Local Restaurant Celebrates Mardi Gras By Connie Hayes, Staff Writer The local restaurant and bar, Goose Loonies Tavern and Grill is celebrating Mardi Gras for the months of February and March. Along with Mardi Gras decorations, music and drink specials, they created an additional southern themed menu along with the old to bring in an authentic New Orleans atmosphere. With a mixture of young and old, Goose Loonies has a comfortable relaxed vibe for anyone who walks through the door. Their Mardi Gras theme menu includes beginnings, sandwiches, Mardi Gras dinner and desserts sections. Their beginnings include gumbo, fried okra and red and rice beans among other dishes. Sandwiches include blackened catfish Po’Boy, which consists of blackened catfish with a light dijonese spread and The Big Easy Pulled Pork Po’Boy comprising of carnitas-style slow-smoked pulled-pork served with watermelon barbecue sauce. The Mardi Gras dinner includes Na’awlins Ribs, Jambalaya, and Blackened rib eye. Desserts comprise of the Bourbon Street Apple Crostada to further the theme. As well as their selection of 25 beers on draft, they are featuring Mardi Gras-theme cocktails such as the Cajun martini and creole sangria for anyone over the age of 21. Their music consists of Cajun-style songs setting the New Orleans vibe. Tunes varied from jazz and zydeco (a blend of Cajun music and rhythm and blues), to a more upbeat soulful feel. It gave the sense of being in New Orleans, and masks and beads hanging from light fixtures gave a more colorful and upbeat ambiance. Our waiter told us that Goose Loonies “will be continuing the theme of Mardi Gras through the month of March as well, including Fat Tuesday,” which falls on March 4th. The Catholic tradition is to celebrate this day in preparation for the Lenten season beginning March 5th. “As early as the middle of the second century, the Romans observed a Fast of 40 Days, which was preceded by a brief season of feasting, costumes and merrymaking” americancatholic.org. “Mardi Gras, literally “Fat Tuesday,” has grown in popularity in recent years as a raucous, sometimes hedonistic event. But its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the “last hurrah” before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. That’s why the enormous party in New Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight on Tuesday, with battalions of street sweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter towards home” according to americancatholic.org. For anyone looking to get in the spirit of Mardi Gras, Goose Loonies is the place to do it.