Episode 84: Mardi Gras Season – Debating Our Favorite Traditions

Scott Vicknair, injury attorneys, we fight for the win.

Good morning everybody and welcome to the Overruled podcast brought to you by the Scott Vicknair Law Firm. I am your co-host David Vicknair, along with my law partner and co-host Brad Scott. Good morning, Brad, how are you?

I’m doing well, just crazy weather bouncing back and forth with our temperatures lately, I call it the Louisiana seesaw, we’re gonna get hot, we’re gonna get cold, hot again, cold again, and seven sinus infections later we’ll be in spring.

Well, last year this time we were preparing for our blizzard, remember?

That’s right, that’s right, I had a brand new puppy bouncing around and jumping through snow, so I do remember it.

All right Brad, I’m excited to talk about Mardi Gras, how about you?

It is, it’s parade season, it’s upon us, so exciting stuff, we’re right in the midst of it, so I think we need to settle some Louisiana debates here on king cakes and parades today.

I think that’d be an excellent thing for us to reach some conclusions on. We have like seventeen king cakes in our kitchen right now, and I just ate a piece of sugar, so I’ve got a bit of a sugar rush going, I had a small piece before the show, so that sugar rush is ready to go, I’m feeling competitive.

This is officially being powered by king cake.

Correct, I’m ready to go toe to toe with you, Brad. What’s our first topic?

Let’s talk about king cakes, everybody’s got their favorites, there’s a lot of debate on whether it’s traditional, cinnamon, or a filled king cake, is it really a king cake if it’s filled or not, which ones are overrated, underrated. I do believe you’re sort of a king cake connoisseur, Mr. Vicknair, you’ve done some reviews before, so what’s your top three king cakes? Do supermarket king cakes count, I guess, is the place to start.

They do count, and in fact one of the best supermarket king cakes you’re ever going to get is from a place where we’re both from, Brad, and it’s probably my third favorite, but I’ll go top three. Number one, I’m not even going to build it up, I’ll just say who the best is, everybody knows who the best is, Dong Phuong is the best king cake, period, end of story, if you don’t agree with me I don’t respect you as a human being. Number two, I’d say a new entrant into king cake, but very well respected now, a youngish bakery, I think they’ve only been open two, three, four years, my second favorite is the traditional king cake at WJ Bakery, right off Esplanade, they also have a delicious chocolate babka king cake I tried two weeks ago, dip it in your coffee, it’s a little piece of heaven, but their king cake is very good. Number three, I’ll go with a supermarket king cake, the Oui Gooey king cake at Canatas in Houma, that supermarket king cake won the King Cake Festival, I think it was three years ago, most favorite, won the whole festival. Some people may disagree, my friend Brandon Pellegrin, a big king cake connoisseur himself, swears by, I know I’ll get shouted at for this, if you get it same day right out the bakery, Rouses king cake is pretty decent, it’s not going to compete with a Dong Phuong or some of the better ones, but supermarkets do have a good king cake here and there. We tried a lot of non-supermarket king cakes too, and I can’t bulldoze a local business on air when we do the review, it’s our fourth year doing king cake reviews, but some of the bakery king cakes are way worse than some of the supermarket ones.

Absolutely, it’s hit or miss, comes down to taste.

Now, I assume you’re more of a filled king cake guy than traditional, given the list you gave me.

You would assume wrong, and that’s why you shouldn’t make assumptions in life, I am more of a traditional king cake fan, however there’s just no denying the perfection of a Dong Phuong king cake, and the Oui Gooey king cake is delicious, I don’t necessarily treat it as a king cake, I’m a traditionalist, I like the cinnamon.

Oh, here we go, you don’t treat it as a king cake, is that what you were about to say?

Exactly what I said.

What do you treat it as?

Okay, here you go, it’s your time, what are your favorite three?

Well, you have all these hybrid king cakes now with different flavors and fillings, hands down my absolute favorite, I consider the best king cake on the planet, is Manny Randazzo’s king cake, that’s my king cake of choice.

First time Brad and I agree on the podcast, as a matter of fact.

The two of you have Manny Randazzo’s number one?

Number one.

Miles, is your mic up today? Miles, come on, is it a double up today? Go ahead, Miles.

First time we agree on the podcast, Brad, good job.

Thank you, couldn’t disagree more, continue. Who’s two and three for you?

I really enjoy Rouses king cakes, just because I’ve had so many of them, I think. And my wife’s birthday is usually during Mardi Gras, so the Tastee Donuts king cake, basically a donut with sugar on top, makes top three for us because we have it every year as a birthday cake basically.

