Po-Boy's at West End: West End Cafe

Been doing a bit of work lately out of a colleague's office, which is actually an apartment right near the Orleans Marina at West End. He's a boat person, so that's why he set up shop in that neighborhood. We were over there relatively early one morning, and he wanted to get something for breakfast. I suggested Russell's and he balked immediately, saying he really didn't like the place. He countered with West End Cafe, so we went there. I had a great ham and cheese omelette, and my colleague had a crawfish omelette that was pretty good as well. That experience being favorable, we decided to eat there a few days later for lunch, and I grabbed a sandwich there yesterday as well. On my first lunch trip, I had a meatball po-boy, dressed. Meatball po-boys are a good measure of what a place is like for two reasons: First, the quality of the meatballs. There are those places who buy pre-made stuff and those who make their own. Second, the red gravy. If a place does a decent meatball po-boy, it's going to have a good red gravy, which means their other Italian dishes are probably solid. I'm pleased to report that West End Cafe does a good meatball po-boy. I couldn't tell if the meatballs were made there, because they sliced them up a bit before putting them on the sandwich. Even if they were the frozen kind, however, the red gravy was good enough to cover up any faults the meatballs may have had. The bread, while not warmed, was good New Orleans French bread. That, of course, gentle readers, is 80% of what a po-boy is all about.

West End Cafe has the look and feel of a typical New Orleans neighborhood restaurant. When you walk in the door, there is a bar running down the left hand side of the place, and tables fill the middle and right side. No fancy furniture, and the decor consists mostly of posters and such. There is lots of sports stuff around the bar, pennants from local college teams, plus autographed jerseys from Archie and Peyton Manning. There's also an old New Orleans Night helmet suspended from the ceiling over the bar. The Night was our short-lived entrant in Arena Football. They played in the dome a few years back. Looking up at that helmet brought back memories of some fun hot summer nights in Da Dome. My only complaint about the layout of West End Cafe is my usual gripe about restaurants with video poker. They need to turn the volume down on the damned machines. If people want to pour money into them, that's their perogative, but I grow sick of hearing the "Hallelujah" from Handel's Messiah every time some sucker makes three of a kind or better.

On that first lunch outing, my colleague got the West End Special, which is essentially a Ferdi with swiss. The Ferdi, for those of you who haven't been to Mother's before, is a roast beef and ham po-boy with debris gravy. His sandwich looked good enough that I decided to try it yesterday when I went back. I sat at the bar and ordered the West End Special in the half-sandwich size, having learned from experience that the whole sandwich at West End Cafe was quite generous. The sandwich came out in no time flat, the ham nice and warm, the roast beef good, and lots of Zatarain's Creole Mustard in-between the cheese and ham. Overall, it was a good sandwich. The only marks it lost was because the place doesn't warm the bread.

So far, my meals at West End Cafe have consisted of breakfast and sandwiches, but there's a lot more to the kitchen's capabilities than just that. It's a full-service neighborhood place, with lots of interesting seafood and regular items on the menu. I was wrapping up the project I was working on yesterday around six o'clock, and all that was left was to make a CD out of the Adobe Acrobat stuff we were putting together. Since it was going to take about half an hour to make the CD, another colleague and I decided to walk over from the office to grab a quick beer. The appetizer special was oysters en brochette, and since my friend was going to have to go back to his office before heading home, he wanted to grab something light to eat. Oysters en brochette are oysters wrapped in bacon, then breaded and deep-fried. They're great when done right. These were done right, and came with a very interesting remoulade-style mustard sauce. That little taste of an appetizer means I'll be back soon to check out some of West End's plates.

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