A Love Note to Turkey and The Wolf’s Fried Bologna Sandwich

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Tim Ebner (left) and Chef Mason Hereford hold the #SAMMIEStandoff entry, The Bologna and The Baker.

Edible DC’s Tim Ebner fell hard for a sandwich from NOLA and brought it to DC to compete in #SAMMIEStandoff this summer

By Tim Ebner | Edible DC

I can almost taste it. My last trip before the pandemic. It was January 2020, and the early part of Mardi Gras season. For food lovers, there is nowhere else you want to be than the Crescent City.

From wheels-down to wheels-up in one weekend, this was a celebration of food, booze, and fun with all the mandatory New Orleans stops: Hurricanes at Pat O’Brien’s, po’boys at Parkway Bakery & Tavern, and bananas foster at Brennan’s.

Today, I look back on this trip as something only fate could deliver. I was lucky to reconnect with close friends mere weeks before a global pandemic.

No one knew a nationwide lockdown was ahead. Instead, our focus was on an epic eating adventure that started at Turkey and The Wolf – a sandwich shop in the Garden District.

A trip to Turkey and The Wolf in January 2020. Photo: Tim Ebner

Turkey and The Wolf is required eating the next time you visit NOLA. There you’ll find a fried bologna sandwich of perverse pleasure. Oscar Mayer meets melted American cheese on the griddle and marries up with golden-brown slices of white bread.

The bread is lathered with Duke’s Mayo and mustard, piled high with “shredduce” (shredded lettuce) and topped with a mound of fried potato chips (see the full recipe here).

This sandwich is about as low brow as it gets for an establishment that was on the cover of Bon Appetit magazine and named America’s best new restaurant in 2017.

What I love about this sandwich is its simplicity. It is stacked high with salty and savory delights from my childhood. Is it gourmet? Absolutely not. And that’s kind of the point.

Many people have come to adore this fried bologna sandwich. In fact, the mayor of Flavortown, Guy Fieri, had this to say: “Turkey and the Wolf is a Triple-D joint that’s as funky and off the hook as any place I’ve been.”

If you can’t book a trip to New Orleans this summer, then stop by Baker’s Daughter between July 15 to August 15 to sample my “off-the-chain” riff.

With Chef Mason Hereford’s blessing, I worked alongside Michelin-starred Chef Matt Baker to create a tribute to the fried bologna sandwich, adding in slices of beefsteak tomatoes and kicking it up a few notches with Crystal hot sauce (a hot sauce near and dear to my heart).

The sandwich also calls for Louisiana’s favorite, Zapp’s potato chips, and it celebrates Duke’s Mayo – in my opinion, it is the one and only mayo.

We are calling this sandwich The Bologna and The Baker, and it has a very limited run on the menu as part of the #SAMMIEStandoff battle with a Big Easy bend.

That’s because I am up against MVP food and travel writer Nevin Martell. His sandwich the “A Lotta Muffaletta,” is a play on the classic NOLA sandwich, with grilled squash, zucchini, pesto aioli and a side of housemade olive tapenade.

Each order is a vote for the sandwich of your choosing (pick me!), and the winner goes on to a final competition this fall.

All kidding aside, I’ve tried Nevin’s sandwich, and it is an incredible sandwich highlighting summer’s freshest veggies.

My thanks to him, as well as Hereford and Baker for the sandwich collaboration.

And if you’re looking to pick-up a good cookbook soon, check out Hereford’s new cookbook Turkey and The Wolf: Flavor Trippin’ in New Orleans.

Tim Ebner is an award-winning food, travel and lifestyle writer based in Washington, DC. Follow his adventures at @ebnert.