MEAT+POULTRY - September 2015 - 92

M E AT- M I N D E D

Go Johnny's Po-Boys, go
It is 30 minutes before closing on a sweltering July
afternoon in New Orleans' famed French Quarter, and
Johnny's Po-Boys is still packed with patrons. Lori Beth
De Grusha, the third-generation owner of the storied
eatery, stands behind the cash register waiting to take an
order from a customer, whose eyes are still scanning the
extensive menu board above him.
There is a po-boy for most everyone at Johnny's, from
alligator sausage to roast beef to country-fried steak to
chicken salad to chicken parmesan to crawfish to shrimp
to turkey to hamburger steak to hot dog to hot sausage to
meatball to pastrami to pork chops to fried oysters.

"My grandfather loved everyone
and accepted everyone. He didn't
care about segregation, even if
he was threatened. And he never
lost business because of it."
- LORI BETH DE GRUSHA

"Po-boy" is "poor boy" spoken in Louisiana dialect.
There are myriad stories to the origin of the po-boy
sandwich, including one from 1929 of how a New Orleans
restaurant created it to feed to striking workers who
couldn't afford to eat. A po-boy is basically a submarine
sandwich served on crunchy French bread. But there are
striking variations of the sandwich in New Orleans.
"You know what makes our roast beef different?" De
Grusha asks proudly. "We boil it on top of the stove with
onions and bell peppers. Most people cook roast beef
inside the oven."

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MEAT+ POULTRY | 09.15 | www.meatpoultry.com

The sheer amount of roast beef stacked on the French
bread also makes it different. Johnny's has the reputation
for not skimping on the protein, a reason it has been in
business for 65 years.
De Grusha's grandfather opened Johnny's in 1950. It
was a simple operation - customers would submit their
orders and put money in the cash register and even take
their own change. As the French Quarter grew, so did the
business.
The eatery made a name for itself and for its
sandwiches. Johnny also gained a reputation for his
altruism. While segregation flourished at the time, Johnny
distanced himself from it. He served whites and blacks,
and treated everyone equally.
"My grandfather loved everyone and accepted
everyone," Lori Beth, 33, says. "He didn't care about
segregation, even if he was threatened. And he never lost
business because of it."
Johnny worked in the restaurant nearly until his death
in 1999. "He was running circles around people," Lori Beth
says. "He never got tired."
Lori Beth's father, also named Johnny, took over the
business when his dad died. Lori Beth took over the
business with her two uncles after her father died in 2012.
The French Quarter was not flooded like other parts of
New Orleans a decade ago in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina. Johnny's Po-Boys had some external damage, but
the inside of the restaurant was intact. Still, it was closed
for five months as the city recovered from the devastation.
When it reopened, the restaurant's only employees
were members of the De Grusha family, including Lori
Beth and her parents. Many of the restaurant's prehurricane employees were displaced.
"We were very busy," Lori Beth says, noting that
Johnny's was one of the first restaurants in the French
Quarter to open. "It was nice to be back."
At the time, Lori Beth and her family were unsure if
New Orleans would ever be the same again. But they knew
one thing: If the city did come back, they wanted Johnny's
Po-Boys to be part of it.
New Orleans has come back and is still coming back.
Business has also been solid the past few years at Johnny's,
and Lori Beth believes the New Orleans food scene is as
vibrant as ever. And the po-boy, be it from Johnny's or one
of the city's many other distinguished cafes, remains a vital
component of the Crescent City's food scene.
L AW R E N C E AY LWA R D | l a y l w a rd @ s o s l a n d.c o m
http://www.meatpoultry.com
MEAT+POULTRY - September 2015

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