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Image If you missed the party that reopened the historic Rogue's Harbor Inn ballroom in December, you'll have another chance when the Inn hosts a Mardi Gras party on February 21st.  You'll get to try out traditional Carnival mixed drinks, listen to live jazz, and enjoy appetizers and deserts from Venice, Rio, Trinadad, and New Orleans.  And, perhaps, be a bit of a rogue.

"We're known to have a little fun here," says Rogue's Harbor Inn Event Coordinator Sandra Pierzinski.  "We have a reputation to uphold!  We're just trying to chase away the winter blahs and the clouds and the cold and dreariness.  We figured we'd bring a little sunshine and some rhythms and cadences from a bit further south."

Carnival is a tradition that started in ancient Rome, and traveled from Europe around the world, including Trinidad in the West Indies, and from there to Rio de Janeiro, and finally to our own New Orleans.

"The first documentation of rules prohibiting certain activities for Carnival were in 1074 in Venice," Pierzinski says.  "Carnival comes from the Latin 'farewell to me,' so it's saying goodbye to all the wonderful foods Catholics would give up for Lent.  It went from being a feast to being a feast and frolicking, to being a feast and frolicking and some depravity that they had to make rules against."

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Traditional Carnival drinks from around the world will be served at the bar in the ballroom
She says one of the best known influences is sugar based alcohol, which for us is rum.  In Rio it is cachaca, which goes into a popular drink called Caipirinha.  Another influence is masks.  A contest will decide who has the most striking masks.  The inn is providing templates for people who need someplace to start, as well as instructions for making papier-mâché masks, or if you want to get more elaborate you can even make a Venetian life mask.  "We're going to give you the basics, and then raid your kids' glitter and sequins and supplies," Pierzinski  says.

Still relatively new to the area, Pierzinski had heard that Peggy Haine was the be-all, end-all of the Ithaca jazz genre.  "She was very, very sweet," Pierzinski says.  "She chuckled and said, 'I don't do that any more.'  But she did give me the names of musicians, and the East Hill Classic Jazz Trio agreed to play for us.  " I'm very excited," she says.  "I've heard wonderful, wonderful things about them."

She also hopes to have a dance lesson, and has researched typical Carnival dances from around the world.  She says the Venetian Waltz is too tame for this party, and Trinidad's style may be to wild, so she is considering Rio's version, the Samba, if she can find someone to teach the dance.  "Our musicians have assured me they are quite able to play a Samba," she says.

She says she won't dance herself, but roguishly suggests that owner Eileen Stout may be coerced.  "I will be there, probably running and making sure everything's going smoothly," she says.  Maybe we can get Eileen to Samba..."

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Sandra Pierzinski in the Rogues's Harbor Inn's 1830 Ballroom
 
Samba or no, the party will give people a chance to enjoy the ballroom and the inn itself.  People who decide to stay at the inn will get two tickets to the party.

"It's a wonderful bargain, and it's a wonderful way to make the night more special," Pierzinski says.  "Whether you live an hour away or twenty minutes up the road you can come, have dinner, go to the party, have one more cocktail than you might ordinarily have, and then retire to your room.  Our winter rate is $100 plus tax.  If you have seen any of the rooms you know it's a wonderful bargain.  With the room comes two complimentary tickets to the party, which is a $40 value.  So you can look at it as getting a $160 room for $60.  Then you walk down the stairs and have someone make you breakfast in the morning."

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