Tonight I had dinner at Hot Tails (where else?) with Derek Monjure, a native New Orleanian (the West Bank is the best bank!) who was back in the Gret Stet on business. He’s friends with a local friend of mine, and we ended up at Hot Tails. That’s my fried catfish in the foreground, his shrimp poboy in the background. That’s not Bud Light, by the way. He was drinking South Coast Amber Ale from Louisiana’s Parish Brewing, and I was drinking Juke Joint, the IPA from Baton Rouge’s Tin Roof Brewing, which is now officially my favorite Louisiana beer. All you out-of-towners coming in for Walker Percy Weekend, if you get here on Thursday or early on Friday, you might try to slip across the river to eat at Hot Tails. Really great food. Chefs Cody and Samantha Carroll will be cooking for us on Friday and Saturday nights, but really, can you have enough Hot Tails? I don’t think you can. They also do a killer Sunday brunch.

Derek won’t be here for Percyfest, so we came back to the east bank of the river to my place, where I made Derek and Jimmy mint juleps according to Walker Percy’s recipe. Here’s Derek wielding the ice mallet:

After our friends left, I checked e-mail, and learned from Mary Pratt Percy Lobdell, one of Walker and Bunt Percy’s two daughters, that she will be one of the festivalgoers at the Walker Percy Weekend. What a treat for us all! Ain’t you glad you’re coming?