There’s a real famous king cake in Lafayette that’s a donut, I’m trying to think of the name of it, Meche’s? Is it, I don’t know if it’s Meche’s because it’s not the one we had.

You don’t put an E on it, it’s Meche’s.

It’s Meche’s? Yeah, Meche’s, we have to get whooping in taste, these miles is from, ah, he’s from up the bayou, that’s where he’s from, the concrete jungle, Metairie, that’s where he’s from.

Up the bayou.

Meche’s, here, get a load of this, Manny Randazzo’s and Meche’s.

I don’t know that it is Meche’s, Miles, but there’s a donut king cake, it may be Meche’s, but there’s one in Lafayette I’ve had that’s very popular there, very good, there are also some really good king cakes in Lafayette that kind of get lost in translation, we’ve talked about everything in this area. Do you agree though, Brad, about a Rouses king cake, you got to get it the first day?

Oh yeah, absolutely, day two, day three it starts stiffening up, hardens up too much.

It’s the same-day-or-die way I look at a Rouses king cake, if you don’t get it that day out the bakery, it ain’t the same, you gotta get it fresh. Rouses has a really good bakery, I don’t know if you’ve eaten Rouses cakes, but their cakes are great, they have a really good bakery program. So Miles, what are yours? I don’t even want you to repeat Manny Randazzo’s, no offense to the Randazzo family, might be a nostalgia thing too.

I remember growing up with it, I live right down the road, grew up right down the road from it. One of the reviews last year surprised me, might be number two, do you remember Bread On Oak?

I went in and got it.

You gave it like an eight.

That’s right, I was like, this might be, it was exceptional, that was a great king cake, I almost forgot about it, I’m glad you brought that up, that was really good.

And three’s Dong Phuong for me.

Yeah, so Bread On Oak surprised me, I remember that king cake review last year specifically, and it shouldn’t surprise me because they’re such a good bakery, much like WJ’s is so good because it’s such a good bakery, they have everything dialed in from their regular bakery program and it translates into a better product than the king cake, I think. So Bread On Oak was traditional, Brad, you really should try that one, and WJ, both traditional, and they’re fantastic, you would like them a lot.

Guess I’m making a trip around town to get some king cakes, there’s worse things in life, what can I tell you?

Just come to the break room, it’s gonna be stocked full of that crap for the next few weeks.

I’m like hiding from the break room, because you cut a little piece, then another little piece, before you know it you’ve eaten the whole regular slice because you cut three small slivers that add up to one piece.

King cake calories don’t count, that’s the official policy of South Louisiana.

They do. One was so messed up yesterday, the knife was in the box.

You gotta leave the knife in the box.

You leave the knife in the box, but the knife was under the king cake. Let me ask you this, since we’re talking about king cakes, this came up filming some king cake reviews yesterday, what’s the law as it relates to when the baby is not in the cake, so the cake comes and the baby is just sitting in the middle and nobody’s put it in a piece, who’s responsible for inserting the baby into the king cake?

Who is responsible?

First person to cut the king cake, which is usually me, so the first slice has an obligation to put the baby somewhere in the king cake.

Correct.

And if somebody chokes to death on the baby, who has legal responsibility?

First person that put the baby in.

Yes, it’s a pretty double-edged sword here, but apparently maybe that’s the rule, with great power comes great responsibility. So get your commercial general liability and umbrellas in place, people, before Mardi Gras, because if you happen to be the first person to take the slice and put the baby in, you could be getting a wrongful death lawsuit in March. I just hate that some bakeries do take the baby out and put it in the middle, I understand the liability risk, but nobody knows it’s a plastic baby in there, you have to go look for it, and my daughter loves finding the baby, and if I get the baby I have to reinsert it into the next piece for her when she gets her piece, and she gets very excited, she collects them.

Is the disclaimer not enough? Is the baby rule strictly enforced in your households and offices, as far as whoever gets the baby has to buy the next king cake?

I think it’s strictly enforced, but I’m seeing more and more where the baby is not in the cake.

Same, and then nobody puts the baby in the cake, because we haven’t, which is the whole thing. I think when the legislature goes into session this spring they need to put a law in place that places an obligation on who’s responsible for baby placement, because it’s a burning question throughout the Scott Vicknair Law Firm these days, since we’ve been doing king cake reviews, where does the baby go, who puts the baby in it, who’s responsible, because nobody’s putting the baby in anymore, probably because somebody choked on a baby and got sued, if we’re going to be honest.

Some damn lawyer sued somebody and screwed it up.

