Roast Beef Recon

I've been wondering if Brett Anderson's Roast Beef Po-Boy series in the T-P had been boosting sales at local sandwich shops. While I know it's probably had me thinking about roast beef po-boys more regularly lately, I can't say I've been inspired to do any first-hand fact checking just yet.

Which is where Dingler comes in. In this Humid City post he, along with the help of a man named Pooky, perform their own test following Anderson's comparison between Parasol's and Tracey's but reach a very different verdict.

Also there's this which should make us all feel a bit better about the world.

What began as online blabbering turned into me ordering two roast beef po-boys within minutes of each other…one from Tracey’s and the other from Parasol’s. I called Parasol’s first at 9:11 p.m., only to be told their kitchen had closed. Admittedly, I hadn’t checked the kitchen hours of either establishment trusting that late-night leniency we have with time. Despite the hour, they agreed to make a sandwich for me, which may have single-handedly save the taste test. I phone ahead to Tracey’s to avoid another possible mishap. “Oh, don’t worry,” the voice on the phone said, “we’ll be around until 10-ish.” If nothing else, my faith in New Orleanians sense of time has been maintained.

Maybe the location really is cursed

The building that currently houses Tracey's has been home to so many failed businesses over the past 5- 10 years that I'm not sure I can list them all. There was the Latin American Restaurant, Alexander's, the Irish Garden Club, at least two others that I can't think of right now. But when the former operators of nearby Parasol's second-lined over there to open the new place, I was sure they had broken whatever hex had been hanging over the property. They even brought in a priest to perform the blessing.



And for the most part, the endeavor has been a success. Tracey's is already the best sports bar Uptown. When it isn't impossibly crowded, there's no better place to watch a Saints game. It's a friendlier looking place than it's ever been especially when the weather is nice and all the doors and windows can open up onto what, curse notwithstanding, should be a prime location for a neighborhood bar. Also, as far as I know, they do not as yet serve any King Cake flavored vodka.

The food, though, can be hit-or-miss.

When the kitchen is running smoothly and everything on the menu is available, the fare... particularly the shrimp po-boys, fried boudin, and chicken wings... is more than agreeable, as bar food goes. But Tracey's promotes its roast beef po-boy above all else. And that, as Brett Anderson correctly points out in today's article, has only been ordinary, if not a little disappointing, ever since the move. Meanwhile Parasol's.. the new Parsol's continues to receive accolades for theirs.

So now I'm tempted to wonder again if there isn't just something about that location.