News and information from the New Orleans area
New Orleans Carnival
Hubig’s New Improved Mini King Cake Due Next Week
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King Cake
The huge legion of Mardi Gras devotees and New Orleans food aficionados are jumping for joy now that the Hubig Pie Company, through their Twitter account, let it be known last week that a new improved individual King Cake was forthcoming for the 2011 Carnival Season!
NOLA foodies and Carnival lovers sat up and salivated. Before you could say Savory Simon, #hubigswatch was trending locally.
However, company spokesperson Drew Ramsey said, the new king cake still needs refining.
It’s going to be a little fluffy cinnamon king cake,” Ramsey said, not a fried pie. “With icing. But when it comes to our wrapper, our wrapper breathes. That’s unacceptable. And people want to see the king cake. There was a miscommunication between the wrapper and the icing.”
Ramsey said the new confection will be “reasonably priced” and it will not contain a baby.
“Watch your local convenience stores,” he said.
King Cake Warning Sign
West Bank Carnival Krewes Alla & Cleopatra Could Get Parish Money
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Two West Bank krewes would receive a total of $25,000 from Jefferson Parish for this year’s Carnival parades under agreements the Parish Council is expected to approve Wednesday. But a separate item on the agenda would ban such expenditures in the future.
The Krewe of Alla would receive $15,000 while Cleopatra would get $10,000 in hotel and motel tax revenue under resolutions proposed by Councilman Chris Roberts, who has steered parish funding to West Bank krewes since 2005.
The practice would be banned under an ordinance proposed by Councilman Byron Lee, who wants to prohibit the parish from entering into such cooperative endeavor agreements with krewes, festivals and social clubs.
Lee did not immediately return a call seeking comment on his rationale for the restrictions.
Roberts said he expects Lee’s proposal to be deferred, saying it has “no chance of passing as it is written.”
“I’m not sure where he’s coming from with this,” Roberts said. “This would eliminate the Gretna Heritage Festival, the Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo and pretty much all other tourism-related events that have received parish funds.”
He also said Lee’s proposal conflicts with a state law regulating how hotel and motel tax revenue can be spent.
“You can’t take that money and pave a street or make drainage improvements,” Roberts said. “It has to be used to promote tourism and economic development.”
Roberts said West Bank krewes have received similar amounts in recent years from his district’s roughly $100,000 share of the tax revenue. He said the Krewe of Choctaw has not yet approached him for funding this year.
REX has a New Colorful Photo Book
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Rex book cover
This is an attractive book if you are into Rex, Mardi Gras, New Orleans, pretty Carnival photos, etc. Rex is a central theme of Mardi Gras, they are the original purple, green & gold krewe. Rex is the second oldest Mardi Gras parading organization in New Orleans. Only Proteus is older, but they stopped parading in 1993 and resume parading in 2000. Rex didn’t stop because of Dorothy Mae Taylor’s ordinance.
Since its founding in 1872, the School of Design has added chapter after colorful chapter to the history of Carnival in New Orleans. This is a story best told in pictures, and a new book, Rex: An Illustrated History of the School of Design, does just that, and for a wonderful cause. All proceeds after publication costs go directly to the Pro Bono Publico Foundation.
Assembled by Rex archivist, Stephen Hales, this book is filled with more than 260 beautiful images telling the story of Rex, the King of Carnival, from his appearance on horseback in the first Rex Procession through the 2010 Parade and Ball. Museums and private collectors have allowed use of images never before published, documenting not only the history of the Rex Organization but also tracing the history of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Photographs of modern Rex Parades and Balls show that the School of Design continues to build on its oldest traditions of beauty and spectacle.
Among the 12 chapter subjects are The Grand Ball, The Rex Procession, Rex and the Military, The Rex Den, and Rex: Symbols and a Song. The book’s final chapter, Pro Bono Publico, documents the new dimensions given to the Rex motto in the five years since Hurricane Katrina.
Priced at $35, Rex: An Illustrated History of the School of Design will be available for sale in area bookstores on November 15, in time for individual and corporate holiday giving. It is also available for online purchase here-
REX on Mardi Gras Day on St Charles Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana
BLAINE AND BARRY KERN KISS AND MAKE UP
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Barry & Blaine Kern
It was a short public feud, less than 1 month. There’s so much money for the Kerns at stake, some of the major krewe captains, notably Owen ‘Pip’ Brennan (Bacchus Captain) and Ed Muniz (Endymion Captain) got the Kerns to sit down by inviting the father and son to a meeting without telling each other. It was a classic usage of the Take Away Sale- If you don’t kiss and make up, we’ll take away Bacchus and other key krewes.
Blaine Kern
This is a hollow threat, there’s no other float builder around to take up the slack if the Kerns don’t build the major krewes. Carnival is less than 6 months away, and that’s go time in the float building business. Only Blaine Kern Artists have the size to build Bacchus, Rex, Endymion, Muses, Alla, Orpheus, and many more parades at once.
It’s very ironic that a Brennan was called to settle this family feud, since the Brennans have a large family and have been feuding in and out of the newspapers for decades
The family survived a rift that left the children of the late Owen Sr. about as disposed toward their aunts and uncles — Adelaide, John, Ella, Dick and Dottie — and their 11 children as the Hatfields were disposed toward the McCoys. Since 1974, when the feud split the business, Owen’s children — Pip, Jimmy and Ted — have run the family’s original restaurant, Brennan’s, on Royal Street.
At the same time, Ella, Dick, Adelaide, Dottie and John took over Commander’s Palace in the Garden District and built it into one of the 10 top grossing restaurants in the United States. Adelaide, who did not have children, died in 1983. Ella, Dick, Dottie and John continued to run Commander’s and built five other restaurants — Mr. B’s, Palace Cafe and Ristorante Bacco in New Orleans, Brennan’s and Third Coast in Houston.