I’ll tell you, lawyers are the freaking worst, they ruin everything, I just wish the bakeries would put him in the cake like they’ve always done before, it’s just a cop-out.

Yep. All right, we’ve covered king cakes, what’s our next topic, Mr. Scott?

Parades.

All right, we have so many of them, uptown versus Metairie, family-friendly versus party parades, what are y’all’s top three parades, what’s the parade you will not miss, what are ones you kind of don’t care if you see or not?

Wow, that’s a hard one. My favorite day every Mardi Gras, Miles, is pretty simple, the Saturday during the day, I think it’s a lot of people’s favorite, before Endymion. I like going uptown, watching Tucks, and what’s the one, you have Iris right before Tucks, Iris and Tucks, that route is my favorite two-parade duo in Mardi Gras. Especially Tucks, I love the toilet paper in the trees uptown, it’s the best day, everybody’s getting excited, it’s a Saturday, everybody’s getting excited for Endymion that evening, which is traditionally the bigger, biggest parade in Mardi Gras, and I just like having drinks during the day, I’m not a late bird anymore, so if I’ve had a bloody mary and a bunch of drinks on the parade route, on the neutral ground, not the parade side, then I can go to bed at a decent time on Saturday. So that’s my favorite parade duo in Mardi Gras. How about y’all?

For me, hands down, it’s Endymion, I love a night parade, I like day drinking but I don’t like standing in the sun all day, I am like complected, but nighttime with the lights, the flambeaux, the oversized floats, Endymion is my top parade every year, the one I love, we go to the ball as well, so that’s Mardi Gras for us.

Well, and I will say, you get the tree shade uptown, so you get a lot of shade during the day if you’re uptown watching the daytime ones. I do love Muses on Thursday night too, that’s one of my favorites, great nighttime parade, kind of the first parade where I’m like, now we’re really in Mardi Gras, because it’s a real production. The one before, is Krewe de Tucks before Muses?

Krewe of Chaos on Friday night, with Hermes.

Who’s before Muses? Because that parade’s funny.

It used to be Nyx, but remember, Nyx got into some trouble.

Oh, big trouble.

They disbanded.

Yeah, I said they disbanded, I don’t know. It’s a funny parade, some of the parades are edgy, like Tucks is edgy.

Yeah.

Tucks is edgy, but the one before Muses is edgy too, they make some political jokes, they’re funny every year, I enjoy that parade right before Muses, watching it uptown, the satire is next level. I also have to say, one of my top Mardi Gras experiences, not to get too political, was Krewe du Vieux, when all the stuff was hitting about LaToya Cantrell, I was mentally preparing for Krewe du Vieux for like two months, and it’s one of those few times in life the build-up wasn’t spoiled, because every float in Krewe du Vieux that year was about LaToya Cantrell, about the bodyguard, the first-class plane tickets, there was not a single float dedicated to national politics, state politics, any other topic, every float was LaToya Cantrell. If you want the local news, go to that parade and catch up the whole year. And it was vulgar, I’ll never forget the float that looked like a large penis coming at you, and you’re like, okay, this is really beyond, because as it got closer you realized it was the hull of an airplane, and it was her in first class, they had the money flying out of the air, all the different people in the first-class cabin on the side of the plane, executed flawlessly. So I’ll say, you have to put Krewe du Vieux in the conversation of best parades, because it’s just a totally different parade, funny, hilarious, don’t-take-yourself-too-seriously kind of way, which makes all of us in Mardi Gras special and unique.

Absolutely. Miles, where do you stand on parades?

Yeah, so I just looked it up, Chaos I think is the one you’re thinking of.

Yes, that’s the one.

Which I can never make, it’s on Thursday at 4:30, it’s just kind of a weird time, but I hear it’s a great and funny parade. I actually ride in Tucks, I’m riding again this year, rode two years ago, Tucks is amazing.

Awesome.

And growing up, I liked that Saturday too, because after Tucks there’s nothing else uptown, you can kind of relax, get prepared, go to Endymion, and then Sunday is non-stop, Tots, Bacchus.

Yeah.

All that stuff uptown, big day. So I like Endymion a lot, and we have a really good spot for it.

And I’m sure Brad has a list of what makes a great parade, you need to have a signature throw, like the Endymion train, when the train comes, it’s the best, and Tucks with the toilet paper is great, Bacchus is awesome.

I’d probably still say Endymion, even though, and I like that it’s the only route in Mid-City, they have basically their own route, their own day, pretty tough to beat them, but I’d much rather Uptown than Metairie if we’re going to get into that discussion.

