Rocky and Carlo's, Chalmette LA

We were told that this place is a landmark in Chalmette and not to be missed.  The mac and cheese, they said, is the best.  "You have to go to Rocky & Carlo's," they said.  Even when I walked into the restaurant and saw the long line, a woman sitting at a table looked up at me and said:  "It's worth the wait."

We waited in line for about 50 minutes all in all.  I ordered the fried shrimp with the baked mac and cheese.  I have to say that I was underwhelmed by the shrimp.  I had had delicious fresh Gulf shrimp on the previous two nights, but  this tasted like previously frozen shrimp with a weird aftertaste.  Cafeteria food.

 I will give it to them on the baked macaroni and cheese, though.  While we were standing in line, I saw one of the cooks put a big pan of the stuff into the oven.  It was piled so high with shredded cheddar cheese that you couldn't see the noodles under it.  And there were two monster-sized slabs of butter on top of it all.

What I got was a mountain of baked buccatoni (long like spaghetti, but with a hole through the middle like macaroni).  It was oozing with butter and cheese and really was delicious.

This place is an icon of the community and, we found out later, it's mostly the older generation that speaks so reverently of it.  It combines Italian with Creole and Southern cuisines and includes such offerings as the Muffaletta, the Po' Boy and Veal Parmesan.

They've had their share of hard times first with Katrina and most recently with a fire in February that forced them to close for three and a half months.  They first opened in 1965 and from the line I stood in on a hot summer Thursday night, they'll easily be open for another 47 years.