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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶
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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶

Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

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ORAL HISTORY

Dot & Patti Domilise

Domilise's Po-Boys

The modern story of Domilise’s Po-Boys rests on two women who married into the business, Dot Domilise and her daughter-in-law, Patti Domilise. Both women began working at the corner shop after having children, almost by accident. Neither of them registered at the time what exactly they were getting into: long, hard days with French bread and frying seafood, but also the sustenance of a New Orleans institution without which the city wouldn’t be quite the same.

Dot Domilise passed away on June 14, 2013. She was ninety years old.

Date of interview:
2006-07-28

Interviewer:
Sara Roahen

Photographer:
Sara Roahen

Download Transcript Download Transcript 2

“

Oh, [our menu has] been more or less the same, except at one time we didn’t sell meatballs. And one time we didn’t sell turkey. And more or less the same except—and barbecue; at one time we didn’t sell barbecue. So it was just a little ordinary menu. ~ Dot Domilise

People come from all over…we’ve had people from Australia, Japan, and all over come in here and say they came in here to get po-boys. Everybody that comes in says they came right from the airport and they were shuttled, I guess, right from the airport to Domilise’s. ~ Patti Domilise

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