Chess Gotti BBQ And Seafood needs to put hamburgers in the title of their venture. They make one of the best ones in our sprawling 500 po boys series.

We arose bright and early Sunday morning to drive over to Central City for the Mardi Gras Indians Super Sunday celebration.

It’s one of the wildest parties New Orleans throws all year long. Dozens of Mardi Gras Indians emerge in dazzling suits, and with full-throated braggadocio inform the gathered throngs that they are the prettiest, and strongest Indians in the land.

They will not bow down.

Tens of thousands of people were out for the affair.

We made a giant circuit of all the food vendors before finally drawing a bead on Chess Gotti’s enterprise at the corner of LaSalle and Washington. A team of workers on a flat-bed trailer were loading hamburgers on a hot grill, and they had been hand-patted, always a sign of a cook who cares about his craft.

A rare burger folded into an 8″ loaf came in at a reasonable $5. Mayonnaise and garlic salt provided accoutrement. Good beef, barely-seasoned, and burnished with fire made for a fine po boy.

Mr Gotti was on hand to supervise the workers as they busied themselves with customers.

An off-shore worker, Gotti is a part-time, itinerant restaurateur who sets up at events in greater New Orleans. The smoke coming off his barbecue pit had us ready to tackle a plate of pork ribs in spite of having just eaten.

We feasted across the board at Super Sunday but back at the house in the 9th Ward at the end of a long day filled with cold beers and good food the only thing we were talking about was Gotti’s rare hamburger po boy.

Super Sunday Field Report

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