There will be a family-style menu of New Orleans flavors, a brass band, an artist painting the scene live and, proprietor Brian Weisnicht knows well, there will be glitter. So much glitter.
That’s because his restaurant Plates in the Warehouse District is hosting a special luncheon on “Friday Gras,” as the Friday before Mardi Gras is increasingly being called.
“I think it took us three weeks to get rid of all the glitter last year,” Weisnicht said. “It’s such a fun day, and everyone will be feeling good by the time they roll out of here. I mean, no one is going to work after lunch.”
Plates is a new restaurant joining a very old tradition in the New Orleans dining scene that flows through Mardi Gras. It’s part of a growing number of restaurants upping the access and offerings for a day that has long been the domain of old-line krewes.
Costumed members of the Krewe of Cork have a Champagne lunch at Brennan’s Restaurant before their parade in New Orleans on Friday, Feb. 14, 2020. STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER▲
Many Carnival organizations have long-standing relationships with specific restaurants. Celebratory lunches before their parades and other events throughout the year are part of krewe custom. With bookings locked in far in advance, and perhaps in perpetuity, landing a table at some of these restaurants on the big days could be almost as hard as joining the krewes.
But with more people participating in Carnival — in newer krewes, in marching and dance groups, or simply gaggles of friends out for a good time — more restaurants are stepping in as stages for their Mardi Gras revelry, broadening the tradition.
The dining rooms become extra festive scenes at Commander’s Palace during Carnival time lunches, as patrons arrive in costume and managers name a king and queen of each room. (Contributed photo) ▲
This plays out through the season as the calendar marches toward Mardi Gras itself. But Friday has lately become a more robust display, on a level with Lundi Gras as a grand prelude to Fat Tuesday. People bust out the bustiers, spackle on the glitter and turn lunch into rollicking costume-clad parties in the name of Friday Gras, the kickoff to a weekend that lasts until Ash Wednesday.
Setting the tradition
Antoine’s Restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans is the oldest continuously family-run restaurant in the U.S. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)▲
Antoine’s, the oldest restaurant in the city, is the peak intersection of Carnival and dining. Rex takes over its entire maze of dining rooms the Wednesday before Mardi Gras for its luncheon, Proteus has Lundi Gras and Friday belongs to Hermes, with each lunch seating about 1,000 people.
On Bourbon Street, Galatoire’s long ago turned the frenzied demand for tables at its Friday before Mardi Gras service into a charitable campaign. As it does for the Friday before Christmas lunch, the restaurant holds a live auction ahead of time with people bidding on table reservations, not including whatever tab they might rack up. This year that auction brought in $284,000, with one table of eight going for $22,000.
Auctioneer Ruthie Winston overlooks the dining room at Galatoire’s annual Friday before Mardi Gras table auction for charity in 2024. Jeff Strout▲
Patrons at Galatoire’s annual Mardi Gras table auction take a selfie before the festivities begin on Jan. 9, 2024. Jeff Strout▲
At Arnaud’s, the Friday festivities have grown organically to become the busiest lunch of the year, filling with people who book the same tables or rooms each year, said Arnaud’s co-owner Katy Casbarian. In a way, the restaurant can mimic the house parties and parade route party spots that people maintain annually, like a microcosm of Mardi Gras playing out in its dining rooms.
“It’s always the same people, and eventually it turns into table hopping; everyone knows each other from the year before,” said Casbarian. “It’s many krewes and it’s chaos and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
New to the party
The traditions established at historic restaurants have set the tune that newer restaurants and their patrons are riffing on with Friday Gras.
Palm & Pine, located on the edge of the French Quarter, is a modern expression of a New Orleans restaurant, hosting burlesque and drag events through the year and a monthly lesbian pop-up bar.
