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Domilise's
Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 5240 Annunciation. 504-899-9126. Map. WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY WHAT'S GOOD BACKSTORY DINING ROOM ESSENTIAL DISHES FOR BEST RESULTS OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Very Casual
Cash only.
One of the oldest and most revered poor boy shops in the city, Domilise's looks and acts its age. It's still overseen, after decades, by Dot Domilise, who maintains a standard of making each sandwich to order. New Orleans visitors love it, because it has all the trappings of the authentic New Orleans poor boy experience. Except one. And that is...
The sandwiches are not especially good. The specialty is fried seafood poor boys. for which the oysters, catfish, and shrimp are fried more or less per sandwich. It all comes hot, golden, crisp, and greaseless. But they want to squirt ketchup all over them, and that's a bringdown. The roast beef, hamburger and grilled ham poor boys are even less good. The size of the poor boys is from an earlier time; they're neither as lengthy or as well-stuffed as what you may be used to. But the prices are from another era too, so that works out.
Miss Dot's father-in-law opened the shop right where it is today in the 1930s. It hasn't changed much over the years. The most memorable change here (aside from the closing for four months after Katrina) was the disappearance of the pepper wiener, a unique specialty here from the earliest days, when the supplier stopped making them.
In an old, pink, nearly windowless frame building on the corner of two Uptown back streets, it looks more like a bar than a restaurant--but that's common among great poor boy vendors. During open hours, the many faithful regulars form a line that will not be negotiated quickly.
Poor boys:
Smoked sausage
Hot sausage
Meatball
Ham
Wiener
Turkey
Roast beef
Hamburger
Shrimp
Catfish
Oyster
Do everything you can to keep the ketchup off your sandwiches.Move the fillings from half the sandwich to the other half, to bring the bread-meat ratio down.
Much could be done to improve every aspect of this place, but then it wouldn't be Domilise's anymore. Some things have to be taken as they are, and this is one of them. Come here for the experience, go elsewhere for a great sandwich.
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Open Monday lunch
- Quick, good meal
- Good for children
- Easy, nearby parking
