Po-Boy Factory, beloved Huntsville eatery, is closed for now. Here what’s next

In this 2012 Huntsville Times file photo, Po-Boy Factory owner Marie Thigpen serves up some food to customers Chris Kelts and James Bruce. (File, The Huntsville Times)
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Marie Thigpen’s fingers are purple. She’s been painting the women’s bathroom inside 616 Stevens Avenue, the blue house next to the longtime location of Po-Boy Factory, that familiar, yellow two-story building at 815 Andrew Jackson Way.

Thigpen opened Po-Boy Factory in that yellow building in 1998. The restaurant became a go-to for in-the-know Huntsville locals, for its tasty, affordable Louisiana food and colorful, fun atmosphere. The dining room was often packed, especially at lunch. It seemed like one of those local treasures that would always be there for us to meet up with family or friends over good food, drink and vibes.

But Po-Boy Factory has been closed for more than two months now. Thigpen says the owner of the Andrew Jackson Way building, which she rented, asked her to leave. June 10 was Po-Boy Factory’s last day open at that original location, she says.

Thigpen is the restaurant’s sole owner. She says pandemic-era staffing issues made the $3,500 rent and $2,500 or so in monthly utilities unsurmountable. During the restaurant’s last gasp there, “We might open one day a week. I couldn’t get help,” Thigpen says. “And the people that were working for me, they got to the point they’re jumping ship. When you can’t keep employees, you can’t do business but the rent and the utilities are still gonna be the same. So it hurt me.”

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Thigpen says during the restaurant’s time at its original location, she spent around $25,000 on heating/air-conditioning repairs. “For 25 years I put every dime I had into that building. I got to the point I couldn’t do it anymore.” AL.com reached out to the owner of the building, Stephen Wilson, multiple times for comment, but didn’t receive a response.

About 10 years after signing the Andrew Jackson building lease, Thigpen purchased the one-story blue building right next door, on the cross-street of Stevens Avenue. The blue building was used for overflow seating for Po-Boy Factory. And sort of a clubhouse for Donnie Thigpen, to whom Marie was married. They eventually divorced but remained amicable and continued to work together at the Po-Boy Factory.

After losing the Andrew Jackson location, Marie Thigpen moved everything from there over to Stevens Avenue house. She hopes to reboot Po-Boy Factory inside that blue one-story building in September. Check back with AL.com for details when an exact date is confirmed.

A five-inch shrimp po-boy from The Po-Boy Factory’s Scruffy’s Special. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com)

Over the past few years, Thigpen has faced health and financial challenges. “It has not been fun,” she says. Thigpen isn’t fishing for pity though. She’s a sweet-tough, determined, five-foot-tall old-school Southern woman. “It’s been a humbling experience. But I’m hot and ready, and ready to go now.”

So what keeps her keeping on? “This is all I know how to do,” she says. “I love this.” Thigpen has worked in the restaurant business her whole life, going back to her first job at age 12, at Zesto’s, the yesteryear Huntsville spot known for their corndogs. In her teens, she helped open the Five Points location of Hardee’s. She attended Lee High School and spent a lot of time in New Orleans with family down there.

A lifelong outdoors enthusiast, for a time Marie resided in Florida, where she worked for the wildlife commission. She eventually returned to Huntsville. That’s when she met Donnie Thigpen, whose background was in construction. She says that while the Po Boy Factory’s been shut down, Donnie has been selling the restaurant’s gumbo, which was his pride and joy, at the Star Market grocery down the street. Once Po Boy reboots at Stevens Avenue, Marie says, Donnie will be back in the fold.

Thigpen’s been working around the clock to get the new Po-Boy Factory location ready. In addition to painting, she’s done flooring work and assorted unglamorous repairs. On my recent morning visit to Stevens Avenue, the Po Boy Factory’s grill and refrigerators are along the walls, inert for now. Elsewhere, a pile of restaurant tables and chairs. And stacks of Louisiana doodads that decorated the former dining room, including a Mardi Gras masks, stuffed animal LSU Tiger and New Orleans Saints football helmet.

Thigpen says Po-Boy Factory had to remain slammed to meet her monthly overhead at the original location. But since she owns the Stevens Avenue house outright, she says it will be more viable and less stressful. Or at least as less stressful as the completely bonkers restaurant business can be.

MarieThigpen, Po-Boy Factory owner. (File, Huntsville Times)

The backbone of the Po-Boy Factory menu will remain the same, Thigpen says. Po-boys, crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya, oysters and other Louisiana essentials. Some of the entrees with long prep times from the extensive previous menu, like deluxe seafood platters, won’t be on the new menu, at least initially. “We’re going to go to the basics,” Thigpen says. Thigpen’s personal go-to is the half-catfish half-shrimp po-boy. “I’m just dying to have one,” she says.

The beloved Scruff’s Special, a combo involving a half po-boy and choice of gumbo, jambalaya or etouffee, will return. In addition to its namesake sandwiches, Po Boy Factory is known for their “Hot Damn Sauce,” which is addictively creamy-spicy-tangy. Capacity for the restaurant’s planned new location will be around 70, around the same as the original. Thigpen plans to screen in the front porch at Stevens Avenue and add some outdoor seating at some point.

Asked what people love about Louisiana food, Thigpen says, “It’s comforting, it’s friendly, it’s unique. It makes people get together and be together. In Louisiana, food is all about family and friends.” At Po-Boy Factory, Mardi Gras was of course a big party, bringing a bit of NOLA to HSV, beads and all. Of her customers, Thigpen says, “I miss them so badly. It’s like the world is missing an hour in the day or something. Something’s off.”

Until recently, she’d been without a phone for a while, so Po-Boy Factory updates have been limited to a white board, propped up next to the parking lot. Customers have been randomly stopping by, pulling up in cars, hoping for reopening news. I’ve been doing the same. During my interview with Marie, a gentleman popped his head inside the new location’s door and asked when she’d be reopening. “Honey,” she told him, “I’m getting there.”

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