Where to find jambalaya, beignets and Hurricanes for Mardi Gras in Puyallup and Tacoma

Housed in a former gas station, Bourbon Street Creole Kitchen & Bar in Puyallup makes an ideal setting for an indoor-outdoor celebration.

Chef Mike de Awlis opened the restaurant in 2013, a few years into living in the area after two decades in New Orleans and Lafayette, Louisiana. In 2015, he decided to go all-in on Mardi Gras. On Fat Tuesday and the weekend before, de Awlis sets up a tent outside and invites a 10-piece brass band that transports guests straight to Treme. Meanwhile, he and his team, including his son Jehan in the kitchen and Mikey at the bar, churn out classic New Orleans dishes and cocktails.

He returns to New Orleans every year to gather the requisite beads and various green, purple and gold ephemera. Oh, and to study the food.

This weekend kicks off the 2020 rendition: on Feb. 22 and 23, then again on Feb. 25, the Buckshot Brass Band will play at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Another band will step in while the horn players take a break at 7:30 p.m.

In other words: live music all night long.

De Awlis strongly encourages reservations if you want to enjoy Mardi Gras dinner. In true community fashion, the chef does not charge a cover to enjoy the music outside but be sure to grab a Sazerac or a Hurricane at the bar.

“We generally get really, really busy — it’s almost a sellout,” he told The News Tribune earlier this month.

The special menu features a few favorites from Bourbon Street’s standard fare, such as shrimp and grits with housemade lemon Tabasco butter and blackened pork chops. The latter comes with red beans and rice instead of the usual Cajun potatoes and roasted veggies.

Creole and Cajun cuisines, both originating in Louisiana, differ slightly. Creole holds its heart in New Orleans, where French and Spanish settlers brought high-brow cooking techniques and ingredients — notably butter and tomatoes — to Caribbean and African flavors. Cajun cooking emanated from the countryside, giving us boudin (pork and rice sausage), Andouille and the “holy trinity” base of onions, celery and bell peppers.

Bourbon Street’s menu wavers between the two, but de Awlis incorporates plenty of roasted tomatoes.

“My thinking in the Cajun cuisine is very traditional,” he said, adding that Jehan is currently studying at a culinary school in London before staging at a restaurant there. “While being traditional, it will help to create some new dishes as well, with a little international touch. We are always on the lookout in how to better ourselves.”

For Mardi Gras, they enhance these traditional dishes for the occasion. There will be pork belly jambalaya, crawfish étouffée topped with fried catfish, cochon du lait (slow-cooked pork served over grits), and seafood gumbo ($24 to $26). To kick off your feast, try the pork belly cracklins and hush puppies or cracklins crab cakes ($13.95 to $15.95).

Can’t decide? The seafood platter offers an epic trio of fried catfish, shrimp and local oysters, served with hush puppies, fries and coleslaw ($26.95).

For dessert, indulge in classic beignets clouded by powdered sugar, pecan pie or bread pudding ($5.95 to $7.95).

Twice nightly, weather permitting, the brass band will lead everyone in the restaurant outside to parade around in a boisterous second line dance, one of New Orlean’s cultural legends. De Awlis, who with his wife Karen partook in many Mardi Gras celebrations in the Bayou, says this aspect separates Bourbon Street’s party from others.

“When we moved to Puyallup, we did not know a single person. Seems like now we know half the town.”

MARDI GRAS IN TACOMA

Doyle’s has been spinning its annual Cajun pop-up since late January, led by chef Benjamin Marcus whose family ran From The Bayou. That restaurant closed in 2007, but he brings back plenty of popular dishes in honor of Mardi Gras.

Start with a cheesy crawfish dip ($14) or a Bayou salad tossed with a “spicy bleu balsamic” dressing and Cajun almonds ($7 appetizer, $12 full). Find comfort in a bowl of gumbo made with Marcus’s own “holy trinity” of peppers, onions and garlic ($6.50 cup, $12 bowl) or a simple but satisfying serving of red beans and rice ($13).

No New Orleans menu is complete without a po’ boy, served here ($14) with boiled — not fried — shrimp and pickled chow-chow, a relish made with cabbage, onion and peppers. And, of course, crawfish étouffée ($16).

Drinks get the Mardi Gras treatment, too, from a classic Sazerac and Hurricane (both $9) to house concoctions like King Cake, a White Russian of sorts with Rumchata and crème de cacao, or the Funk of New Orleans, a sparkling wine punch (both $8). The bar will shake a Royal Daiquiri, known as Twilight on the menu, which adds crème de violette to the usual trio of white rum, lime and simple syrup ($8).

End with a chocolate and caramel cheesecake or Doyle’s take on king cake: a bread pudding with confectioner’s glaze and Mardi Gras-colored sprinkles (both $8).

FOR ONE DAY ONLY

On Fat Tuesday itself, you also can find New Orleans specialties at the Spanish Bar at McMenamin’s, which wasn’t open at this time last year. Live music starts at 2 p.m. and runs through close. Specials throughout the day include gumbo, shrimp remoulade salad and a pizza inspired by muffaletta. That divine sandwich traditionally combines capicola, salami, mortadella and provolone with an umami-building olive salad chopped with capers, roasted red peppers and hot Italian pickles.

During lunch, the kitchen will serve a crawfish po’ boy with sweet potato fries. At dinner, indulge in crab cakes that skip remoulade for ravigote, a thick French sauce simmered with chives, capers, parsley, shallots and Dijon.

For a big main, order the Creole-style New York strip in a Tabasco-laced, fried onion crust alongside cheesy grits.

Bourbon Street Creole Kitchen & Bar

▪ 401 S Meridian, Puyallup, 253-604-4404, call for reservations

▪ Hours: Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.

▪ Details: Feb. 22-23 and Feb. 25, Mardi Gras menu available after 4 p.m., brass band plays at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Doyle’s Public House

▪ 208 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253-272-7468, doylespublichouse.com

▪ Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 a.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.

▪ Details: Mardi Gras menu available through Feb. 25

Spanish Bar at McMenamin’s Elks Temple

▪ 565 Broadway, Tacoma, 253-300-8756, mcmenamins.com

▪ Hours: Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.

▪ Details: Feb. 25, Mardi Gras menu available 12 p.m. to close

This story was originally published February 18, 2020 at 9:00 AM.