[title type="h5"]Po-Boy Festival.[/title]No new edible event ever drew the instantaneous, explosive popularity that greeted the first Po-Boy Festival in 2007. Every year since, it surprised even its organizers with an almost-unmanageable throng of attendees. During its eight hours, Oak Street looks like Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras.
Oak Street seems to be the key to it. The old commercial district is familiar to just about everybody, but until the street was renovated a few years ago, it was largely unexploited. It was a perfect fit for the lovable scruffiness of the poor boy sandwich.
A few years ago the festival reached its maximum extent, from South Carrollton Avenue to the railroad tracks at Eagle Street. A new annex is planned for this year in the two blocks of Leonidas from Oak to Willow. Also new will be a food-truck village.
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Po-Boy festival whole-loaf sandwich.[/caption]
What makes the Po-Boy Festival such a fine afternoon of grazing is that it's not limited to the classic sandwiches. Although you have many roast beef poor boys and shrimp loaves to choose from, most of the vendors will have a few non-traditional concoctions. The great Vietnamese bahn mi sandwiches will be there, for example. GW Fins will return with its wildly popular lobster poor boy. The College Inn will no doubt have its fried green tomato and shrimp remoulade poor boy. Prices are mostly between $5-8 per sandwich; many of the booths will have mini-poor boys for tasting.
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The crowd at thre Po-Boy Festival.[/caption]
[title type="h5"]Here is the entire list of who will be serving what, with prices.[/title]
Nor is eating a sandwich the only thing to do. Live music will give forth on three stages. There's a kids' area. Seminars about the history and lore of the poor boy sandwich go on throughout the day. And you will run into at least fifty people you know.
The Po-Boy Festival begins at 10 a.m. and goes until 6 p.m., Sunday, November 23. Admission is free. Parking is a real bear if you try to park anywhere in the greater neighborhood. The worst part is the traffic leading away starting at around 5 p.m. The best idea is to park somewhere along St. Charles or Carrollton Avenues, then take the streetcar (which is back in service completely!) to Oak Street.
Po-Boy Festival
Carrollton: 8100-8800 blocks of Oak Street.
