They're known for Jazz Fest food, not gelato. Now Brocato's Kitchen is open in Mid-City. (2024)

Mention the name Brocato around New Orleans and of course people will think of gelato and cannoli from the city’s old-school Sicilian dessert emporium in Mid-City.

Troy Brocato has no relation to the Brocato’s Ice Cream family, but he and his family have been making their own name known for food. They’re vendors at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and now they have a restaurant in Mid-City.

Brocato’s Kitchen is near the courthouse by Tulane and Broad. It's a new restaurant with an old New Orleans heart, with po-boys, bargain plate lunches and a gumbo with a heady whiff of Cajun country in its roux.

Roast beef is where any new po-boy shop will be measured first, and Brocato’s measures up.

It has that dark richness you get from blasting the roast at high heat then cooking it slow, and from beef stock and rendered fat that makes the gravy gleam and the meat succulent. You might find slices of garlic in there; you’ll certainly know their presence. Po-boy bread from John Gendusa Bakery contains it for the duration, barely.

A snug new home

Brocato’s Kitchen is in the low-slung South Broad restaurant space that was most recently the Ethiopian restaurant Sammy’s. Prior to that, it was a different Ethiopian restaurant, Addis NOLA, which graduated to much bigger digs nearby on Bayou Road.

The Brocato family gave it a test run in April, while they were concurrently gearing up for their big Jazz Fest push. In addition to running a food booth (best known for its BBQ and Buffeaux oyster dishes and their NOLA street corn), the family also caters meals for Jazz Fest staff, a gig that extends for weeks from set up to aftermath. With that big lift done, the family has Brocato’s Kitchen fully open.

I’ve been following their story through the years. Troy Brocato's great uncle was the late, great Paul Prudhomme, and as a young man he cooked at K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen. Not long after Hurricane Katrina, he opened Brocato’s Eat Dat in New Orleans East. In a windowless building off Crowder Boulevard, he made fantastic lunch plates with distinct Cajun flavor. For its too-brief tenure, it was one of my favorite hidden gems.

The Brocato’s Jazz Fest debut came in 2022. Cooking for festival crowds and cooking for weekday lunch are two different beasts, so don’t expect the same menu. But the Brocatos say they may bring a few of their festival hits to the restaurant. That could include the vegan gumbo, which is different and good enough to have an appeal beyond its vegan-ness.

Plate lunches, gumbo

The menu has a tomato Caprese po-boy but otherwise follows tradition, with plate lunch specials pegged to each day of the week, from Monday red beans to seafood Fridays.

On Tuesday, the smothered pork chop plate was a no-brainer for me. I know how this family cooks, and smothered anything coming out of their kitchen will be a sure bet.

The gravy over these pork chops was just speckled with garlic, with whole bay leaves poking through, and all the evidence of slow cooking served up swiftly that defines a Louisiana plate lunch of the Acadiana variety. Creamy mashed potatoes, a pile of fried okra, and green salad that was actually green and fresh with a house-made ranch dressing make it a value feast at $13.

The house gumbo (not remotely vegan) is dark and smoky, with dense slices of andouille sourced from Kelly’s Country Meat Block in Opelousas, a great traditional Cajun smokehouse.

Jazz Fest is not the only festival for the Brocato family. They’ve also become a fixture at the Oak Street Po-boy Fest in the fall, and the creative compulsions of that event show up on this menu.

The ”hot Broad” is a sandwich (on a bun) that pairs thin, smashburger-style beef patties with hot sausage patties and pepper Jack. The NOLA special is a po-boy with fried shrimp riding over those hot sausage patties, one of those mash-ups that works in the moment with the crispy shrimp and spicy meat merging in the bite.

This part of town has been in need of a proper po-boy shop since the heartbreaking demise of the wonderful Avery’s on Tulane during the pandemic. Those are big shoes to fill, but the Brocato’s Kitchen does indeed fill the loaf.

Brocato’s Kitchen

422 S. Broad St., 504-354-9661

Lunch Mon.-Fri., 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

Catering and meeting space available