Hey Blake,

I moved from New Orleans to San Diego, Calif., in 1991, and for several years would have McKenzie's ship a king cake here for Mardi Gras. Several colleagues at work this morning were talking about king cakes, and I wondered whether McKenzie's is still open and whether you have a contact email or telephone number for them. I'd love to surprise my friends this year with a real king cake.

McKenzie's closed its 47-store chain of bakeries in 2001, but you can still find McKenzie's king cakes at Tastee Donuts.

Pam Wagaman

Dear Pam,

There was a time when McKenzie's king cakes were the most popular in town, and McKenzie's Bakeries were everywhere. I heard someone say that if you were not sure where to find a McKenzie's Bakery, just throw a rock in any direction and you'd hit one. The same was true of K&B. The K&B drug stores are still there, although under the Rite Aid name, but McKenzie's Bakery made it's last king cake in 2001.

In May of 2000, there was a collective moan from the citizens of New Orleans when we heard that the Entringer family, the owners of McKenzie's, was closing the 47-store chain that had its beginning in the 1920s. But an even louder cheer went up in 2001, when new owners stepped in with a plan to reopen some of the stores. Our joy was short-lived, however, because that same year the new owners filed bankruptcy and today McKenzie's bakeries are no more.

The good news is that Tastee Donuts bought the recipe for McKenzie's king cakes and now produces the colored-sugar topped cakes in all their local outlets. Just ask for them by name.

Hey Blake,

I've heard tell of a krewe that used to parade in the Lake Pontchartrain area. Is there any truth to this story?

Mary Hogan

Dear Mary,

Yes, there were three krewes that paraded along the lake: Minerva, Selena and Pontchartrain. Minerva and Selena are now defunct, but the Krewe of Pontchartrain, organized in 1975 and named for Louis Pontchartrain, the minister of marine of King Louis XIV, is still rolling. The krewe's original route ran along the shore of the lake, then in 1991 it moved to a Mid-City route and finally to the traditional Uptown route.

Hey Blake,

I am a student at Emory University in Atlanta and am writing a research paper on the exclusion of the Jewish social elite from the most elite krewes in Mardi Gras history. I was wondering if you had any insight into this topic.

Rachel Lubow

Dear Rachel,

I don't know if this answer will make it to you in time, but it's an interesting question anyway.

When the first krewe -- Comus -- was organized in 1857, the men of the organization were all, with one exception, Americans, and not a one of them was Jewish. Following behind this group were the organizations of the Twelfth Night Revelers in 1870, Rex in 1872, Momus in 1872 and Proteus in 1882. Except for Rex, these old-line krewes were, and are, very exclusive and rigidly anti-Semitic.

The School of Design -- its official name -- elected as its first Rex, Lewis Salomon, Boston Club member, Confederate veteran of Shiloh and other battles, cotton factor -- and Jewish banker. Salomon was given the task of raising money for the first parade. He accomplished this by selling dukedoms for $100 each. In 1939, Perry Young praised Salomon thus: "Only Jew yet Carnival King, but noble citizen who shouldered an imperious duty that no one else would dare, and carried it to such an amazing success that the circumcised have never had another chance to earn that glory."

Ever since the organization's first parade, Rex has, with few exceptions, been chosen from the membership of the exclusive Boston Club that had many Jewish members in its early days. The most distinguished was Judah Benjamin, who became "the brains of the Confederacy."

By the early 20th century, however, Jews were excluded from elite Carnival krewes and social organizations regardless of their wealth or importance in the city. No Jew has been King of Carnival since.