Bands and beignets on Mardi Gras train trip through the Deep South

Things have taken a turn since the flaming cocktail at lunch.

Our railway journey across America’s Deep South had started in a city that has ruffled a few technicolour feathers with its claim that it is the “birthplace of Mardi Gras”. Mobile, in Alabama, says it hosted the very first celebration in the US, in 1703 — some 15 years before New Orleans was founded. As with any “healthy sibling rivalry”, though, “if either city was in trouble, we’d have each other’s back”, Mobile historian Cart Blackwell insisted.  

It is just as well, because the country’s national rail carrier, Amtrak, has reconnected the two Gulf Coast destinations after 20 years with its twice-daily Mardi Gras Service. It takes 3hr 45min from Mobile to New Orleans — or Nola as the locals call it — with stops in Mississippi cities Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay Saint Louis.  

Southern comfort food 

Blackwell, the curator at Mobile’s Carnival Museum, stresses its Mardi Gras is more family-friendly than New Orleans’, but is hopeful the trains’ early-morning and evening departure times will allow revellers to attend parades in both cities on the same day.  

After admiring the regalia from mystic societies’ former kings and queens, including intricately hand-sewn robes with trains weighing up to 50lb, we boarded Gulf Coast Tour’s white vintage-style streetcar. Tour highlights included the awesome USS Alabama battleship and fighter plane pavilion and neighbourhoods of charming Creole cottages and Colonial and Greek Revival houses.

Think streets lined with Forrest Gump’s childhood home, all in varying sizes and pastel tones, with wraparound porches, shuttered windows and swing chairs. The book about a loveable Alabama man, later adapted into the hit 1994 film, was written by Winston Groom, who lived for much of his life in Mobile.  

The city is fast-becoming a foodie haven, and downtown’s Dauphin Street is the main entertainment and restaurant hub.  

Stops on Bienville Bites’ walking tour served historical anecdotes and Southern comfort food including hickory-smoked Conecuh sausage, pecan bread pudding and oysters “fried, stewed and nude”. At the bustling 87-year-old Wintzell’s Oyster Bar, there are diner-style brown leather booths and walls covered in thousands of multicoloured plaques with more of the founder’s witty sayings. “Y’all should try” its sampler of 16 fresh Gulf oysters smothered in rich toppings like jalapenos, bacon and cheddar. 

For beer and meat-lovers, the family-run Callaghan’s Social Club has won awards for its juicy burgers (from £7.50). A favourite with locals for 80 years, the dive bar has walls draped in neon lights and littered with family portraits, Irish memorabilia and pictures of local legends who have performed there.  

The city drew worldwide attention in 2019 after archeologists working the Mobile River, found the burned wreckage of the last- known slave ship to land in America. The Clotilda transported 110 captured West Africans to Mobile Bay in 1860 — 52 years after the US had outlawed importation of slaves. It was then sunk to hide the evidence.  

At the Africatown Heritage House, a ten-minute taxi ride away, a deeply moving exhibition tells some of the individuals’ stories through written accounts and artefacts. It is a sobering reminder that much of the economy of the Deep South once relied on slavery.

Back downtown, we stayed at The Admiral, a quirky Versailles-inspired hotel, which has rooms decorated in a Mardi Gras colour palette of purple (justice) and gold (power).

It’s a five-minute walk to the station for our sunrise departure to Biloxi, once known as the “seafood capital of the world”. 

It has never been easier to navigate the party-loving Deep South, so make tracks for Amtrak’s Mardi Gras Service. 

Read the article in its entirety at TheSun.co.uk.