A View From The Fun House At The Tickfaw 200 Poker Run
An odd concoction that includes lots of booze, gummy worms and something fruity, the Worm Bucket hasn’t changed since the last time I had one at The Funhouse, headquarters for the Tickfaw 200 Poker Run in Springfield, La., 20-plus years ago when the open-air bar’s beloved owner “Crazy” Charlie Albert was still alive. It’s still sweet and it’s still potent.
Craig and Patti Mears reintroduced a reporter to the Worm Bucket cocktail at the Fun House, ground zero for the Tickfaw 200 Poker Run in the Louisiana bayou.
And—if gummy worms can be considered food—it’s still a meal.
As the saying goes, it’s been a minute since I’ve been to the Tickfaw 200 Poker Run. But since speedonthewater.com kicked off in 2009, we’ve covered it from afar and not-so-afar, as my colleague Jason Johnson was here in 2019 and Pete Boden, our chief photographer, hasn’t missed a Tickfaw event in more than a decade.
“I come here to eat and see old friends,” Boden explained. “I like the food. You can’t get it anywhere else, at least not this good.”
But while a Worm Bucket can brighten your mood, it cannot change the weather. The rain we woke to yesterday morning lasted into the mid-afternoon, which nixed boating for Craig and Patti Mears, my hosts for the weekend, and their friends Jonathon and Tracy Saucier and Lea Barkley
And not just for us. For much of the day, the Tickfaw River, Lake Maurespa and Lake Pontchartrain were empty.
But humans above the age of 10 cannot survive on gummy worms alone. So with Patti Mears as our designated driver, we piled into the Mears’ white Escalade and headed to Landry’s Seafood in New Orleans for lunch.
Craig Mears got his card punched at Felix’s restaurant in New Orleans while son, Stephen, made sure the job got done right.
The food was great. The company was even better. Jonathon Saucier is a storyteller and a damn fine one, and while his friends and loved ones tease him mercilessly about his constant patter—“Jon, take a break,” his wife told him as he explained the evils of jarred roux—I couldn’t get enough of it.
The group chose Landry’s for reasons beyond its nice food. The place is next door to the Blue Crab and Felix’s restaurants, both card-stops for the Tickfaw 200. So Mears and Saucier were able to get their plastic cards punched, which makes them eligible to receive cards at tonight’s poker-hand draw back at The Funhouse.
But before that, there is poker-running of the boating kind to be done. Today’s forecast calls for clear skies and temperatures in the high 80s. (Note to self: Leave the boots and jeans back at Casa Mears.)
First stop, at least for our crew? The speedonthewater.com supported Blind River Bar grand-opening celebration.
I wonder if they serve Worm Buckets.
The infamous concoction.
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