Po' Boys And Pure Joy - The Traveling Locavores

Po’ Boys And Pure Joy originally published on Food and Fond Memories on September 1, 2012 by sandyaxelrod Leave a Comment (Edit)

Po’ Boys And Pure Joy

Parkway Bakery and Tavern

I woke up Sunday morning to find that Steve had gone for a bike ride. This gave me a chance to loll over coffee and emails. But I knew that when he came back he would be good and hungry. I made sure to be dressed and ready to go to lunch when he returned to shower and change. We decided to give a new place a try. Well new for us anyway. Several locals that we met told us they LOVED Parkway Bakery and Tavern for Po’ Boys. Now, we always go to Domilise’s for Po’ Boys and we LOVE their Oyster Po’ Boys and Spicy Sausage Po’ Boys, but we are always open to try something or someplace different. So we headed to the Bywater neighborhood where Parkway Bakery has been since 1911 until it closed briefly in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Parkway Bakery suffered six feet of water in the restaurant. Fortunately with help from family they were able to reopen in December of 2005 and immediately began feeding the courageous few New Orleanians who returned to Mid-City and the surrounding areas.

The Bar Area at Parkway Bakery and Tavern

A menu for Po' Boys on the wall of a restaurant

The Menu at Parkway Bakery and Tavern

We loved the feel of the place. It had the ambience of a neighborhood tavern with memorabilia all over the walls. The restaurant is quite large with a bar area, dining room and patio dining. The line for food was so long we almost left to go somewhere else but then we learned a little known secret. If you sit in the bar area they have waitress service! So we went back up front to the bar and made friends with a couple who was almost finished their lunch. Drinda and Tony were locals who were more than happy to share stories about their neighborhood and then their table when they got up.

Unfortunately Parkway Bakery was out of oysters so Steve ordered the Golden Fried Shrimp Po’ Boy and I had the Grilled Smoked Hot Sausage. Both were “dressed” which meant the sandwiches were topped with shredded lettuce, tomato slices, mayonnaise and pickles. Sorry we did not take any pictures of the food. We were too hungry and Po’ Boys are really messy. Our sandwiches were very good but not nearly as good as Domilise’s. At first I thought it was just that the bread was so much crustier. Then I remembered that Domilise’s sauces and mustard was better. So from now on we will stick with Domilise’s for our Po’ Boys. And yes we did go there later in the week.
And for the “pure joy” part of the story – we went shopping. We strolled around Jackson Square and down Royal Street. As always we stopped by the gallery of George Rodrigue, the Cajun artist who is most famous for his blue dogs. Steve and I really enjoy his work. It is always colorful and whimsical. I have to say that a couple of his newer pieces were right up my alley. The blue dogs are chefs!