Mother’s Restaurant, New Orleans
Posted by bellastraniera - 02/06/10 at 02:06 pm Certain hometown restaurants inspire a kind of mania among their fans. In New Orleans, that restaurant would be Mother’s, whose po’ boy gets raves from longtime patrons of the creole lunch counter. Go here and locals will give you one important instruction about that sandwich: “Make sure you get the debris.”
As with many recent additions to New Orleans patois, this one has a traceable history. When a customer asked for the shreds of roast beef from the pan on his po’ boy, original Mother’s owner Simon Landry responded, “You mean the debris?” A sandwich was born.
The “Fergie” is a mash-up of roast beef, ham and pickles on a distinctive French/Southern crunchy-soft bun that’s doused in roast beef juices and dressed with shredded beef from the pan. (The “Ralphie” is a Fergie with cheese.) As meat po’ boys go, this one has distinctive earthiness and depth. It’s also huge, so you may want to split one of them between two people. Oddly, the sopping wet bottom roll, normally the bete noire of sandwiches, actually works in this po’ boy’s favor, because it’s dripping with warm pan juices.
Fried chicken may not be the specialty here, but it sure is good: crispy and lightly salty and spicy outside, juicy inside. You order it by the bird, a half or a quarter chicken.
Mother’s rib-sticking jambalaya is a very good specimen of the genre: rounds of spicy, smoky andouille sausage are tucked into the mixture of rice and chicken. A less spicy seafood gumbo isn’t as inspired by comparison, but it’s still a good starter before your po’ boy.
The interior, with its linoleum floors and Formica tabletops, isn’t exactly fancy, unless you count all manner of Saints football paraphernalia as decor. After waiting in line at the counter, order your meal at the register and find a seat. Our waitress managed to call us “honey,” “babies,” and “sweet pea” all in one sentence while delivering our order to the table. This is true Southern hospitality, restaurant-style.
“Mother’s” is an apt name for a place that feels so nostalgic and serves up real New Orleans comfort food. If all mothers could whip a sandwich like this one, nobody would ever leave home.
Mother’s Restaurant
401 Poydras Street at Tchoupitoulas Street
New Orleans, LA
504-523-9656
mothersrestaurant.net
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bellastraniera
a.k.a. Marcy Swingle - obsessed with food and fashion.
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