In a listing of best sandwiches in Atlanta, the Po’ Boy Shop appeared. It actually had appeared before me on three occasions, when I had tried, unsuccessfully, to get a Cuban sandwich next door at Buena Gente, but I had looked past it. On a Sunday afternoon, looking for something to carry home for dinner, and on North Druid Hills already, a po’ boy sounded tasty.

I looked up the menu on my phone, placed a call-in order and headed down Clairmont. Located in the same shopping center as (the aforementioned Buena Gente) and Community Q, parking here can be quite a challenge. Luckily, at 4:00 on a Sunday, there were a couple of easily accessible places. The menu was broader than just po’ boys and we’ll go back to try the traditional Cajun plates – I can’t wait to try their red beans and rice.

The picture above is the carry out corner. Through that doorway is the “bar” downstairs, with table seating that’s open to 2:00 am, sevens days a week.

My dear wife chose the shrimp plate, which was offered grilled, blackened or fried, with jalapeño hush puppies, fries and slaw.

The shrimp were both plentiful and very tasty, but over shadowed by the fries. The French fries were VERY good – they were sliced mandolin thin and fried just to the edge of too crispy. These may have been my favorite fries of late.

The wings were good and definitely meaty and worth ordering. But why order wings in a Cajun restaurant? They were in Crystal hot sauce, though…

I was there for a po’ boy, and the choices were more than 20 (oyster, blackened grouper, shrimp, catfish, crystal’d (cooked in Crystal hot sauce – a Louisiana hot sauce that’s one of my faves) chicken & shrimp, ham & cheese and andouille sausage are just a few). Seeing that the sandwiches were all on Leidenheimer bread (straight from New Orleans), made the choices all the more tempting.)

I chose the po’ boy, known, colloquially, as ‘Debris’ – slow roasted beef, in gravy, usually with a horseradish sauce (with my long standing hate / hate relationship with horseradish, I omitted it.) This was the best roast beef Po Boy that I recall having eaten since ordering one from a gravel-parking-lotted trailer-housed restaurant named Sydney’s in Metairie, back in the early 1980s. The only downside was that, even with the excellent Leidenheimer roll, the 40 minute drive home allowed it to get just a little soggy.