Mardi Gras in July at Grove Casino
Story and Photos By Bruce-Michael Gelbert

Mardi Gras was in the air in Cherry Grove during the last week in July.

Isaac Steven Vaughan and Wendy Lewis decreed that Wednesday night’s” Bring Your Own Meat,” the community dinner at the Grove Hotel, open with shrimp gumbo; close with a King Cake, the traditional, gold, green and purple-iced Mardi Gras pastry, from Lafayette, Louisiana; and be accompanied by Mardi Gras music.

At the hotel’s Carnival that Saturday afternoon, members of Excelsior Motorcycle Club, in black leather and Mardi Gras beads, sold lethal Hurricanes, heavy on the rum, for the benefit of St. John’s Humane Society of Louisiana, which rescued pets abandoned during Hurricane Katrina, and “Dr.” Isaac administered Hurricane shots, while Chef Wendy hawked New Orleans-style grilled oysters. More than $1,200 was raised for the charity.

Mardi Gras was also the theme for the Arts Project of Cherry Grove’s annual Casino, at the Community House on Saturday and Sunday nights. The organization’s biggest fundraiser of the season, it netted the APCG $10,421, with a portion of the proceeds slated to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. Matt Baney, Gary Greene and Sue Panzer, looking dashing, were the coordinators, drawing on the invaluable expertise of Marge Cozzolino and assisted by Francine Sardone. Gary and Luis “Luisa Verde” Valentin created a colorful setting, truly evocative of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, for the event’s poker and blackjack games, wheels of fortune and other games of chance; the Community House was festooned with huge glittery masks in traditional carnival colors gold, green and purple. The building was covered in flags, feathers, jazz instruments and, in lieu of a disco ball, a huge, glistening “Mardi Gras ball.” Traditional Mardi Gras throws, beads and souvenir cups were omnipresent. This writer provided recorded Mardi Gras music.

The volunteer staff’s costumes were no less wondrous than the setting. Lovely Homecoming Queen Coco Love capped her trademark pink gown with a towering feather headdress. Luisa looked fabulous, wearing a scarlet Scarlett O’Hara hoopskirt and carrying a black and red feather fan. Marge was Dr. Relief, with FEMAlE, pointedly inscribed on the back of her white coat. Isaac Steven Vaughan and hotel lifeguard Laura wore fantastic original creations, in the Mardi Gras colors, by New Orleans designer Julie Winn.

Philomena, Bella, Urban Sprawl, Robin Kradles, Margo, Lois Fisher and Barbara Dowd, Bobbie Green and Doreen Rallo, Rae DiStefano, Denise Harbin, Martha Pitkin, and Norman Cherubino, dealing the cards, spinning the wheels, working the entranceway, and serving the drinks, looked appropriately festive as well. Panzi, Sal Piro, Jeffrey “Empress Gefil Tefish” Wallach, Wendy Lewis, Alison Brackman, Tom Cunningham, Tony Bondi, Gimmi and Marianne Hoffa, Eileen Alley, Bob Younger, Master Tom, Joann Tavis and Lois Pisano, Michael, Joan, Neil Schweitzer, Dominic de Santis and Mark Atten were also in evidence. The Freedner sisters and Craig Williams were sequestered in the inner sanctum, dealing with the finances, and Suffolk County Police Officer Richard Bishop helped keep an eye on the proceedings. Barbara Mancuso came all the way from Utah to join us. My significant other, Joe Saporito, and I, tending bar, wore just what we wear on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras: black leather, embellished with beads from the carnival season parades and leather masks.