Angelo Brocato started his apprenticeship in a Palermo gelateria at twelve years old, which is where the recipes still used on North Carrollton Avenue come from.
He was born in Cefalù, a coastal town in Sicily, and learned granita, spumoni, biscotti, cannoli, and gelati before he was old enough to work a counter alone. Emigration brought him to Louisiana, where he cut sugar cane long enough to save a stake. In 1905 he opened his own parlor in the section of the French Quarter people called Little Palermo, built as a replica of the emporiums he had trained in and one of the first sit-down parlors in the city.
The very first flavor he sold is still in the case. Torroncino is a vanilla-based gelato with cinnamon and ground almonds, and the shop has produced it without interruption for 120 years. He also made granita al limone with local citrus, and Italian families in the Quarter would come by early with warm bread to dip in it for breakfast.
The business moved several times as it grew, from Decatur Street to Ursulines and eventually, around 1980, to 214 N. Carrollton Avenue in Mid-City. Sources put the move between 1978 and 1981. The Italians had largely left the Quarter for other neighborhoods by then, and the new location brought more space and parking. The neon sign advertising spumone and cassata has been a Mid-City landmark ever since.
Then came the water. The shop celebrated its centennial in July 2005, and two months later the levee failures put five feet of water through the neighborhood. Damage was severe enough that reports circulated the family might not return. They baked St. Joseph Day cookies out of another bakery in the Bywater while restoration went on. Brocato’s reopened in September 2006 to lines out the door, and the reopening got covered as a marker of Mid-City coming back.
The case runs long. Cannoli get filled to order, which is the difference between a good one and a soggy one. Spumoni, cassata, biscuit tortoni, and pignolata sit alongside the gelato. Cucidati fig cookies are the ones people drive across town for. There are fresh Italian ices, seasonal flavors, biscotti regina, cappuccino, espresso, café au lait, and Italian sodas.
Anyone hunting for a nectar cream soda float should know it is not on the Brocato’s menu. That drink belongs to the old Katz and Besthoff soda fountain tradition, and other shops in town carry it. What Brocato’s makes is Sicilian.
The interior matches the product. Ceiling fans, pressed tin, glass cases, and small tables give the room the feel of the Palermo parlors Angelo copied, and the fourth generation of the family works the kitchen.
The shop sits at 214 N. Carrollton Avenue and can be reached at (504) 486-1465. Listed hours run 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday, with Mondays closed. The Canal streetcar stops a block away.
Order the torroncino, since almost nothing on any menu in America has been made the same way for that long.
