From crawfish étouffée to classic boiled crawfish, guests at Baton Rouge Epicurean Society’s sixth annual Crawfête event April 20 will get to try crawfish dishes by restaurants from all over the city.
At the event, 6-9 p.m. at Mockler Beverage Company on Reiger Road, guests can sample crawfish dishes, check out the crawfish competitions, sip beer, wine or speciality drinks, participate in an auction and jam out to live music. With 26 participating restaurants at the event, 16 will serve gourmet crawfish dishes and 10 will serve boiled crawfish, a new aspect of the event this year.
Restaurants serving gourmet crawfish dishes include Cupcake Allie, Kalurah Street Grill, Mansurs on the Boulevard, Mestizo Louisiana Mexican Cuisine, Reed’s Cakes and Catering, Southfin Southern Poke and White Oak Plantation. Restaurants serving boiled crawfish include Crawfish Town USA, City Pork Brasserie and Bar, Hot Tails restaurant and Phil’s Oyster Bar.
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To find out more about what to expect, we sat down with the Epicurean Society Executive Director Melissa Parmelee.
Describe the Crawfete experience:
We have local restaurants and chefs and they present their best gourmet crawfish dish. Inside is the gourmet area and outside is the boiled portion. We’ll have an auction that will be seafood and crawfish themed. [Both the gourmet and boiled crawfish competitions] will be people’s choice, so it’s a loose competition.
In addition to the gourmet crawfish aspect, each of the gourmet dishes will be paired with a Mockler beverage, wine or beer.
It’s all about the chefs really being able to showcase and celebrate their different dishes, which they do so much for the community, so this [event] is a little bit more about them.
What’s unique about Crawfête from other crawfish events?
A lot of crawfish cook-offs involve corporate teams, so this is staying true to the restaurant theme [where] everyone involved is still an actual restaurant.
What’s new this year?
This year, after much discussion, we are adding the boiled crawfish component. So we have just 10 restaurants participating in that.
What’s your advice for first-time guests?
Don’t eat too much before you come or make sure your belly can handle the food you’re gonna eat? … There will be a lot to taste so it’s definitely more of a causal event—not too dressy.
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Jeremy Langlois [executive chef at White Oak Plantation], he won last year so he’s probably one [chef] to try. Last year, he did a [take on a] cold lasagna. So, some of them are just really creative.
What is the purpose of the event?
The money we raise goes back to children’s health and nutrition programs, as well as culinary scholarships, so those are the two main things. Throughout the year, that’s who we give the money to.
Tickets for Crawfête are $75. Get tickets and more information for the event here. Mockler Beverage Company is at 11811 Reiger Road.