In a city known for its delicious and diverse cuisine, even festivals are known for serving world-class food. During the 29th annual French Quarter Festival (Thursday, April 12 – Sunday, April 15, 2012) festival-goers will enjoy signature offerings at the “World’s Largest Jazz Brunch.” The 2012 festival welcomes nine new restaurants including Galatoire’s, K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, Blue Dot Donuts, Three Muses, Maximo’s Italian Grill, Grand Isle, Deanies, Lasyone’s Meat Pie Restaurant, and PJ’s Coffee and Tea of New Orleans. Food and beverage booths, located in Jackson Square, Woldenberg Riverfront Park and the Louisiana State Museum’s Old U.S. Mint, make up the “World’s Largest Jazz Brunch.”

French Quarter Festival annually features authentic local cuisine from the area’s finest restaurants, including festival favorites such as crawfish and goat cheese crepes, cochon de lait po-boys, crawfish bisque, Oysters Bonne Femme, hot boiled crawfish, grilled chicken livers with pepper jelly, sweet potato pie, bourbon bbq shrimp, prime debris po-boys, Abita beer, snoballs, and more. Foodies will also enjoy lamb sliders, Crawfish Diavolo, baked alaska, and boudin balls. In addition to the food offerings, the festival offers an array of refreshing beverages including Abita Beer, Absoult Vodka, Malibu Rum and Jameson cocktails and daiquiris, Pepsi products including Aquafina and Gatorade, Pat O’Brien’s hurricanes, Tropical Isle Hand Grenades (and Skinny Hand Grenades), WWOZ’s Mango Freeze, and Plum Street Sno-Balls – now with an additional fourth location in Jackson Square. Most menu items range in price from $4 – $8 to keep the festival not only fun, but affordable.

In order to maintain the authenticity and quality of the cuisine, the Jazz Brunch Committee follows specific criteria for participating in the “World’s Largest Jazz Brunch”. In order to qualify, vendors must be dine-in restaurants and New Orleans restaurants are given first preference. French Quarter Festival features neighborhood favorites – including Antoine’s, Desire Oyster Bar, Galatoire’s, G W Fins, Muriel’s, Court of Two Sisters, The Bombay Club, Bennachin, Praline Connection, and Tujague’s – many of whom participated in the first-ever French Quarter Festival in 1984.
Visit www.fqfi.org to view complete food and beverage menus, or download the free Apps for iPhone and Android – courtesy of Capital One Bank and Applitite. The “World’s Largest Jazz Brunch” is served daily from 11am to 7pm at Jackson Square and Louisiana State Museum’s Old U.S. Mint and 11am to 9 pm at Woldenberg Riverfront Park, except for Sunday when the entire festival closes at 7pm.