Not just for "po-boys" anymore

Oak Street Po-Boy Festival kind of misses the whole point of the sandwich it celebrates, doesn't it?

Hughey and others say the VIP buy-in is simply filling a glaring need for the otherwise free festival, which drew 50,000 people last year. But in a city where everyone has a take on the best jambalaya, cup of gumbo or fried shrimp po-boy around, opinions were mixed in recent weeks about the idea of peddling premium tickets for an event celebrating the history of this everyman's sandwich, which Leidenheimer Baking Co. owner Sandy Whann described as "the ultimate canvas for New Orleans cuisine."

"You've got everyone from all walks of life pulling up to the same bar, elbow to elbow, enjoying po-boys, so we've sort of created a little class warfare" with the VIP pass, Whann said, adding, tongue in cheek: "I hope we don't have an 'Occupy Oak Street' movement."

As the story goes, the iconic sandwich took its name from New Orleans streetcar conductors who went on strike during the 1920s. At their shop near the French Market, Benny and Clovis Martin, widely considered the godfathers of the po-boy, were former conductors themselves, and they vowed not to let the strikers go hungry.

"When one of the strikers entered their shop, the call went out: 'Here comes anther po-boy!' " Leidenheimer says on its website.