Amarys Koenig Herndon and Jordan Herndon opened Palm & Pine in the French Quarter in 2019. (PHOTO BY CARRIE DEMAY) PHOTO BY CARRIE DEMAY▲
Palm & Pine is a modern New Orleans restaurant in the French Quarter. Staff photo by Ian McNulty▲
At Carnival, it also channels the spirit of what its owners saw at the older restaurants where they previously cooked, including Arnaud’s. Friday Gras lunch has been on the books since Palm & Pine opened in 2019, and continuing the tradition on their own terms felt like a natural move, said chef Amarys Koenig Herndon, who runs Palm & Pine with Jordan Herndon.
“It feels like a birthright as a French Quarter restaurant, but as a Rampart Street restaurant we’d do it our way, make it for everyone, be accessible,” she said. “Our restaurant is always exuberant and vibrant, but it’s just so much fun to the see how high energy and cheerful it gets when people really cut loose.”
More are getting in on the action. For instance, Nina Compton’s upscale/casual restaurant Compère Lapin opens for a rare special lunch service for Friday Gras this year, and nearby the French restaurant Couvant has a Friday drag brunch on the books with performances orchestrated by Trixie Minx Productions and bottomless mimosas on offer.
Justine is a French brasserie for the French Quarter mixing classic and contemporary across its rooms and menu. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)▲
Revelers taking part in Friday Gras lunch at Justine during Carnival 2024 spill out onto Chartres Street to celebrate the growing tradition. (Contributed photo by Mia Freiberger-Deviller) ▲
The two restaurants run by chef Justin Devillier and his partner Mia Freiberger-Devillier show how the Friday Gras tradition is expanding from its roots in the French Quarter. Justine, the sexy, neon-trimmed French brasserie in the French Quarter, hosts a ticketed event that day, with a buffet, open bar and live entertainment. As usual, this has sold out, though the waitlist sometimes shakes loose a few spots, closely watched by people eager to join the party.
Meanwhile, the couple’s first restaurant, La Petite Grocery, is just a block from the Uptown parade route. Here, it’s more about people with looser schedules, unaffiliated with formal krewes and making their own parties before hitting the parades.
The bar of La Petite Grocery is a popular destination for casual, bar top dining in New Orleans. (ADVOCATE PHOTO BY J.T. BLATTY)▲
“There’s so much eye candy,” Freiberger-Devillier said. “Everyone is dressed up, headpieces and costumes; it’s a party that takes over and everyone rolls with it.”
At restaurants around the city, people with more impromptu plans have been making Friday Gras their own. That’s the case at Ralph’s on the Park, the Mid-City sister restaurant to Brennan’s in the French Quarter, another historic restaurant always packed on Friday with annual returning tables and krewe events.
“It’s an amped up Friday lunch,” said Charlee Williamson, the parent company’s executive vice president. “It’s marching groups, the queens of past parades or people making an excuse to get together. The party goes all day — you’re not getting another turn on those tables.”
Royalty at restaurants
Even restaurants that have long been part of Carnival customs are adopting new ways to rev up the fun as more people take part.
“Lunch on Friday used to be the old New Orleans set,” said Kenny Meyer, manager of the Garden District landmark Commander’s Palace. “But just like Carnival has transformed, with more groups, becoming more accessible to everyday folks, the crowd we see coming out is much more egalitarian.”
Executive chef Meg Bickford affixes a tablecloth cape to a patron named monarch of the dining room for the day during a Carnival time lunch at Commander’s Palace. (Contributed photo) ▲
Patrons who bring the right kind of spirit and flair to lunch on the days leading up to Mardi Gras, including Friday, could find themselves named royalty. Each day, Meyer and restaurant co-owner Lally Brennan survey the restaurant and dub kings and queens for each of the dining rooms. They don crowns made from chef hats and tablecloth capes, and get scepters made from hand-painted kitchen spoons to mark their reign.
With chef toque crown and tablecloth cape, a patron becomes king of the dining room for the day during a Carnival time lunch at Commander’s Palace. (Contributed photo) ▲
Meyer said it was a spontaneous idea that came about during the pandemic when parades were on hiatus. It has stuck around to become part of the freewheeling spirit at the restaurant in its most festive season.
“It looks like the parade route inside the restaurant with everyone dressed up,” Meyer said. “It’s just so fun and so New Orleans, and it’s because of the way people embrace it.”