History of the Po-Boy

New Orleans Shrimp Po-Boy

Fried Louisiana seafood is delicious.  Crispy and crunchy New Orleans style French bread is also tasty.  So if you take a local french bun and fill it up with local fried seafood, smother it with mayonnaise, and dress it up with lettuce, pickles, and tomato, you are bound to have yourself a heavenly sandwich.  Welcome to the po-boy.

Most people agree that a good po-boy is wonderful.  Also, most people have a theory about the origin of the po-boy.   And, everyone can agree on one thing about the origin story…. that nobody can agree about the origin of this delicious sandwich called a po-boy.

There are three theories, all with varying degrees of believability.  The first theory is that the name was simply an evolution of the French term “pourboire,” which refers to the tip given to a waiter.  The connection here to the sandwich, to me, seems fragile at best.

The second theory, more widely held, is that local restaurant owners Bennie and Clovis Martin helped to support a labor strike by local streetcar operators.  The Martins were former streetcar operators themselves sympathetic to the cause and offered the striking men a free sandwich every day.  Whenever they would see a striking worker coming for their free sandwich, people would refer to them as “poor boys” because they were receiving no wages while on strike.  This theory is very plausible, and it has some good support and evidence to back it up.

However, I personally ascribe to the third theory.  This origin story, most common sense of the three, goes that restaurants and delis wanted to make some money off of the older stale baguettes (french bread) that would otherwise be thrown out.  So they took that otherwise worthless bread, deep fried any leftovers they had laying around, and put them together to make some cheap sandwiches to turn an easy profit.  Only less wealthy people originally would want to buy these low-end meals.  So naturally, people starting naming the sandwich after the poor customers who bought it, and hence the name “poor boy” or po-boy was born.  I like this story partially because it also helps explain the unique crunchy and crispy style to New Orleans french bread.  But I also ascribe to it because this was the story my parents told me when I was growing up.  And sometimes you just gotta stick with what you know.

No matter how to slice it, the po-boy is a delectably iconic New Orleans sandwich.  And the history is much less important than the flavor.  Delicious.