There’s a lot of old, long, I know families from New Orleans who’ve just been going to Endymion in Mid-City forever, they have the same spot for 30 years.

Oh yeah, and it’s neat, when you go on the Mid-City route, if you ever get a chance to see it, you see a lot of the old-school Endymion flags, like from 50 years ago, really cool, you can tell it’s not a vintage flag somebody just made, that family’s had that flag for 30 or 40 years.

There’s a lot of nostalgia. How old is the parade, how old is Endymion?

It’s old, I mean, like I said, they’ve had that route.

I do remember one year, real quick, Endymion got rained out Saturday, it rolled behind Bacchus on Sunday uptown, that was a wild day as a kid.

Interesting, that’s a long parade day, two of the biggest parades, that Sunday I think went forever.

I’m also always amazed, within Endymion, what’s the longest, is it the Pontchartrain Beach float that’s in Endymion, the longest float, Brad?

I think that’s the longest float in Mardi Gras, and Bacchus, I think it’s the Bacchus Gator, the Gator. And then Orpheus, on Monday night, the other super krewe, it’s the, the something Mary, they call it the Leviathan or something, anyway, it’s amazing to watch those float drivers try to turn those super long floats.

Oh yeah.

It’s amazing, and I’m riding in Endymion this year, and for us, our Mardi Gras is Thursday night, we come down to the city, get a hotel room Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. Friday we’re in the Quarter, some of the walking parades, having fun, bar hopping, and Saturday is the lead-up to Endymion basically, and Sunday morning’s the recovery.

A lot of Liquid IV and emergency.

Exactly, and then usually we leave town for actual Mardi Gras Day, we take that week as a vacation week and do a family vacation, because no one else in the world is vacationing at that time, so it’s great to get out of the city, everywhere’s closed anyway. So Mardi Gras for us is really that Thursday and Saturday leading up to Fat Tuesday, and we kind of call it quits on Monday and head out of town.

Gotcha. Endymion was 1967.

Wow, long time.

So 58 years.

Yeah, that’s amazing for a Mardi Gras parade, and they were a super krewe as early as like ’73, they were huge basically as soon as they started.

Huh. All right, what else do we have to argue about Mardi Gras, Brad?

The hot-button issue, I guess, and everybody gets a little sensitive about it, is the setting up of ladders in the neutral ground and camping out and carving out your spot days and weeks before, what’s y’all’s take on that? Is it fair, is it just first come first served, should we allow it, should we prevent it? What do you think, Miles?

I think weeks is excessive, I think day-of, if you wake up at 3 in the morning, you deserve that spot. I know they used to have a rule, you can’t use tape or police tape, they’ll come rip it up, I agree with that, but if you’re out there the whole time and set up your tent, as long as you’re not, of course everybody takes it to extremes, you can’t have the whole entire side, but if you’re there at 3 in the morning, you woke up and earned it, that’s my opinion.

But my position is, you must be present to hold the spot.

Yes.

You can’t just go out there, throw your ladders and some rope and blankets down, I think that’s unfair.

I don’t disagree with that, I agree, I can agree with that. Now, are we talking about whether the ladders should be there at all, because I love the ladders, the reason I love them is typically it’s kids on the ladders, and the riders, if we’re being honest, like giving beads and throws to kids way more than adults, which is how it really should be, in my opinion, that’s just me, I don’t need a bead thrown at me at Mardi Gras, I enjoy seeing the kids catch all this stuff and love it. And candidly, I have a young kid, we put her on a ladder, but I think there should be respect for the edge of the parade route and the distance to the ladder, ladders shouldn’t be coating the entire edge of the route where everybody behind can’t see anything, so if you put a ladder, you should have to step it back a little bit beyond the edge of the route.

I agree, and I think the ladders too, when people don’t realize, when you don’t have the ladders, most of the riders are drinking, they’re having a good time, it’s Mardi Gras, everybody’s largely drinking, and when you have the ladders and the kids it’s kind of a natural deterrent, in my opinion, the riders know they need to be more careful how they throw the beads and things, so things aren’t hitting people in as much volume and as aggressive a throw as to hurt people, because some of that stuff hurts, I’ve gotten whacked in the head before.

Absolutely, and when the kids are there they’re more mindful to be careful, and it makes the whole parade more enjoyable, they focus on giving the throws mostly to the kids. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a parent or adult try to jump in front of a kid to get a Muses shoe or something, I’m like, get a life, let the kid have the shoe, or the basketball, or the coconut, give it to the freaking kids. Whenever I see an adult do that, obviously I’m not getting in the middle of it unless it’s necessary to break something up, but nobody’s really fighting, mostly, except for a few bad apples.

