Ian McNulty Is Hungry Like a Bear for Po-Boys

For his latest entry in Gambit's restaurant review chronicles, Ian McNulty trekked all the way out to Metairie to check out Bear's Po-Boys, a name that will probably resonate with anyone who's ever enjoyed some tasty roast beef po-boys on the Northshore. Bear's swam across the lake back in 2010, quietly taking over the dining room at Gennaro's so it could serve up "crackly-crusted" Leidenheimer loaves shellacked with mayonnaise and stuffed almost to critical mass with roast beef, as well as "sturdy burgers" with a whole armada of eclectic toppings. Those toppings and add-ons, writes McNulty, have also led to the creation of a side item that sounds like a gift from the roast beef gods:

The array of add-ons and sides invites many departures from po-boy shop standards. Blue cheese on your oyster po-boy? That's an easy request to fulfill. Fried jalapenos and a teacup-size side order of debris [jus] can transform just about anything, and when dumped on a basket of burly, ruffle-cut potato chips (called "Bear chips") they essentially create roast beef potato nachos.

Roast beef potato nachos? It sounds like Bear's has all the makings of a place to go if you want to ruin your diet in the most spectacularly delicious way possible. Although McNulty wasn't a fan of the fried items, which tend, he explains, to be a little too greasy, Bear's is an all-around welcome addition in the po-boy aficionado's repertoire.

· Bear's Po-boys at Gennaro's [Gambit]

Outside Gennaro's. [Photo: Facebook]