Parkway Bakery & Tavern, New Orleans

I recently discovered that an excruciatingly slow Internet connection combined with unlimited Sazerac-availability throughout a five-block radius does not a voracious blogger make. In other words, sorry about the lack of posting as of late. I have plenty of posts from NYC, recent visits to Chicago restaurants Ruxpin, Davanti Enoteca (ultra yum), and Saigon Sisters, and, of course, last week’s NOLA eats. I will mix and match them, starting with some of the finest dishes I had, including the fried alligator from Cochon, truffle gnocchi from August, beignets from Cafe du Monde, and of course, said Sazeracs and other fine cocktails. But I’ll begin with the po’boys, the fried catfish/fried shrimp combo from Parkway Tavern was totally worth the taxi ride from Bourbon (and hour wait to get them to come back when we were done).

Praise the combo…soft, crusty French bread, lettuce, tomato, pickle and mayo are the standards with fillings like grilled alligator sausage links, gravy (with fries), fried potatoes, and in our case, mile-long fried shrimp and catfish. Golden, non-greasy breading encrusted the mound of seafood on each sandwich..

Besides the po’boys and fries, we also got gumbo, teaming with turkey and juicy, spicy alligator sausage. It was a little warm out for hot gumbo, but we downed the bowl nonetheless…oh, and juicy thick fries, why not? Parkway Tavern, 538 Hagan.