Lent can be a bittersweet time. While adherents are rejoicing in God’s graces, they are also lamenting the loss of their favorite vices. This explains the fervor devoted to the day that anticipates the coming chastity of
Ash Wednesday, Lent’s inaugural day.
Of course, I'm talking about
Mardi Gras.
French for "Fat Tuesday", the day has roots in carnival celebrations of Europe dating back hundreds of years. The holiday was imported to America by French Catholics exploring the southern United States.
For many of us in Lansing, the Mardi Gras mystique has consisted of a collage of still photos from magazines and stories recounted by friends of friends who may have once traveled to France.
But the Capital region is tapping its influx of southern imports to quickly add its own Midwestern flavor to this spicy holiday, and bringing it home for us to enjoy.
Gumbo and Jazz“We love living here in East Lansing, however, I miss the Louisiana around this time of year,” says Desi Anderson, a native of Baton Rouge, La., speaking on behalf of herself and her husband,
Wessell "Warmdaddy" Anderson.
The couple moved here when Wessell—who toured as a saxophonist with
Wynton Marsalis for 20 years—accepted a position as an associate professor of jazz studies at
Michigan State University (MSU).
Longing for the nuances of life in Louisiana, she opened up a restaurant in East Lansing which serves only authentic southern Louisiana cuisine. She calls it Gumbo and Jazz. And this year, she will be hosting the first of what will be an annual jazz dinner show in honor of Mardi Gras at
Perspective2 Studio in
Old Town.
“I’m not gonna sell anything that is not the real deal,” says Anderson of her food.
For the jazz dinner show on Feb. 21, she’ll be cooking up shrimp creole, andouille sausage, red beans with and without tasso (smoked ham), jambalaya, gumbo and deer (that’s venison for all the Yankees out there) to name a few.
Most of the elements for the jazz dinner show will be imported directly from Louisiana, including New Orleans jazz singer
Germaine Bazzle.
She is familiar with the phony hype that surrounds this iconic holiday. “What people think—they want to see Bourbon Street,” she says—the whole "getting drunk, getting beads" thing. But she insists that this isn’t what it’s about.
For her, the true meaning of Mardi Gras is homecoming. It’s about family. Sort of like Thanksgiving, but way, way better.
She recounts childhood memories involving waking up before the sun in order to watch the parade on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday. Floating along with the crowd (known as the second line) as they follow the band (the first line) from club to club, dancing all the way. Her jazz dinner show will include its own version of the parade, indoors of course.
The only thing she can’t import from Baton Rouge is the warm weather in February.
By the BookIn Lansing’s
REO Town, another ambitious Lansingite with southern connections is brewing plans of his own. Geno Abbey, a bartender at Izzo’s Pub, is going to great lengths to make his Mardi Gras celebration as authentic as possible.
What lengths? Well, for starters he is importing 100 pounds of live crawfish from Louisiana.
Abbey hails from the East Coast, but moved to Lansing to go to law school, left and then came back again.
One of those job changes took him to Lafayette, La. where he lived for a year and a half. Lafayette is known for a Mardi Gras celebration that rivals that of New Orleans. He is now a veritable encyclopedia of Mardi Gras.
Tradition has it that Cajuns in Lafayette once rode from farm to farm in costume, performing for the farmers in the hopes of procuring a chicken or hog for their Mardi Gras gumbo—hence the Mardi Gras parade.
Abbey fondly recalls watching the Mardi Gras captain ritualistically swinging a chicken back and forth before releasing it into a muddy field where drunken Mardi Gras goers in full costume struggled to capture it. Their reward: the pride of knowing that they caught the chicken for the Mardi Gras gumbo.
“Having done that, and learning about the crawfish thing," says Abbey, "it became exciting to celebrate Mardi Gras in a more traditional fashion."
Last year, Izzo’s Pub had its first ever Mardi Gras celebration, and it was a huge hit, according to Geno and Izzo regulars. The place was packed, people wore costumes, the tables were covered in newspaper and the crawfish was poured directly onto it.
Abbey has no reason to believe that things will be different this year when Izzo’s continues its now annual Feb. 21 tradition.
“Most people hear Mardi Gras and they think, ''Oh, New Orleans, big parade,'" says Abbey. "That really isn’t what it’s about. It’s really about having a good time, indulging and all that, before you go into the Lent season.”
New TraditionsFor MSU students in East Lansing, Mardi Gras appears to be something different.
“I think what makes it Mardi Gras, is probably just a bunch of people excited to have a party in the middle of the cold weather in Lansing,” says Jeffrey Struck, a manager at
Beggar’s Banquet in East Lansing.
Beggar’s Banquet, along with the
Harrison Roadhouse,
The Riv, and
Rick’s American Café are planning a very ambitious Mardi Gras bar crawl Feb. 24.
Partiers will start at the Harrison Roadhouse, where official Cajun cuisine will be served. From the Roadhouse, patrons will travel by bus to Beggar’s, and onward by foot to the Riv and finally Rick’s.
The Mardi Gras bar crawl has been an East Lansing tradition for many years. While not drawing inspiration from any first personal accounts of Mardi Gras, the bars are plan to incorporate the Mardi Gras colors of red, green, gold and purple into the décor. The walk from bar to bar is reminiscent of a true Louisiana second line.
And costumes? You bet. Struck will be wearing a “wacky” suit, which may include beads, glasses and a funny hat.
While some in the Lansing area have come bearing their own home-grown versions of Louisiana Mardi Gras, others have grown their own.
The East Lansing Mardi Gras bar crawl, while not about family or letting loose before Lent, it's definitely about letting loose. Does this make it any less authentic? That’s better left for the purists to debate.
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Adam Molner is a freelance writer and he is planning giving away a lot of beads on Mardi Gras.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:Wessell Anderson plays at Gumbo & Jazz
Geno Abbey boils crawfish at last years party (photo Izzo's Pub)
Last years Marti Gras bash at Izzo's (photo Izzo's Pub)
Izzo's bartenders get in the spirit last year (photo Izzo's Pub)
Jeffrey Struck at Begger's Banquet
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie (unless noted)