The chefs pay homage to Fat Tuesday Run, in which partyers run from house to house adding to a communal gumbo pot. This pot will include chicken, ham, alligator, crawfish and who knows what else. Read more.
How many crawfish can one person eat? Find out at the annual crawfish-eating contest at Cactus, in which truly insane people will compete to see who can eat three pounds of crustaceans the fastest. Read more.
Nothing like stilt walkers to remind you how batshit crazy Bourbon Street is. Live music, samba dancing and a Mardi Gras–inspired menu complete the celebration Read more.
Go between Thu 16 and Tue 21 and eat beer-battered fish po’ boys and spicy jambalaya and throw back a few hurricanes ($5). Read more.
The peel-and-eat crustaceans will be sold by the basket ($7/half-pound or $12/pound), and try it with the restaurant’s notorious selection of hot sauces. Read more.
Have a Carnivale Cocktail (Leblon cachaça, Domaine de Canton, fresh kiwi and Champagne; $12) or a Carnaval Roll (tuna, salmon, shrimp, yellow chimichurri sauce and Brazil nuts; $15). Read more.
You can watch the friendly competition, too, by buying a ticket ($30), which includes a caipirinha sample from each bartender and hors d’oeuvres in a “Carnival” (read: drunken and colorful) atmosphere Read more.
If you find the baby trinket in your slice of King Cake from this bakery, you get good fortune for the next year. If you don’t, you get…a piece of cake without a tiny plastic baby in it. Read more.