walk around Audobon Park usually does the trick.
If that doesn’t cut it, Dr. Mignonne Mary’s Remedy Lounge (also a roving mobile unit) gives restorative transfusions of B-12 and whatever else you need.
