Jay's Lounge preps to celebrate Marti Gras, NOLA roots

NILES, Mich. -- Chef Manager at Jay's Lounge in Niles, James Brazo, is doing Mardi Gras big this year with a fully decked-out bar, special menu, and a slate of Cajun cuisine.

"My favorite, favorite part of Mardi Gras is definitely the coming together of people," Brazo said. "You know, a lot of things get forgotten, and it's just all about unity and being one together and celebrating life and love and love of food and culture and everything good in life all at one time."

Brazo grew up in New Orleans and moved to the Niles area before Hurrican Katrina hit.

"Well, it's one of those things where, you know, you can take the person out of something, but it's always there," Brazo said. "So, I mean, you know, a Mardi Gras is all about the celebration of love and culture, and you know, you can celebrate that wherever you're at, you know, no matter what group of people you're with, but as long as you're with people that you love and people that enjoy food, you know, that's a recipe for a good celebration."

Brazo says he likes to use the celebration of Mardi Gras to bring families together by sharing his favorite flavors from his upbring with the community.

"It's very unique, like the City of New Orleans itself, in a good way, in a good way. You know, it's all about the people that come in here. You know, it's a very unique and special place to a lot of people, to myself as well, a lot of the workers. You know, it's just a different, great, wonderful place," Brazo said.

"The celebration of everything good in life, you know. So it's a time to really, you know, just forget about the bad things for a little bit and just be able to be able to be happy and enjoy some nice family moments and good times and laughs and all that great stuff over food and fun and drink."

From Louisiana to Southwest Michigan, Brazo says he sees similarities between the two communities despite the dramatic differences between Niles and New Orleans.

"Another way, Jay's to me, is like a slice of New Orleans, you know, anything kind of goes here, everyone's always happy, you know," Brazo said.

"So, we try to bring those funny events too, and we do a crawfish boil in the spring, then we do a Jimmy Buffet night in the summertime, and we have a bunch of different events throughout the year. That's, you know, St Patrick's Day is coming up. That's a big one for us, that's right around the corner. So we're looking forward to that. And it's just, you know, bringing smiles on people's faces through food and drink."