500 Po Boys: NOLA Village Market In The Lower 9th Ward
It’s highly unlikely the Times Picayune will be visiting NOLA Village Market anytime soon so we reconnoitered our way down there earlier this week to grab a po boy and see if we could find another hidden New Orleans gem.
Out of the hundreds we’ve already found and documented.
NOLA Village Market is a one-stop shop for citizens of the Lower 9th. You can buy a cell phone (legit or burner) pay your phone bill, purchase a nice glass pipe (only for tobacco use) grab a liver cheese po boy and a Big Shot soda, purchase transmission fluid, stock up on Fruit Loops, Blue Runner beans or any number of other quick mart sundries.
Just like dozens of other curb stores in New Orleans.
Walking into NOLA Village Food Mart we find ourselves in a queue at the lunch counter in the right rear of the store. A couple vaqueros are ordering fried chicken plates, a young man in jorts and a wife beater is eyeballing the sausage stew and a harried mom is riding herd on a brace of toddlers who are bleating despair.
The counter lady informs us to expect a wait. “Not no big long wait, but it will be a few minutes.”
We order a shrimp po boy, decline her offer of ketchup and mustard and begin pacing about the shop.
Perhaps 20 minutes later the nice lady hollers at us to come get it.
“What’s your name?”
“Kitty”
“Like a Kitty Cat?”
She smiles. “That’s right baby, just like a kitty cat”
There is no seating at NOLA Village, it’s all grab and go and while we would love to hunker down on the curb and eat our food right there we would also like to live long enough to tell this tale so we race back to the Bywater and the comforts of our tiny double.
This shrimp po boy is one for the ages. The width and heft suggests that of a telephone pole. Dozens of perfectly fried shrimps are packed into the foot-long loaf of toasted bread. Plentiful delicious mayonnaise, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and pickles constitute the garnish.
At $8.99 this po boy is a hell of a value and could easily feed two hungry men.
Not hungry for a po boy? NOLA Village offers hot plates too featuring dishes like smothered chicken, sticky barbecue pork ribs and kielbasa stew. Something tells us Miss Kitty knows her way around the soul food spectrum.
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6100 St. Claude Avenue
New Orleans, LA
70117
Hours (Hot Food)
Sun 7-6:30
Mon 6-6:30
Tue 6-6:30
Wed 6-6:30
Thu 6-6:30
Fri 6-6:30
Sat 7-6:30
Telephone
504-277-0670
Markey says:
“Live long enough to tell the tale” this is sooooo douchey.
Markey says:
“Live long enough to tell the tale” this is sooooo douchey.