The 1st Annual Bread Pudding Taste-off is coinciding with the Lee Boys performance at Downtown Alive! Friday night at Parc International.
First off, the Bread Pudding Taste-off is hosted by the same folks who coordinate the boudin taste-off in the fall. The competitiors include 2 Paul's Radically Urban BBQ, Blue Dog Café, Blue Magnolia, Café des Amis, Poor Boy's Riverside Inn, Guamas, Johnson's Boucaniere, Pat's Downtown, Bonnie Bell's Bistro, To Your Taste: Custom Cakes and Tsunami. Just like the boudin fest, the public gets to vote on their favorites and there will be a panel of judges from around town. You buy some tickets and you get to eat bread pudding until you explode. Not a bad deal.
The music this week will be performed by The Lee Boys. This family of three brothers plays something called "sacred steel," which is essentially soulful, bluesy gospel music with electric guitars including lap and pedal steels. The Lee Boys, like many sacred steel players, began playing in their grandfather's church where he was the reverend.
Once again: it is a non-smoking event and your pet doesn't want to be at Downtown Alive! because it is hot and they aren't officially welcome. I stood next to a service dog in training at last week's DTA and that's cool. But Muffy doesn't want to be carried around in a papoose any more than Bullwinkle doesn't want to scare little children with his mass. I have a dog. I know what I am talking about. If you don't believe me then please show up for DTA with a floor-length and tightly buttoned fur coat and crawl on all fours so amply drunken or merely clumsy people can accidentally step on your limbs.