New RiNo pop-up promises great po’ boys at reasonable prices

When most people hear “New Orleans,” they think gumbo. But not Kenta Kamo.

When the Baton Rouge native and chef/owner of Temaki Den pines for foods he misses most from back home, he dreams of po’ boys. 

An abbreviation for “poor boys,” the iconic sandwich got its name from its origins as a cheap meal made to feed striking streetcar workers in 1920s New Orleans. Which is why Kamo, with partner and fellow Louisiana expat Isaac Woo, opened Poor Boys Louisiana Po’ Boys and Kitchen pop-up last week inside of The Source marketplace in RiNo.

“There’s plenty of Cajun restaurants, but there’s really no good po’ boys in Denver,” says Kamo. “A lot of the places where you can get po’ boys are Cajun restaurants, and that’s not their main focus. We want to be a po’ boy shop.”

By that, he means much more than just making sandwiches. The goal at Poor Boys is similar to Temaki Den’s: keep things simple and relatively affordable while staying hyper-focused on quality. 

“I think what makes Tamaki Den successful and what makes it delicious is simple food executed well, and a sandwich is exactly that,” Kamo says.  “The issue I have with the dining scene in Denver is the value you get for the money you pay. These chefs are trying to do too much.”

The most complicated (and expensive) option on the menu is the Catfish Denver: fried catfish smothered with green chile crawfish etouffee ($24), which is big, messy, and hard to stop eating once you start. Everything else runs $12 to $16, depending on the filling. 

The Roast Beef Debris, for instance, is a classic New Orleans-style po’ boy made from braised roast beef cut into thick slices that falls apart in the gravy on the bun ($16). Other options include shrimp ($16), hot sausage ($13), fried catfish ($16), and fried green tomato ($13), all served with lettuce, pickles, tomato and mayo. 

“That’s what a traditional fully dressed po’ boy would be in Louisiana,” Kamo explains. “That’s it. You’re not trying to make these new sauces and replacing the mayo. It’s like, no. Just get good mayo.”

It also means getting good bread, which Kamo says is the most challenging part of replicating a proper Louisiana po’ boy. In Louisiana, po’ boy buns come from only one place: the Leidenheimer Baking Company, which is to po’ boys what Amoroso’s rolls are to Philly cheesesteaks. Not only is the bread distributed hyper-locally, but it’s also made to accommodate the city’s unique climate. 

“It’s specific to New Orleans and the humidity there,” says Kamo. “It’s not something you can export or ship out here, because it literally lasts a day. If you use that bread the next day, it’s like chalk.”

Instead, Kamo and Woo are using bread from the Vinh Xuong Bakery, the same used for its banh mi sandwiches. It was the only option the duo even considered.

“We both agreed that if we couldn’t get bread from Vinh Xuong, then we weren’t going to do the concept,” Kamo says. “People are worried about what proteins are in there, or if the shrimp is seasoned well, or whatever, which is obviously all important. But what’s most important is the bread.”

A single sandwich at Poor Boys with no sides would be plenty to fill up most hungry diners. But there are also several side options worth exploring, as well. A cup of gumbo costs $4, and red beans and rice is just $3.45. French fries can come with Cajun seasoning ($3), smothered with roast beef debris ($8), or crawfish etouffee ($10). But the most interesting could be the deep-fried boudin balls ($6): sausage made from pork shoulder and liver, thickened with rice and the “holy trinity” of Creole and Cajun cooking of onions, celery and bell pepper.  

“Boudin is also something you can’t really get here,” Kamo says. “So we went from, ‘Let’s buy boudin and get it shipped here,’ because I wanted it exactly the way we have it in Baton Rouge, to, ‘Fuck it. Let’s just make our own.’”

That attitude is very much in line with how Poor Boys came to be in the first place. Kamo originally started using the former Acorn/Bellota space in The Source as an ad-hoc prep area for Temaki Den, which is undergoing some extensive renovations. But since the space also includes a significant seating area, extra kitchen space and a staff in need of work, Kamo quickly began brainstorming additional ways to use the facilities.

For that, he turned to Woo, who’s been hosting crawfish boils and other catering events for years. With Woo’s recipes already in hand, the two hatched the Poor Boys idea over drinks at a bar. Within three weeks, they opened Poor Boys with little fanfare, design or decor. 

It’s a stripped-down operation, to be sure. The menu is a simple printer-paper sheet taped to a board. There’s a banner with a logo, a website and an Instagram account, but not much more — and that’s all it needs to be. 

The future, however, could be far more. Kamo says the goal is to eventually find a permanent home for the concept once Temaki Den’s renovations are complete and they lose access to the space, expected sometime between late September and mid-October. At that point, they’ll start looking for a new space. 

“We’ll keep this open here for as long as they let us, assuming business is good,” he says. “But our goal is to open a brick-and-mortar. We’re just testing out menu items and gauging interest, and going from there.”

Poor Boys Louisiana Po’ Boys and Kitchen is located inside The Source Market Hall at 3330 Brighton Blvd,. and is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday through Monday. For more information, visit poorboysdenver.com.