The Best Places to Get a Shrimp Po Boy

New Orleans lays claim to its fair share of American melting pot cultural heritage. Jazz, Mardi Gras, Creole, and Cajun traditions are all seated firmly in the Big Easy. Culinary tourists from around the world travel to New Orleans for its unique cuisine and fun dining options and the shrimp po boy is one favorite tourists and locals just can’t get enough of. 

Originated by Bennie and Clovis Martin, streetcar operators turned restaurateurs, the po boy fed New Orleans transit workers as they were on strike fighting for fair wages in 1929. The Martin brothers were avid supporters of the employees who ran the iconic streetcars of the city, and they pledged to support the workers to the bitter end. 

As workers came to the brothers for their economical oversized sandwiches, they were known to say, “Here comes another poor boy now.” Thus, the po boy was born, and the shrimp po boy recipe was quickly perfected during the Great Depression that hit soon after the strike ended.

Since then, the shrimp po boy has become an icon of New Orleans fare, and a sampling of all the city’s best po boys may be one of your favorite parts of a trip there. 

The po boy is a little like Ohio’s sauerkraut balls, Chicago’s deep-dish pizza, and Hawaii’s poke. You can get these tasty dishes in other locations across the country, but you will be hard-pressed to find anything that compares to the authentic recipe from the original region. 

The po boy is decidedly a Gulf Coast regional dish originating in New Orleans, but here are some popular standout locations across the United States serving up a most authentic shrimp po boy recipe:

The Po’ Boy Shop – Decatur, Georgia

Customers rave about almost everything they try at The Po Boy Shop. Online reviews even mention how amazing something as simple as their french fries are. The Po Boy Shop serves an almost endless variety of po boy options, including crawfish, surf & turf, vegetarian, and french fries and gravy. 

The showstopping dishes from this popular restaurant, however, are the shrimp po boy and the bourbon-glazed bread pudding. Customers flock from all around to get a taste of New Orleans, where even natives of Louisiana say it reminds them of home.

Little Jewel of New Orleans – Los Angeles, California

The owner of Little Jewel of New Orleans is native to the home of the po boy, and emphasizes authenticity in everything he brings to his market located in Old Chinatown. The shop makes their sausages and ground meats in-house, and the bread used in their shrimp po boy recipe is flown in daily, from the Leidenheimer Baking Company. 

Even though this restaurant and market is almost 1,900 miles from New Orleans, you would never know it by the flavors and smells of The Little Jewel of New Orleans.

Po’ Boys Restaurant – Urbana, Illinois

The Rasner family, owners of Po’ Boys Restaurant, may not be from New Orleans, but their love for comfort food and community makes them fit right into the culture. Their customers rave about the friendly service, and their pies are a hit. The Rasners have their own secret recipe for their shrimp po boy sauce, and they even make an extra spicy sauce for those brave enough to stand the heat.

Po’ Boys Creole Restaurant – Milton, Delaware

Po’ Boys Creole Restaurant in the Northeast, is so popular you need to make a reservation to eat there. Though they have a food truck where you can buy some of their most popular dishes, including their famous shrimp po boy recipe. Blackened scallops, fried crawfish tails, and crawfish etouffee. 

Stop in for brunch where you can enjoy Parmesan grits and Cajun-spiced potatoes with your lump crabcake and Hollandaise sauce over a buttermilk biscuit, or any number of other authentically Cajun-style brunch items.

Parkway Bakery and Tavern – New Orleans, Louisiana

A community mainstay since 1911, the Parkway Bakery and Tavern picked up the po boy on their menu shortly after the Martin brothers created the recipe. The nearby American Can Company operated 24 hours a day, and so the owners of the Parkway Bakery and Tavern sold po boys to the Can Company on each and every shift. 

Their traditional shrimp po boy recipe endures today, and they are consistently voted number one in New Orleans.

You don’t have to travel to New Orleans for an authentic-tasting po boy, but it may be worth the trip to see for yourself which restaurant has the best po boys in the city. If you are more of a homebody or you love to cook, you could try to find or create a shrimp po boy recipe that is just as unforgettable as the original.