The Muffuletta — Central Grocery Origin

Salvatore Lupo opened Central Grocery at 923 Decatur Street in 1906, one Sicilian immigrant among many running family-owned neighborhood stores when the French Quarter was still predominantly residential. He invented the muffuletta there—a 10-inch round sesame loaf stuffed with mortadella, salami, ham, provolone, and olive salad that soaks into the bread. The sandwich weighs roughly two pounds and feeds two people. The olive salad is the signature element. The blend of olives, giardiniera, garlic, and olive oil varies by shop, but this is where it started. Lupo operated Central until 1946, when he retired and his son-in-law Frank Tusa took over. It's currently owned by Salvador T. Tusa, Salvatore's grandson, and two cousins, Frank Tusa and Larry Tusa. Central still sells Italian, Greek, French, Spanish, and Creole table delicacies alongside chocolate-covered grasshoppers and bumble bees in soy sauce displayed perennially in the front windows. You can buy the muffuletta ingredients by the jar if you want to make it at home, but the real move is to eat it standing at the counter where it was created. The store is cash only. The line moves fast. Hurricane Ida damaged the roof in August 2021; Hurricane Nicholas made it worse in September. After substantial rebuilding, Central Grocery reopened in their original location on December 14, 2024.