Bryce Zeagler has plans for the morning of Feb. 17. He will be found at the airport welcoming a shipment of about 300 pounds of live crawfish. He already has six 25-pound gator roasts brined and ready for a smoker back at his restaurant’s kitchen. 

That afternoon, the air around The Parish, Tucson’s Cajun flavored restaurant, promises to be redolent with the aromas of a traditional Mardi Gras feast.

Feb. 17 is Fat Tuesday, the day before the season of abstinence and self-restraint that is Lent, and as everyone knows, it’s party time in the Big Easy.

The Old Pueblo might be 1,400 miles from New Orleans but that doesn’t mean we can’t have us some Mardi Gras fun. 

The Parish has some big plans for that day, beginning with the potent but tasty hurricane. Add to that a bowl of jambalaya and a Cajun sampler plate with gumbo and crawfish étouffée. Try a mess of red beans and rice. Find out how crawfish are prepared and eaten. Hint: You suck their heads.

And the gator roasts? Zeagler, one of the co-owners of The Parish, has some special plans for those, beginning with an overnight brine bath. 

The roasts are then slathered in a kind of Cajun mayonnaise blend and smoked for four to six hours followed by a time in the oven to finish them off.

“At that point the meat just falls off the bone,” Zeagler said. “This is the way alligator should be eaten. It’s not fried. It’s smoked and baked and finished on the grill. … It’s tender and so juicy and so good.” 

For the uninitiated, what does gator taste like? Ask Zeagler.

“It’s some sort of a hybrid between seafood and chicken,” he said. “The mouth feel is more like chicken or pork, like pulled pork that’s very tender, but the flavor has a little bit of seafood resemblance in it. It’s unique and pretty incredible when it’s done this way.”

Raised in Baton Rouge, Zeagler came to Tucson for the UA. He loved it here but felt a hole in his spirit, a Louisiana-shaped hole. He decided to bring some of those flavors to his new home, thus The Parish.

Zeagler has always had a special relationship with food. His first food memory is about his grandmother’s curry chicken. It was the one dish he always wanted her to prepare. This festival is important to Zeagler because although he is not dishing out curry chicken, he remembers his grandmother and his roots.  

“For me, it’s super meaningful to bring a big part of my childhood home from Baton Rouge to Tucson with this event,” he said. “Every year, I get to honor my grandmother’s heritage recipes and showcase their deliciousness.” 

Besides the food, this year’s Mardi Gras Festival will feature live music both inside the Oracle Road restaurant and outside. The festival runs from 1 to 10 p.m. and is for all ages, although those younger than 21 should be accompanied by an adult. Minors are permitted until 9 p.m.

The festival bands will play according to the following schedule:

On the outside stage:

 
1 to 3 p.m., the Bryan Dean Trio

3:30 to 5:30 p.m., the Big Sounds of Pleasure

6 to 8 p.m., Miss Olivia and the Interlopers

On the inside stage:

1:30 to 3:30 p.m., Barnaby and the Butcher


4:30 to 6:30 p.m., Tiny House of Funk

7:30 to 9:30 p.m., In Tha Zone.