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The layered look – B.R.’s love of the muffuletta

The correct preparation is hotly debated, and its fans are passionate about who does it best. But in the beginning, the muffuletta, or muffaletta, or muffoletta, was Everyman fast food—a sandwich of convenience. As the legend goes, Sicilian immigrants working in the New Orleans French Market in the early 1900s turned to Central Grocery, an Italian mart still housed today on Decatur Street, to pick up quick lunch items. They bought fresh loaves of bread along with cheese, slices of meat and marinated vegetables and munched on these picnic components outdoors. The store’s proprietor suggested stuffing the individual items into round muffuletta loaves, and the distinct sandwich was born. Over the 20th century, it slowly spread across south Louisiana and onto the occasional menu nationwide.

Like so many foods from Louisiana’s culinary tableau, the muffuletta comes with contestable points, including whether to serve it hot or at room temperature, exactly what meats and cheeses to use and the proportion of olive salad to everything else. The Capital City offers a broad range of options. Here’s some of what you’ll find.

pocorellos.net | 12240 Coursey Blvd.
Pocorello’s, known for Italian subs and pastas, has drawn legions of faithful over the course of its lengthy history on Coursey Boulevard. Like Anthony’s Italian Deli (see next page), it’s also an Italian grocery, with various dry pastas, sauces, cheeses and antipasti available for purchase. The muffuletta here is thick, so open wide to savor the layers of lightly smoked ham, Genoa salami, mortadella, provolone and lots of homemade olive salad, which you can buy separately.

1857 Government St., inside Circa 1857
In a cafe popular for its warm and savory pressed sandwiches, Yvette Marie’s muff includes Genoa salami, shaved ham, provolone and olive salad. It forgoes the soft, real bologna, mortadella. Yvette Marie’s also offers an original grilled vegetable muff with roasted peppers, eggplant, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, Kalamata olives and gooey buffalo mozzarella that is slathered with basil pesto.

anthonysitaliandelibr.com | 10248 Florida Blvd.
Of the more than 900 local restaurants listed on TripAdvisor.com, Anthony’s is currently Baton Rouge’s highest-ranked. The spot’s loyal fans love crowing about the quality of the sandwiches prepared here, especially the muffoletta (they use that spelling on the menu). Marco Saia, who runs the restaurant with his mother, Marie Angela Saia, says the round bread used for their famed muffs is baked offsite using the recipe his father Anthony created. The same goes for the poboy bread. There are between 15 and 20 layers of incredibly thin-sliced ham, mortadella, capicola, Genoa salami and provolone, and an unassuming layer of finely chopped homemade olive salad that you can also buy by the pound. Pressed and toasty warm, the sandwich is thinner than most other muffs, giving it a melt-in-the-mouth, juicy texture.

Elsewhere, you can find plenty of muffuletta options. Sammy’s Grill’s larger-than-life menu sells plenty of muffulettas at four locations in greater Baton Rouge. The deli counter at Tony’s Seafood has a popular version that uses more cheese than meat. Ham and Genoa salami are combined with mozzarella, Swiss, provolone and olive salad. Monjunis adds fresh tomato to its formula of salami, ham, provolone and signature olive salad, while also offering a turkey muffaletta (their spelling) and a veggie muff in which meat is exchanged for fried eggplant. And at Rocco’s New Orleans Po-Boys you can order a classic muff with Genoa salami, ham, mortadella, provolone and olive mix, or you can opt for a seafood version—a high-octane arrangement made for those caught between a muff and a poboy. Round bread is filled with two fried seafoods (oysters, catfish or shrimp), provolone, tartar sauce, cocktail sauce and olive mix.

Weigh in about other spots that sell muffs, and what makes them great in the comments below!