A few days ago I wrote a piece for nomenu.com called Three Tasty Icons. It was about the kick-off to the 17th annual Oak St. Po-Boy Festival. There are three iconic New Orleans products that got together to make a 362 ft. sandwich right down the middle of Oak St. It featured Leidenheimer Bread, Chisesi Ham, and Blue Plate Mayo. That sandwich was better than anything I had today at the festival. I wish they would offer it as an option at all subsequent events.
I went early so as to avoid the crowds, but the crowd I saw was smaller than I expected. I wasn’t sure of the program, even though Tom and I were judges as recently as 2018. That’s when we discovered Gonzo Smokehouse, a barbecue place in Luling that has become a big star.
The line to get a wristband was much shorter than I expected. I thought this meant sandwiches, but I was quickly disavowed of that notion. I asked for two at $15 until I realized that was an admission price. Had I known the Fast Pass was available, I would have paid the $30. Regular readers and listeners to The Food Show (airs 2-4pm weekdays on 990AM WGSO) understand I pay no attention to details, and am continually reminded of the folly of this. (Note to all: Any future Po-Boy Festival should be attempted only with a Fast Pass.)
I walked in from The Carrollton Ave. side and went to the place that I was most curious about. Oak and Ale are two places I’ve always loved, and they had an eclectic menu that began with a beef hot dog and it included their great housecut fries. I got both.
Fortunately I was able to walk into their little courtyard between both places and get organized. Good thing, because the hot dog was a huge disappointment, and was incredibly messy. It was first an enormous weiner, with a diameter of about an inch and a half. What was most unappealing of a list of unappealing was the condiment clashes that made this a mess. I took the weiner off the bread and tried to eat it, thinking I might have looked like a snarling dog wrestling the casing which was impossible to pierce. I looked for a knife in the utensils but there were none, and that was most unfortunate. This dog desperately needed a knife.
Conversely, the housecut shoestring fries here were every bit as great as they ever were. Dusted in Creole seasoning, this made the stop worth it. The fries were $7 and the dog was $14. It was 4 inches long.
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I went next to Swinel Richie Charity BBQ, which featured a Porchetta! I have spoken so much on the show about my Porchetta obsession that I couldn’t pass this up. Only one person in the booth really had an idea what a Porchetta was or how to say it, but I still had to get it. I’ve never seen these crisped up on a flat top grill, but why not?
It too was a four inch sandwich, and it was certainly good enough. The crispness of the meat detracted from the herbal swirl inside, but it was a different take on a poor-boy,...and Porchetta!
From there I went to Trenasse, where I was interested in both items on their menu as well as the other. These guys are always fun and creative, and the guy taking the orders was like a carnival barker, adding to the festive vibe. The crawfish Mac’n’cheese was made with rotini pasta and was very creamy. It was loaded with crawfish, and had a nice kick to it. It was a little “wet” for my taste, but it had a great flavor.
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The other dish from Trenasse was also fun, named Banhdouille, a sandwich made of a housemade andouille link split in half and grilled, topped with a gravy and the requisite Vietnamese flavors of cilantro and pickled veggies. I am not a fan of Vietnamese flavors in general, but I find the fresh taste of cilantro in a Banh mi absolutely irresistible. The sausage was nicely made but what I tasted most was jalapeno.
As I walked further down Oak St. the crowds got heavier. Still not unpleasant, but denser. Parkway had the most densely populated line, as I would have expected. Mahony’s was there but Parkway reigns.
It was down here that my lack of a Fast Pass haunted me. I passed Rosedale where I might have gotten the meatloaf sandwich, but I guess I’ll have to wait for the restaurant because the General Admission line was prohibitive. A few steps down and across Oak I saw Gonzo Smokehouse, feeling good that the BBQ sirens from there would not grab me. Just yesterday I had a great barbecue experience on the North Shore (see nomenu.com) and I didn’t need barbecue today. And then I saw the menu. An oxtail poor boy??? We’ve done enough talking about this on The Food Show that it behooved me to have it, but the General Admission line was brutal.
I wanted to get back to tradition and have a roast beef poor boy, so when Mahoney’s offered the debris poor boy I got it. This was one of those things better to just eat and not look at. The gravy was too thick and it was not a good visual. But this was such a tasty sandwich I finished it, something I could not say about anything else I had today.
Our whole family went to the first Po-Boy Festival, and it was such fun. But 17 years later the crowds that had swelled so big it made attending difficult have bounced back smaller. Maybe the $16-$20 price of a 4-inch sandwich has dampened interest, or maybe the “creativity” that has been so celebrated hasn’t inspired much of a thrill.
There are a lot more fun things to do today. Blue Plate Mayo had a spinning wheel with prizes, Tony Chacere’s had their van out there giving samples of new products, and Leidenheimer Bread was there under a tent with loaves of their essential poor boy base.
It really is all about the bread, and the schmear of Blue Plate Mayo. And after it all today, I kinda just wanted those two ingredients filled with a pile of Chisesi Ham and some Swiss cheese. Grilled or cold, equally superb.
