Roll Playing

     Almost every Po'boy assembled at the recent Po'boy Festival in New Orleans was made with a Leidenheimer loaf of bread.  The bakery worked overtime to produce an extra 6,000 of their signature 36 inch long rolls for the event.  And they had more on stand-by in delivery trucks at the scene just in case any of the vendors happened to run low.

     It all began back in 1896 when German immigrant George Leidenheimer opened a bakery in The Crescent City.  Now, over a century later, the bakery on Simon Bolivar Boulevard still proudly supplies bread and rolls both locally and throughout the Gulf Coast region.  Their most successful product continues to be the Po'boy loaf that, unlike other french rolls, has blunt ends to ensure that every inch of the sandwich receives the same portion of meat and cheese, or whatever interesting interior is in the iconic sandwich.

     The bakery is still owned and operated by the Leidenheimer family.  Not long ago they commissioned local artist, Bunny Matthews, to create cartoon characters Vic and Nat'ly Broussard, the mythical owners of a NOLA po'boy shop located deep in "Da Nint' Ward."  Their images are festooned on each and every one of the delivery trucks and they have become the unofficial spokes persons for the bakery advising the public to "Sink ya teeth into a piece of New Orleans cultcha-a Leidenheimer po'boy."  Check out their gastronomic glossary of terms at:  www.leidenheimer.com/glossary.htm 

Vinny note:  Are you missing the images that usually accompany my articles?  So am I.  Sadly I recently discovered that somehow there was a limit to the storage space for the images I have posted on-line and I had reached capacity.  I am currently attempting to expand my allotted storage and once again illustrate my daily posts.