The Magazine Street po-boy shop has been getting ready for months for a few hours' work.

For those attending the Oak Street Po-Boy Festival, getting ready is easy. Skip breakfast to leave room for as many po-boys as possible, then eat like Americans as po-boy vendors stretch out as far the eye can see (if the eye is trained on Oak Street). For the more than 30 vendors serving up po-boys this Sunday, preparation is a little more involved. Mahony’s Po-Boy Shop started working on it months ago when Chef Jason Sanders began renting the grills, coolers and other things they’d need on site. Since other vendors would need them as well, he couldn’t wait until the last minute. When Mahony’s made its Peacemaker po-boy in previous years, they had to let P&J’s know in advance that they would need 100 gallons of oysters. This year, it had to line up 200 pounds of duck meat. 

“It’s like trying to book a hotel room for Mardi Gras,” Sanders says. “If you don’t plan far enough in advance, you’re not going to see the inside of a hotel room unless it’s in Metairie or Kenner or the West Bank.” 

The Po-Boy Festival has been Sanders’ primary focus since October. This year, Mahony’s will serve an alligator sausage po-boy with sweet and spicy squash relish, and a duck BLT po-boy, and they expect to sell 1,200 sandwiches Sunday. They started the kitchen work on Wednesday when they broke down the duck leg meat and made the relish. “Thank god for radio,” Sanders says. “You’re stuck in a little box and you don’t see time go by, you don’t see day turn to night, you don’t hear sirens and people talking because you’re cleaning duck.” 

Mahony’s is part of the trend toward chef-driven po-boys in its Magazine Street location as well as at the festival, but the decision-making process is more mundane than the results might lead you to think. “I like sausage and I like relish,” Sanders says. “What can I do that people haven’t seen? That will entice people to get it? We’re preserving po-boy culture, but we’re also doing really cool new stuff.”    

Mahony’s regulars won’t find the alligator sausage po-boy entirely new. Sanders and Chef Ben Wicks had planned on adding it to the menu after Po-Boy Fest, but the restaurant renovated its kitchen and went to table service in October, and when it reopened, it revamped the menu and included the sandwich. “After we made it a couple of times and people tried it, they said Don’t wait. Don’t worry about what Po-Boy Fest thinks. We’ve been selling a ton of them.” The relish will change with the seasons though, and will be adapted to what’s fresh.

Sanders is a relatively recent addition to the Mahony’s kitchen. He has cooked for much of his life, but he turned pro eight years. He sold real estate in New Orleans while in his early 20s, but when the housing market went south, he began catering friends’ events. He enjoyed that and decided to pursue cooking, first in Las Vegas while he was in culinary school, then at a steak house in Destin where he learned kitchen organization and management. Finally, he moved back to New Orleans, where he worked at Emeril’s Delmonico and Domenica before Mahony’s.

Despite all his effort, Sanders is nervous. Sunday will be his first time working Po-Boy Fest. “I’ve attended it, but this year will be new,” he says. “I feel prepared, but I feel like I don’t know what I’m getting myself into.” He hopes he’s thought of everything, but he won’t know for sure until the customers arrive. “When you write the menu, there are so many things you have to take into account. How much money am I projecting to make? That means you have to think about your labor costs and your food costs, getting there, equipment rental, and any costs you’ll incur just being a part of Po-Boy Fest. Then you get to the menu breakdown. What are you going to serve? How are you going to serve it? How easy is it going to be to execute the sandwich? I don’t want people to stand in line and be mad.”