There was a time when Baton Rouge needed an authentic New Orleans po-boy shop, Troy “Rocco” Moreau recalls. And the Crescent City native believed he was the man to do it.
Then an LSU senior majoring in construction management, Moreau opened Rocco’s New Orleans Style Po-Boys & Cafe on State Street in 1996.
Drawing from his family’s past in the restaurant and corner grocery businesses, he sourced French bread from famed Leidenheimer Baking Co. and stuffed his sandwiches with ingredients like slow-roasted prime shoulder roast and fresh Gulf shrimp.
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Today, Rocco’s operates exclusively from its longstanding Drusilla Lane location, open since 2000. Now a married father of four and a full-time general contractor, Moreau says po-boy loyalists have long gravitated to the eatery because it feels authentic.
“Everybody knows everybody that comes in here,” says Moreau, in a thick New Orleans lilt. “Our customers get it. They come in and sit down, and it’s like you’re transported. In fact, we have a lot of New Orleanians who moved here after Katrina.”
Anatomy of a Rocco’s po-boy
1. Roast beef for the win
Rocco’s Roast Beef is the eatery’s best-selling po-boy, made from prime Angus top shoulder roast. “We’ve used this from day one,” Moreau says, “and I refuse to change it.” The restaurant prepares homemade brown gravy, adding slices of the roast to a gravy pan before piling them inside the sandwich. Go big on the napkins.
2. French bread is the thing
Leidenheimer Baking Co., which sells bread to numerous po-boy purveyors across Baton Rouge and the state, was first founded in New Orleans in 1896. The still-family-owned business bought other well-known bakery lines in the Crescent City, and distributes its French bread nationally to 30 states and Washington, D.C.
3. Dressed to kill
In proper po-boy parlance, “dressed” means served with a slather of mayo, shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes and dill pickle slices. But there are rules to dressing a po-boy correctly, Moreau says. Split the loaf and place the proteins down first, on the bottom half. The dressing goes on the top half. Carefully close the loaf, slice and eat.
4. Seafood fest
Rocco’s follows a tried-and-true playbook for its seafood po-boys. Sourced from the Gulf, fresh shrimp are dredged in a proprietary seasoning blend and yellow cornmeal. The same seasoning blend is used for fresh oysters and catfish, which are dredged in the light, superfine cornmeal known as cream meal.
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A generous history
The oft-repeated po-boy origin story goes like this: It was invented in New Orleans by sandwich shop owners and former streetcar engineers Benny Martin and Clovis Martin. When streetcar engineers went on strike in the late 1920s, the Martin brothers announced they’d provide free sandwiches to the strikers. As one would appear, the legend goes, they’d say, “here comes another poor boy.”
This article was originally published in the October 2024 issue of 225 Magazine.