IND: Why do you think it took so long for Lafayette to get a poboy festival all its own? Is it because we think of ourselves as more of a boudin town?
Collin: The fact that Lafayette didn’t have a poboy festival of its own was actually the entire impetus behind the Acadiana Po-boy Festival. We feel like this area can go toe to toe with New Orleans (or anywhere else) when its comes to poboys, and we felt like it was high time we had a festival to celebrate (and prove) that fact. Also, there is gonna be a boudin ball poboy at the French Press booth at the festival. So we can be both.
IND: When I saw the Po-Boy Festival menu, I misread Pop’s offerings as featuring “The Hot Hot Chicken Po-Boy” twice. So I came up with this slogan: “The sandwich so spicy, we listed it twicey.” Thoughts?
Collin: Well some people just can’t handle the spice of the Hot Hot so the second listing is actually the “NOT HOT” because the poboy is still really delicious even without the heat. That is a nice rhyme, although we prefer “The sandwich so hot it’ll burn your mott.”
IND: You and I both have unusual spellings of common names.
Collin: That is a pretty unusual spelling for your name; however, I’ve always maintained Collin is spelled correctly with two Ls. Colin with one L should be pronounced the same as the organ.
IND: I saw some folks raise eyebrows on Reddit about Logan Farms entering the picture. I just want to go on record that Logan Farms has really great deli-style poboys, and those RedditBros need to hush it. Agree?
Collin: Totally agreed. Logan Farms makes some of the best special occasion meats out there. Why not put some of that on some French bread and make some everyday amazingness. Maybe we need to make a meme or something for them to understand it better.
IND: Thanks for including the banh mi as a poboy offering via Pho’Tastic. I bleed banh mi.
Collin: We were thrilled Pho’Tastic came aboard with not one, not two, but three different variations on the Banh Mi for the festival. The Pop’s crew is doing a little spin on a shrimp banh mi too. I share your affinity for the banh mi, and I think it’s a great example of the wide array of variations that the word “poboy” can encompass. Plus the vegetables featured on the Banh Mi can’t be a bad thing on a day where the goal is to eat as many poboys as humanly possible.
IND: Could you make a poboy so long that it would stretch to next year’s festival? Like through a space-time continuum-type deal?
Collin: This year we are focusing on building the world’s longest poboy, and as far as we know, that will also give us the record for the longest poboy in the universe. So while we may not be breaking the rules of physics yet, we will be setting records that would stand on a bunch of different planets as well.