On a Sunday morning in 2017 I was driving down Canal Street when there was a traffic buildup as we approached North Carrollton Avenue. That’s a busy intersection so it is not unusual to have activity, but not as heavy as it was at this moment, especially on a Sunday morning.
There was so much backed up traffic that we came to a total stop, several blocks before the crossing.
Then I noticed action coming down Carrollton. There were limousines, motorcycles and vans, all travelling very fast. On top of one van a videographer was shooting continuously at whatever crowd activity the procession passed.
I realized why there was a motorcade that morning. It has been reported that President Barack Obama and family were in town. And, after all, it was getting to be lunchtime.
Though I did not have the benefit of satellites, drones or undercover agents, I did learn that this motorcade’s destination was along Bayou St. John at the corner of Hagan Street and Tchoupitoulas – the site of the historically important Parkway Bakery & Tavern.
Truthfully, the business is known less as a Bakery or Tavern and more as the purveyor of New Orleans classic indigenous sandwich, the “poor boy.”
(Note to Mr. Obama: In addition to the savory experience he and his wife and daughters may have had, Parkway deserves a spot in the Smithsonian because it has stood by firmly and resisted the bastardization of the sandwich’s name to “Po-Boy” as compromised by the other media and competing sandwich shops.)
Founded in 1911 the business was at first mostly a bakery. Then in 1929 the owners added a sandwich that had become the rage in New Orleans. This was during the Depression and two brothers who had a shop near the Quarter created a cheap sandwich made with French bread, and whatever they could place between slices, to feed cash deprived workers during a streetcar strike. In support of the strikers, they called the sandwich a “poor boy.” The name stuck, though it might not have were it not for culture savior Jay Nix who purchased the business in 1995. Because of his interest in history, he kept the sandwich name historically precise without bowing to the forces of decline. (“Poor” appropriately refers to “impoverished,” which is what the striking streetcar conductors were; “Po” is a river in Italy.) The décor of the place also features artifacts of the area’s history.
Where once there were long lines of workers from a nearby can factory as customers, the Parkway clientele is everyday folks including bike riders from the nearby Lafitte Greenway. Oh, and there is an occasional President of the United States.
According to purloined Secret Service documents, while in New Orleans Obama had gumbo at Dookie Chase restaurant (where the late Leah Chase supervised) and fried chicken with red beans and rice at Willie Mae’s.
I regret that the house was divided over one issue at Dookie Chase. According to WGNO TV reporter Kenny Lopez the president nearly created an incident. “He put hot sauce in my gumbo,” Chase recalled. “And I had to reprimand the president. You don’t put hot sauce in my gumbo!”
Fortunately, diplomacy prevailed. The potential damage from the hot sauce incident was quickly forgotten. After exchanging farewell hugs Chase concluded, “It truly was a pleasure serving him.”
Poor boys at Parkway were on the menu for another day. The roast beef (slow roasted in gravy) is what the place is best known for, but it’s hard to overlook fried seafood. Reportedly the four Obamas munched on shrimp poor boys—yes, dressed. (As a personal note, on a recent visit I sampled the fried shrimp—crispy and well-seasoned the serving is fit for a king, or whatever other titled person may walk through the door.)
After lunch the motorcade headed back downtown. There is always less urgency once the eating is done. Had the season been right, the motorcade riders could have topped the feasting uptown at Hansen’s Sno-Bliz.
A Hansen’s chocolate and condensed milk snoball would have been the perfect chaser for a Parkway poor boy. That is the sort of indigenous knowledge that chief executives need to have while experiencing the state of the union.
As Leah Chase exclaimed when her guest’s limousine pulled away: “He will go down in the history books as our best president ever.”
