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Regular Eat Arkansas readers might have noticed that I’ve got a fairly serious obsession with po’ boy sandwiches. As I’ve discussed the po’ boy with folks around Little Rock, one name came up time and time again: Maddie’s Place, the Riverdale Cajun and Creole restaurant that boasts a chef, Brian Deloney, who not only graduated from the Culinary Institute of America but also worked for Emeril Legasse for nearly a decade. With a resume like that, the food at Maddie’s was sure to be an unqualified success, right? Not exactly.

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Maddie’s has a great thing going for it right off the bat, though: a lunch menu that includes both full po’ boys or a half po’ boy with gumbo or red beans and rice with a drink for only $10. I like it when lunch specials include the drink in the price, because there’s too many times that I get what I think is going to be a cheap lunch only to have an extra $2-$3 added on for a glass of iced Lipton. We decided to order a half Catfish Po’ Boy with a bowl of gumbo for one entree, and since I’m also pretty obsessed with oysters, we ordered a full Oyster Po’ Boy as well. The place was pretty packed for lunch, but our server was quick and efficient, and our food was on the table after only a short wait. The fried stuff all looked great, and the gumbo was attractively presented with a generous scoop of white rice right in the middle — just the way we like it. Looks can be deceiving sometimes, and that was turned out to be the case here.