Rocky & Carlo's Restaurant in Chalmette

It's amazing how certain unpretentious little restaurants can become a national phenomena. This is Rocky & Carlos. It is a little restaurant on St. Bernard Highway (LA 39) in Chalmette, right across the road from an oil refinery, still referred to as Tenneco.

It has been there for decades, serving local residents and employees of Tenneco Oil Refinery, Murphy Oil Refinery, Domino Sugar, Bergeron Ship Yard, and others. Rocky's would have a thriving business at lunch, and usually had contracts to provide "overtime lunches" and "call in orders" for the industrial plants. For some, it was just a place to "hang out". Everyone seemed to know everyone else.

Yet, people from all over the country have Rocky & Carlo's on their itinerary when they come to New Orleans. Part of its attraction is generous helpings of good, old fashion country cooking (Chalmette was mostly a rural community until the mid 1960's) and a healthy helping of local atmosphere. Nobody dresses up to eat at Rocky & Carlo's (well, hardly anyone). It's a down to earth local eatery, right to the waitresses who greet you with a "What can I get ya, Darlin'?"

I remember a little story that provides insight to atmosphere there. In 1982, a gasoline storage tank at the refinery, directly across from the restaurant, ignited into a ball of fire. It was a raging inferno that took nearly two days to extinguish. Much of the area was quickly evacuated (although Rocky & Carlo's patrons didn't need a formal invitation to leave). As it was related to me, the restaurant employees returned to find all the tables just as they were left - food, drinks, napkins and cutlery in place, and one pair of slippers on the floor, beneath one of the tables.