You are reading

A Taste of New Orleans Jazz, Costume and Alcohol Draws Plenty to Sunnyside on Saturday

Feb. 24, 2014 By Christian Murray

The second annual Skillman Avenue Mardi Gras took place Saturday night and party goers were able to enjoy a break from the cold weather to get a taste of New Orleans—at least Sunnyside style.

The evening kicked off at Murphy’s Lobster Grill where attendees paid $5 to sign up for the event, which entitled them to $3 pints (on New Orleans beers) at the nine Skillman Avenue establishments that participated.

While many of Sunnyside’s veteran pub crawlers attended, there were many new faces in the crowd.

Two couples in their twenties were among the first to sign up for the event. They had just moved to 47th Street (btw. 43rd Ave and Skillman) from Manhattan last week. “We saw the signs in the restaurant windows and had to check it out,” said one of the men.

Meanwhile, a group of four women made the trip from Astoria after hearing about last year’s event. They, too, were early arrivals.

However, the party didn’t really begin until ‘Mardi Gras Mike’ arrived, who walked into Murphy’s in his bright gold pants, gold shoes, purple jacket & hat—with several balloons in hand.

Mardi Gras Mike (also known as Michael Kilpatrick who lives on 47th Street) has gone to Halloween and Mardi Gras parties for the past 15 years in similar outfits as he was wearing on Saturday.

The sign up period for the event began at 3:30 and ended at 5:00 pm. By the time it was done, about 250 people registered. Many were drinking at Murphy’s Lobster Grill, with some eating oysters and other shellfish.

At Murphy’s a three-piece jazz band arrived—consisting of trumpet, tuba and trombone players. The band, called the Elad Cohen Brass Band, spent most of the evening following Mardi Gras Mike and several masked revelers up and down Skillman Avenue in and out of the various bars.

The band began by going up Skillman into the Brogue, Copper Kettle and, then, Aubergine.

The band performed a set in each venue. Its version of ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ led to sing-alongs at several venues.

At about 7:30 pm, Mardi Gras Mike led the band into Aubergine and some older sober patrons look quite stunned at to what they were seeing. Several people inside a Skillman Avenue laundry mat were quite puzzled when they saw Mardi Gras Mike and the musicians walk by.

The band marched on down to Flynn’s Garden Inn where a much more seasoned crowd awaited. There were Flynn’s traditional patrons at the bar, with the back section filled with a large number of party goers wearing beads. The place was packed.

At Claret, the bar was busy by about 8:00 pm, with many of the attendees drinking Hurricanes, a traditional New Orleans drink made with rum and fruit juice, while others were eating traditional New Orleans food such as spicy jambalaya and shrimp gumbo.

At the Dog & Duck, which brought on its own jazz band at 10 pm, the restaurant was selling duck gumbo and po boys.

Quaint too put on a New Orleans style spread.

Over the course of the evening, the event brought in more than 500 people, according to Justin Costello, an owner of Claret. He said “half the attendees register, while the others come out later in the evening and take advantage of all the fun then.”

The event was organized by the Skillman Project, a business association comprised of nine bars and restaurants stretching from 46th St. to 52nd Street, which was formed in 2012 and holds four major events per year.

email the author: news@queenspost.com

2 Comments

Click for Comments 
Rusty B

This explains why a drunk broke into the lobby of my building off skillman ave at 3 am and tried to set our mailboxes on firekicked over the plants in the lobby..

awesome.

Reply

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Repeat hate crime offender charged in anti-Muslim subway attack in Forest Hills: DA

A Southeast Queens man is being held without bail after he was criminally charged with assault in the first degree as a hate crime and other charges for allegedly punching and kicking a Muslim woman on an E train in Forest Hills during the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 18.

Naved Durrni, 34, of 106th Avenue in Jamaica, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Thursday and additionally charged with aggravated harassment in the first and second degrees.

Hate Crimes Task Force investigating bomb threats against Mamdani: NYPD

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force launched a probe into multiple death threats made against Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani after his district office at 24-08 32nd St. in Astoria received four expletive-filled phone voicemails, on various dates, making threatening anti-Muslim statements by an unknown individual, including a threat to blow up his car.

The calls were made from an untraceable number and labeled the mayoral candidate a “terrorist who is not welcome in New York or America” in a message phoned in on Wednesday morning.

Queens Defenders founder charged with stealing nonprofit funds as second scandal unfolds

The founder of the Queens Defenders and her husband have lawyered up after they were indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the non-profit organization.

Former Queens Defenders executive director Lori Zeno, 64, surrendered Wednesday at the Brooklyn federal courthouse. Zeno was arraigned on an indictment charging her and Rashad Ruhani, 55, with wire fraud conspiracy, theft, money laundering conspiracy and other crimes.