I think you’re right, especially, you’ve ridden in a parade, I have, I don’t know if you have, Brad, but people are usually pretty respectful when they see kids.

Yeah.

And the ladders help, so I agree with that too. And I’m also, if we’re going to get into sidewalk side versus neutral ground parades, I’ll just say, I don’t know how you beat the neutral ground, it’s like having a party every year, I love it, it’s a big party in the middle of the whole thing, what’s better than that? I was mad because they put me on the sidewalk side two years ago, I requested neutral ground this year, let’s see.

Yeah, neutral ground for me as well, it’s like you’re on your own little island out there, that’s Mardi Gras, neutral ground.

Agreed. All right, last question, favorite throws, each krewe has their own signature things sometimes, anything that really sticks out that you really enjoy or look forward to trying to get every year?

You know, the only throw I’ve ever really cared about keeping is our friend Jenny Green made me a Nyx shoe in Muses one year, it’s got a Nyx logo, a lot of different Nyx stuff on it, and it’s still in my house, so I think whenever you know somebody who’s riding in Muses or another parade where they’re actually uniquely building the throw, tailored to you, looking for you, to me that’s something you actually keep, and something meaningful you want to keep. Because typically, even if I go to five or six parades a year and keep beads, I like that one, I kept, I end up just tossing that or donating it because it’s junk that drags around, unless it’s something unique, like some people will keep a coconut from Zulu, some people will keep a signature throw. I’ve never caught them, I’ll have to look for Miles this year, I’ve always wanted the toilet sunglasses from Tucks.

Oh man, come on, they’re yours, I got you one, I got you one.

Those are my favorite, I think Tucks cracks me up, I love everything about Tucks, the toilet paper, they have a lot of fun with the theme every year, so a lot of their throws make me laugh, and they don’t take themselves too seriously, which is one of my favorite parts. It’s a good parade. How about you?

Yeah, for me it’s a Zulu coconut, there are so few of them, and it’s just so quintessential Mardi Gras in New Orleans, if you can get your hands on one, that’s the one that really sticks out to me. But mentioning that, when you know somebody who’s riding, the challenge for somebody on a float to find somebody they know on the parade route, even if you know where they’re at, it’s just a sea of people and faces, so it’s quite crazy to try to connect with somebody like that from the float.

Yep. Miles, what’s your favorite throw, what’s Tucks throw, since you ride in Tucks?

We decorate plungers.

From time to time.

That’s right, that’s why it’s so much fun, we don’t take, this year I think our theme is On Thin Ice, so I’ll be dressing up as a penguin, our theme is like cracked ice, but everything else is, it’s funny, I won’t ruin some of the floats, but it’s hard to beat.

Like a penguin. It’s hard to beat Zulu, I know that’s what everybody’s going to say.

I would, because like Brad said, there are only so many legit ones, there are a couple of fake ones you can get, but the ones they really decorate, stay up all night, wake up at 3 in the morning, that’s like currency, that’s a huge deal.

The shoe is cool, I don’t think I’ve ever caught a shoe, I’ve gotten one coconut, but never a shoe, I might try to do that this year.

The shoe is cool, from Muses, especially when it’s somebody you know designing it, and the crazy thing, Jenny, how much time her group spends, they’ve probably been getting together, what month are we in, middle of January?

Yeah, January 14th.

They’ve probably been getting together for two or three months already, they have shoe parties, they go to each group’s, it’s a lot of work.

Yeah, oh it’s non-stop, they spend three or four months designing these big shoes, going to thrift shops grabbing shoes, sourcing them, they’ve got to go find them, it’s a lot of work. But yeah, king cakes, good parades, some drinking, family, good food, good throws, a lot of fun, that’s what Mardi Gras is all about.

Well, we may have pissed off some people with our opinions, but so be it.

No, I think we’ve all agreed that Dong Phuong is the best king cake, and I’m glad we all came to that joint agreement today, and I’m glad you saw it my way, Brad.

Sure, for the record, Mr. Vicknair. Not really.

All right, well, thank you all for listening, this has been a fun preview of Mardi Gras this year, we’re gonna have another, hopefully amazing Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 2026. We’re gearing up straight into carnival season right now in the middle of January, and we’re really excited for the next five weeks of Mardi Gras season here in New Orleans. Hope you enjoyed this show, and thank you for listening along, this has been a lively discussion and a great episode of the Overruled podcast, brought to you by the Scott Vicknair Law Firm. Brad, take care, thank you very much.

You too, take care.

Scott Vicknair, injury attorneys, we fight for the win.

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