Mardi Gras parade photo by Joe Pilie.
As most of Dallas is aware, Oak Cliff is the place for all things Mardi Gras this weekend.
But did you know Dallas is No. 11 among the nation’s Mardi Gras cities? No. 6 when it comes to events and festivals, dragged down only by our relative lack of cajun food options? Says who? Says the fine folks on the Lawn Care research team, which delivers regular rankings of such things.
We’re No. 14 for Google searches related to Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday. Ninth for our number of party supply shops. We’re 45 for cajun-food vendors per square mile, but do they know about Restaurant Beatrice’s Mardi Gras crawfish boil? Likely, no. Or the brass bands at Revelers Hall that should count for event times 10? Nah.
Dallas tails Mardi Gras-ready cities including San Diego, Miami, Houston, Vegas, New York and, of course, Mardi Gras Mecca New Orleans, which led the other metros by 16 points, based on publicly available data for the aforementioned factors and calculating weighted scores for cities in each of four categories: entertainment, food, party supplies and community interest.
But did you know The Big Easy is not the birthplace of Mardi Gras? That distinction, according to our experts, is Mobile, Alabama, No. 32 on their list.
The holiday originated in 1703 in the port city and resumed after the Civil War when a citizen named Joe Cain led an impromptu parade down city streets.
Anyway, here’s more about Mardi Gras in Dallas and Lawn Care’s full report on the celebrations and fêtes in other parts of the country.
