Top Ten Mufelettas

What's a Muffeletta?

The Recipe:

Salami

Ham

Mortadella

Olive Salad

Mozzerella Cheese

Provolone Cheese

Round Italian Bread

Heap generous quantities of the first six ingredients on a heated round loaf of Italian bread. Cut into quarters and enjoy a true slice of New Orleans.

The muffaletta is as much a signature sandwich of New Orleans as the roast beef po-boy. New Orleans doesn't have a "Little Italy" section of town that you see in many other cities, but we have a large Italian community and lots of Italian restaurants. The passion for eating and good food that immigrants from Italy brought to this country meshed well with the Creole traditions already here in New Orleans.

The muff looks at first glance like an easy sandwich to make, but that ingredients list is much more complicated. The two crucial items are the bread and olive salad. You can buy good quality meat and cheese in most supermarkets; good olive salad is another story. Good Italian bread is another problem. In New Orleans, most of the french bread bakers also do Italian bread. Most of the places that do muffs buy their bread from Angelo Gendusa's.

Here's the list:

Honorable Mention: Liuzza's (Bienville St. in Mid-City)

They make a sandwich they call the "Frenchaletta," which is basically a muffaletta po-boy. It's not a classic muff, so I can't in good conscience put them on the list, but it's a great sandwich.

6. Messina's (Chartres St. in the Quarter and the Riverwalk):

Good rendition of the muff. Nothing fancy, but that's OK, too.

5. Casa di Palermo World Deli (Clearview and West Esplanade, Metairie)

Good olive salad. They have a small muff in addition to the classic size. Most places use the regular large round loaf, and sell you half of the loaf, but Casa di Palermo has a single-portion round loaf that's neat.

4. Lovecchio's Deli (Harrison Ave. in Lakeview)

I've been eating at Lovecchio's for over 15 years, and never had a muff until we started this discussion. Well, their version deserves to be here.

3. Arabi Food Store (650 Friscoville Ave., Arabi)

This sandwich rivals Central Grocery. It's worth the trip down to Da Parish, and a "don't miss" if you're already there.

2. Napoleon House (Chartres and St. Louis in the Quarter)

The Napoleon House was originally built for Napoleon Bonaparte. The original owner of the building wanted to spirit Napoleon off of St. Helena, move him to New Orleans, and let him live out his life in the Quarter. The British Royal Navy had other ideas, and the Emperor's health wasn't so hot. (Napoleon died in exile before the plot could ever become more than barroom talk. Now the place is one of those funky little places where local and tourist alike can enjoy themselves. The bar and front of the Napoleon House are dark and relatively intimidating, but the courtyard patio in the back is wonderful. I think it's the dark bar in front that keeps the place from being overrun by tourists. The muff is the most ordered sandwich on the menu, and is great. The atmosphere here is quite different from the #1 location, Central Grocery. This is a place to have a sandwich and then linger over two or three beers afterwards.

1. Central Grocery (925 Decatur St. in the Quarter)

You've already read about how people pick up muffs here to eat on the plane trip back to wherever. It's true. People from all over the city will still run down to the Quarter to pick up a muff from CG. The place doesn't look that much different from a real Italian grocery in any city with a decent-sized Italian community. The deli counter and seating have overwhelmed the grocery in recent years, however. If you want to go to a true Italian grocery, bop down two doors to the Progress Grocery. Mind you, that doesn't mean that the CG muff has lost anything. It's just as good as it ever was. They've just given up on the idea of selling anything else. The CG muff is definitely a Platonic dish in the true sense of the term as coined by Dr. Collin.

For those of you who want to bring a bit of Italian New Orleans back home with you, Central Grocery now sells the most critical ingredient in their muff by the jar, their olive salad. It's $7.95 for a quart jar at Zuppardo's grocery on Veterans, which is where I shop, so I'm sure it's the same at other places. Even if you can't get round Italian bread, the sandwich will taste good if you put it together on a regular Italian loaf.

Back to the VNO Home Page

This World Wide Web document is provided as a public service by Yatcom Communications, Inc. Yatcom Communications is a consulting/public relations company dedicated to using computer technology to promote the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.