Lundi Gras

Here in Southern California it's cool and cloudy, and according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, that's how the weather's going to be for today's Lundi Gras parades - and also for Mardi Gras tomorrow.

Last year [The Man I Love] and I were thrilled at the chance to go to New Orleans two weeks before Mardi Gras. Although we'd been to the city many times before, it was the first time we'd been during Carnival season.

We had a wonderful time, watching parades and listening to music and enjoying fabulous food. So this morning, realizing it's Lundi Gras, and feeling the cool damp of late February outside, there's one place I want to be right now.

I want to be sitting at the shucking bar at Acme Oyster House, on Iberville Street in the French Quarter. Won't you come join me?

Last year, on a Sunday lunchtime two weeks before Mardi Gras, we had to stand in line - so today, if we take you there, it'll probably be the same. The line ran about twelve deep. We stood facing the loading dock of the hotel next door, smelling the garbage from their dumpsters and the sour water in the cobbled gutter of Iberville Street.

Some of the folks standing in line with us had already started to party - plastic hurricane cups and go-cups of beer were in their hands. You see a lot of that in the French Quarter!

Most folks in line want a table, but for me, the bar is my first choice - especially, the bar where we can sit and watch the guys shucking oysters.

The room around us is loud, bustling, neon-lit and smells of fried seafood, gumbo, and beer.

Order an Abita from the bartender, and a dozen on the half shell.  Sit back and enjoy.  You want some Crystal hot sauce with that?

"You'll never know
What heaven means
Until you been down to New Orleans"

- "New Orleans," - Sid Tepper, Roy C. Bennett