Where the Good Times Will Be Rolling for Mardi Gras in DC Metro

Bayou Gras Float heading to Courthouse-Clarendon  Mardi Gras Parade

By Olga Boikess

They’ll be dancing in the street of New Orleans, Rio de Janiero - and possibly Clarendon, VA, on next Tuesday, Febuary 12, when Mardi Gras celebrations go wild. Sure it would be great to be partying in the Big Easy, or on the beach at Ipanema, but, there will be plenty of bon temps rouler action right her in DC - from a Bayou Gras street festival in Arlington to Bourbon Street on Pennsylvania Avenue with jambalaya and jazz.
Bayou Bakery, Coffee Bar and Eatery will host a New Orleans-style bash. Its Bayou Gras block party will take over 15th Street starting at 5 PM, with live mambo tunes and spicy creole fare like crawfish tamales, muffuletta, gumbo and Abita brews. Guest mixologist Gina Chersevani will be shaking up hurricanes, and Rappahannock River Oysters will be shucking bivalves. At 8 PM, the party-goers, dripping with beads and twirling umbrellas, will follow the bakery's Boogie Float into the Clarendon-Courthouse Mardi Gras parade. Afterwards, folks can head back to the restaurant for more food and revelry.

Downtown Latin spot Ceiba will channel the legendary celebrations in Brazil with street-style food at the bar (pork belly bites with spicy mojo, amijoas com linguica - clams and Portuguese sausage)  and deadly caipirinha cocktails (202-393-3983).

Central will turn its happening Penn Quarter digs into a Big Easy boite on February 12 with celebration decor, masks, feathers, beads and live jazz by Laissez-Foure. The kitchen will be cooking up jambalaya and other specials for the a la carte menu, to be paired with beer, wine and cocktails with that je ne sais quoi quotient (202-626-0015).