NEW ORLEANS — A French Quarter icon and tourist attraction is reopening on Saturday. Central Grocery & Deli is where the muffuletta sandwich was created and four generations have kept the Decatur Street business going until Hurricane Ida hit.
Before I tell you about the grand reopening of Central Grocery after being closed for three years from Hurricane Ida damage, this New Orleanian learned something new while doing this story, the correct pronunciation is mufful-EH-tta not mufful-AH-tta.
“Well, it's actually mufful-EH-tta but most people say mufful-AH-tta, said Central Grocery co-owner Tommy Tusa, who is in business with his cousin Frank.
Tommy Tusa is ready to reopen the 118-year-old Central Grocery & Deli his grandfather started in 1906. It is where the muffuletta was created.
“They would buy the olive salad separate, the cold cuts separate," Tusa said explaining the origin of the sandwich. "Sit around picking at it, and they said, ‘OK, we'll put it all on the bread.’ And now we got a muffuletta sandwich,” he said.
With emotion behind his words, Tommy says it made it through The Great Depression in the 1920s.
“‘Mr. Tartar, can we get some tomatoes and olive oil and cheese, and we'll pay you when we can?’ he recalls his mother telling him about people who came into the store. “She said he never collected a penny. He just gave it away. Couldn't turn them down.”
But not through Hurricane Ida in the 2020s.
“I saw water coming out the front of the door and I said, ‘Must be a broken pipe or something.’ So, I ran upstairs, and I looked up and all I saw was blue sky. No roof," he explained. " I said, ‘Oh my God.’ Every time it rained, everything got soaked. So, we had to gut it. It killed me to gut it, but there was no, there was no option.”
It took more than three years to rebuild, dealing with city permitting challenges, and now Tommy says he's dealing with another challenge that is deterring business, and causing a pile-up of garbage.
“I’ve seen tourists have to walk in the street because they can't get around the people lying on the sidewalk," Tusa said. " It shouldn't be that way. We talked to the city council, and you know they tell us they working on it. They try to do things,” he said.
Since Ida, his famous muffulettas' have been made in a commissary in Kenner and sold in places like Sidney's, Rouses, and Zuppardo's. And now they are coming back to their roots.
“I'm excited and I'm a little nervous, because I tell people, you know, I've been in business 53 years, but I've never opened one,” he laughed.
Central Grocery will be open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. beginning this Saturday.
Visit Central Grocery & Deli to learn more.
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