Tchoup’s Market

** THIS RESTAURANT IS PERMANENTLY CLOSED **

Tchoup’s Market goes to the trouble of flying in Leidenheimer bread from New Orleans for its po boys — a devotion to authenticity that also is reflected in the fact that yakamein, the rare old Creole hangover cure, is featured on the blackboard menu. Ambience is the real deal, too, delivering a delicious dive bar feel — inside at bare tables and on the broad, vividly-lit outdoor patio where people come to enjoy happy-hour drinks with or without house-signature sandwiches.

The food is all good, especially the dense, full-flavored pimento cheese, the protein-rich debris that dresses a roast beef po boy, the house-smoked sausage, and the swirl of flavors that add up to a Creole version of a bahn mi, aka Vietnamese po boy. And that Leidenheimer bread really is special — crisp-crusted, fluffy, and seemingly half the weight of a typical French baguette. For all its elegance, it holds up brilliantly under the onslaught of ingredients and condiment excess that typify so many great New Orleans sandwiches.

I could quibble with the fried shrimp and oysters — too much fried crust and not enough seafood punch — and the size of the Mango Key lime pie (I wanted more!), but any such worries are minor business compared to the joie de vivre of the place and the from-scratch Creole goodness of the chef’s recipes.