Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 December 2010 16:25

Restaurants - Poor Boy Sandwiches

Parkway Bakery

Mid-City: 538 Hagan Ave. 504-482-3047. Map.
Very Casual.
AE DS MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
It's everything you'd want from a poor boy shop. The Parkway is on the corner of two back streets in a historic neighborhood. The premises are comfortably free of frills, worn out with a distinctly New Orleans flavor. Your grandfather may have had a poor boy there. Most important, the sandwiches are excellent, generous, and inexpensive.

WHY IT'S GOOD
Everything is cooked on the premises. That's less common than one might suppose, so easy and tempting is it to buy meats and gravy ready to serve. The quality of the ingredients and the recipes are good, too--and they're always tweaking both, to get a little more flavor. The Parkway is also unusual in inventing new poor boys constantly. The turkey, dressing, gravy, and cranberry sauce poor boy, for example, was such a hit one Thanksgiving season that it returns every year.

BACKSTORY
The Parkway Bakery opened in the early 1920s, predating the invention of the poor boy sandwich by a few years. It was originally indeed a bakery, and continued baking French bread until sometime in the 1960s. By that time the sandwiches had become the main enterprise, and they were good enough to create a reputation to outlive the actual goodness of the poor boys. The old Parkway closed in the 1990s, but was revived in 2003 by current owner Jay Nix. Although Nix's business is construction, he had a good enough idea of what a poor boy shop should be that he made the Parkway great again.

DINING ROOM
You enter from a paved yard with picnic tables, pass through the line to put your order in (there will probably be quite a few people ahead of you), then find a place to wait. The best place--if you can find an open spot--is the bar. Bars are historically where the best poor boys were served, and this one has The Feel. (The tall wooden bar itself looks ancient, but Jay Nix built it himself.) Then you sit and wait to hear your name screamed.

ESSENTIAL MENU
Poor boy sandwiches
»Roast beef
Barbecue beef
»Hot pork sausage links
»Hot beef sausage patties
»Italian sausage or meatballs with cheese and red sauce
»Grilled alligator sausage
Hamburger
»Ham (cold or grilled)
Turkey breast (cold or grilled)
Grilled chicken breast
»Hot corned beef
»Grilled Reuben on rye
Surf and turf (roast beef with fried shrimp)
Fried shrimp, oysters, or catfish, or any combination
Other than sandwiches
Turkey and alligator sausage gumbo
Potato salad
Chili con carne
French fries or sweet potato fries
Desserts
Bread pudding
Banana pudding
Chocolate pound cake

FOR BEST RESULTS
This is not fast food. They make every sandwich to order and it takes a few minutes. Although they sell a lot of take-out, it's better eaten on the nostalgic premises. Try to remember that they're closed of Tuesdays.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
If they consistently toasted the French bread, the sandwiches would be even better.

FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.

• Dining Environment
• Consistency +2
• Service -1
• Value +2
• Attitude +2
• Wine and Bar
• Hipness +1
• Local Color +3

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES

• Courtyard or deck dining
• Open Sunday lunch and dinner
• Open Monday lunch and dinner
• Open all afternoon
• Historic
• Unusually large servings
• Quick, good meal
• Good for children
• Easy, nearby parking
• No reservations