I visited the quirky sandwich shop that beat out fine-dining joints to be named the best new restaurant in America — here's what it's like

By: Business Insider

December 10, 2017 at 09:50 AM EST

Kate Taylor

Bon Appétit named the sandwich joint Turkey and the Wolf the best new restaurant in the US in 2017.
The decision to elevate the quirky, low-budget concept over other restaurants created some controversy.
Turkey and the Wolf is filled with '90s nostalgia, cheap cocktails, and an incredible fried bologna sandwich.

When Bon Appétit announced its list of America's best new restaurants for 2017, the No. 1 spot came as somewhat of a shock.

Instead of an elegant sit-down Italian restaurant or an upscale icon, the publication crowned Turkey and the Wolf — a sandwich joint in New Orleans where nothing costs more than $13 — the best new restaurant of the year.

"What they are offering — wildly inventive sandwiches, salads tossed with ingredients like pig's ear cracklin's, and cheeky snacks like homemade Bagel Bites — is as difficult to pull off as most tweezer-built dishes found at so-called serious restaurants," Andrew Knowlton wrote of the restaurant.

With such effusive praise for a restaurant famous for its fried bologna sandwiches, I knew I had to visit. So, on a recent trip to New Orleans, I decided to stop by Turkey and the Wolf to see if it lived up to the hype.

Turkey and the Wolf is located in a mostly residential neighborhood called Irish Channel, a few blocks off of busy Magazine Street.Kate Taylor

It's a simple operation, with customers ordering at the counter and workers yelling to each other in the kitchen. We arrived right at opening time — 11 a.m. — to beat the crowd, but we weren't the only ones waiting outside when the doors opened.Kate Taylor

The menu copies suburban childhood classics — bologna sandwiches, wedge salads, and tacos made with American cheese. With a wave of restaurants "elevating" various cultures' street food, Turkey and the Wolf is serving an updated version of the nutritionally empty foods that many Americans ate growing up in the '80s and '90s.Kate Taylor

I ordered the fried bologna. It is one of the restaurant's best-known sandwiches, made with local bologna, shredded lettuce (or "shrettuce"), American cheese, and — the most revelatory addition — potato chips.Kate Taylor

This is a monstrously thick sandwich. I basically had to unhinge my jaw to eat it, and I got mustard and mayo all over my face as I smashed the sandwich into my mouth. But the decadent combination of fried meat and American cheese, cut with the chips and hot mustard, was nothing less than heavenly.Kate Taylor

See the rest of the story at Business Insider