Cork's masters the po-boy!
The Government Street restaurant, arguably, has the best shrimp po-boy anywhere. Them's fighting words.
In Louisiana, arguments over po-boy supremacy can turn into food fights with friends and family.
So here is an opening salvo from Baton Rouge to New Orleans: The fried shrimp po-boy at Cork's Cajun Fried Fish & Shrimp on Government Street is better than the one at Parkway, which, for people not raised in the church of dressed bread, is often treated as the best po-boy in the state.
This will invite objections from loyalists of Domilise's in New Orleans and Olde Tyme Grocery in Lafayette. Fine. A food argument without witnesses is just a man talking too loudly at lunch.
Having now endangered my friendships with people I drink beer with, let me offer evidence.
Jordan Ramirez, owner of Chow Yum, backs the claim that Cork's makes an exceptional shrimp po-boy. He also recommends the étouffée and brings his children, Oscar and June, there for the straight-up fried fish. That is not a review. That's testimony from among the best chefs in the Southeast.
Cork's operates from the former Captain D's, a chain that apparently missed this memo: corporate fish is doomed in Louisiana. Red Lobster missed the same memo, too, three times in Baton Rouge.
Cork's comes from brothers Paul and Michael Mladenka, who started Cou-Yons Bar-B-Q in Port Allen more than 15 years ago. They opened Cork's in 2022 with po-boys as the main event, backed by stuffed potatoes, fried fish, étouffée and beignet bites.
The shrimp po-boy is the reason to go.
It is overstuffed, unfussy and built on Louisiana faith that good ingredients do most of the sermonizing. Fried shrimp. Cajun Chef pickles. Blue Plate mayonnaise. Gambino's bread. Fully dressed.
You can add hot sauce, as I sometimes do. Or leave it alone, for the Mladenka brothers did all the hard work in the kitchen. The rest of us only have to eat and say "Amen!"
