Between the Bread

The muffuletta is an inspired sandwich — and inspiring, in the case of Schlotzsky's. The fast-food sandwich chain was founded by Don and Delores Dissman after the couple tasted a muffuletta at an Italian grocery store in the French Quarter — most likely Central or Progress. They called their version The Original and made it the only item on the menu at the Austin, TX, sandwich shop they opened in 1971.

The Dissmans' eight-inch sandwich featured genoa and cotto salamis, smoked ham, red onion, lettuce and tomato, black olives, mustard and herb dressing, and melted cheddar, parmesan, mozzarella cheeses. It was the size of a Frisbee and, fittingly, served on one. The Dissmans named their restaurant Schlotzsky's, just because it sounded funny, punctuated by a simple slogan: "One sandwich. It’s that good."

The Original developed an enormous following among students at the nearby University of Texas, and a few years later, Schlotzsky’s started expanding into franchises. It’s now a full-fledged fast-food chain in 35 states (with lingering infamy from a 2004 bankruptcy filing) and it has long since moved beyond the single-sandwich menu. The Original now comes in three sizes, with turkey and ham versions, alongside several other round sammies and pizzas.

The muffuletta's influence on The Original is obvious: The seeded sourdough bun has the same springy consistency as muffuletta bread. The buttons of black olives together with Italian dressing function like olive salad, while crunchy lettuce keeps the toasted bread from turning everything into a melty mess. Essentially, Schlotzsky’s is serving the most successful muffuletta spinoff to millions of quick diners and road trippers who’ve never even heard the word "muffuletta."

Source: Flickr User Code Poet

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New Orleans is one of the great sandwich cities, rivaled perhaps only by Philadelphia. Though it lays claim to just two iconic sammies — the po'boy and the muffuletta — both are transcendent, and the po'boy comes in so many varieties that it's pretty much a category of its own. In honor of Mardi Gras, take a 'wich trip through New Orleans's sandwich history.

The Great Heated Muffuletta Debate	Central Grocery: A Whole Lotta 'Letta
The Fight to Preserve the Po'Boy	'Wich Trip: Legendary Po'Boys at Domilise's

Meanwhile, I'm going to New Orleans again in April, so if anyone has any recommendations, please share. I haven't been to Parkway, so that might be on my list.

I only had one chance to order lunch at Jerry's Cajun Cafe, another must-stop when I visit Pensacola, and I sort of blew it. Namesake owner Jerry is from Louisiana, so even though Pensacola is three hours from New Orleans, you can get a great fried oyster po'boy here.

I usually get the combo: half oyster, half shrimp. This time, out of some misguided obligation, I felt like I should order something different. The Gulfuletta was too tempting: a version of one of my favorite sandwiches, the muffuletta, made with fried seafood instead of salami and ham. It sounded too good to be true. Alas, it was.

The muffuletta has changed very little since its invention in 1906, but the most major modification is also the most controversial: heating the sandwich in the oven, so that the bread is toasted and the cheese is melted.

Normally, I err on the side of heated sandwiches, but with the muffuletta, I come down on the cold side. And I'm not the only one with a strong opinion. According to Tom Fitzmorris, host of “The Food Show” on New Orleans’s WWL, “Every time this comes up on my radio show, it’s a guaranteed hour or two-hour conversation,” says Fitzmorris. So allow me to continue it.

That sandwich pictured at the top of my blog? Why, it's only one of the most delicious sandwiches ever: the muffuletta from Central Grocery in New Orleans. Enough people have asked me about it that I figure it's time for a little 'letta lesson.

Invented by a Sicilian grocer in New Orleans around 1906, the muffuletta (pronounced moofalottah or moofalettah, depending on who you ask) contains an antipasto platter's worth of genoa salami, Italian ham, mortadella, swiss and/or provolone cheese, and a hefty scoop of olive salad, all served on a sesame-seeded roll also called a muffuletta and about the size of a Frisbee. Though no one is quite sure who invented it, Central Grocery in the French Quarter stakes the claim, and most people accept that.

A half sandwich will handily feed two people; my family of four used to order a whole one to eat on the Moonwalk by the Mississippi River. It's one of my favorite sandwiches ever and definitely one of my most sentimental. The most magical thing about a muffuletta is that, unlike most sandwiches, it actually improves over time. Here's how.