[title type="h5"]Thursday, April 9, 2015.
French Quarter Festival Gets Busy Early. [/title]
I am broadcasting two radio shows from the French Quarter Festival instead of just one. I think that's a first in the twenty-something years I've hosted a show from Jackson Square. The crowds are surprisingly large, and they begin at Canal Street. I weave in and out of pedestrian traffic from that point all the way to the corner of St. Ann and Chartres, our usual broadcast point.
The crowds are no less thick in the square itself. Indeed, they seem as great as the convergence we see on Saturdays and Sundays. That continues as I leave at six. The bands have only another hour to play, but the crowds seem to think it will go on all night. Marci Schramm, the executive director of the festival, says that at certain tunes during the next four afternoons, over twenty bands will play simultaneously. (In different places, I hope.)
The food is also off to a good start on its way to being the best ever. There is more turnover among the vendors than I recall from past years. Major cause: a half-dozen former vendors have closed the doors of their everyday establishments. The French Quarter Festival is unusual in that its food vendors are all restaurateurs, not caterers. But the replacements clearly represent improvement.
And quite a few long-time dishes have been swapped out. The most surprising is Tujague's famous brisket, a fixture at the FQF since Year One. But owner Mark Latter--who has transformed Tujague's into two or three times the restaurant it ever was--decreed that the kitchen doesn't have the facilities to boil a thousand pounds of brisket. The beef has to simmer for hours, complicating things even more. So no more brisket. Chicken-andouille jambalaya takes its place.
[caption id="attachment_47245" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Vaucresson hot Creole sausage. [/caption]
I spend my three hours on air talking with a parade of food guys and girls. Vance Vaucresson, who is here with his hot sausage. Tommy Wong with his crawfish with lobster sauce and vegetable lo mein. Paul Miller from K-Paul's, with Butterbeans That Make You Crazy. The lady who owns McHardy's Chicken (I didn't catch her name, but she was very enthusiastic), with no chicken. Alex Fein with turtle soup from the Court of Two Sisters. And a well-spoken guy who knew all about Muriel's and its food, including how the goat-cheese crepe with crawfish cream sauce is made. When I ask what his position he holds at the restaurant, he says he is the maintenance man. Tomorrow, Muriel's owner Rick Gratia will tell me that the guy does sort of run the place.
The Marys arrive home after their twelve-day sojourn through Germany, followed by a couple of days in Maryland (where Mary Ann's sister lives) and Baltimore (where The Boy lives). They have managed to get first class on the transatlantic flight, including the pods they love so much. And their buddy passes cause no problems on the domestic leg. I have missed them more than I thought I would. I am not the bachelor I used to be.
