Location: 148 Carondelet St New Orleans, LA 70130
Cuisine: Southern and Snacks
Pricing: $
I read a meme recently that said, “New Orleans is the only city where you can go to the corner store and buy a shrimp po-boy, shrimp fried rice, a fifth of tequila, a phone charger, a #Saints hat, a soldier rag, a mixed cd and an inspection sticker all in one place.”
I have never read anything more accurate. And when you walk into Brothers Food Mart, it all becomes factual once more in the BEST way, ever.
I’m not used to walking into a convenience store and getting a hint of some of the greatest fried chicken I’ve ever been in the same room with. That sounds a little romantic, and I mean it. In 2011 when I visited NOLA for my 21st Birthday and Mardi Gras, I stumbled into Brothers a few nights in a row and since then it has stayed in my mind. So when I returned 7 years later, Brothers was at the top of my list.
If I don’t know where anything else is in NOLA (I don’t), I know where this Brothers Food Mart is and I was so happy to see that nothing had changed. As I joined the group of customers hovering reading the large menu displayed from the ceiling, I noticed how different the customers all were. Some clutching pints of brown liquor, others clutching the hands of their children and some sugary snack their kid has sweet-talked them into buying, all waiting for their order of New Orleans by way of a deep fryer.
With my 2-piece Spicy Dark in hand, (Red Beans & Rice as my side because they were out of a few other sides) I barely made it out of the store before I was digging in. Just as awesome as I remembered them to be, not a spice change, not a minor change to the recipe and I’m thankful for it.
Any ideas that you previously had about “convenient store food” before Brothers is null and void once you hit New Orleans. This city provides a different level of expectation when it comes to ALL food and believe me, Brother’s Food Mart will never let you down so don’t be fooled by the exterior.