Napoleon House is throwing New Orleans its very own sandwich holiday. Created by Napoleon House in 2025, National Muffuletta Day returns on September 14, 2026, at the 200-year-old French Quarter landmark, which will offer a buy-one-get-one-free deal on quarter muffulettas, commemorative enamel pins for the first 50 guests, souvenir recipe cards, and an 11:30 a.m. performance from a local dance troupe dressed for the occasion.
According to NOLA.com, the celebration falls on the same iconic sandwich that Central Grocery and Progress Grocery both claimed credit for inventing on the 900 block of Decatur Street. That sandwich, layered with ham, Genoa salami, mortadella, provolone and mozzarella cheeses, and marinated olive salad on round, sesame-seeded bread, has become an unmistakable New Orleans culinary contribution found nowhere else quite like it.
Where the Sandwich — and the Name — Actually Came From
Salvatore Lupo founded Central Grocery in 1906, and Bartholomew Perrone opened the competing Progress Grocery in 1924, with the two shops sitting side by side on Decatur Street. Per the same NOLA.com report, Sicilian immigrants introduced the muffuletta to the French Quarter in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and its name traces back to the round loaf of bread the sandwich is served on — a bread that also exists in Sicily itself.
The exact etymology remains a little fuzzy even among experts. Dana Logsdon, a local baker and historian, tells the outlet the word more likely derives from the Latin term for a small sack or mitten, muffula, though she notes it may also come from the Italian word for mold, muffa.
Napoleon House's Own Twist on the Classic
While Central Grocery and Progress Grocery historically established the muffuletta as a cold cut sandwich, Napoleon House took the recipe in a different direction, according to the National Day Archives. Sal Impastato began serving heated muffulettas at Napoleon House after his father Pete Impastato died in 1971, according to the French Quarter Journal, creating a distinct local variation on what Sicilian grocers had traditionally served cold or at room temperature. Napoleon House serves that warm-pressed style.
Napoleon House itself occupies a building with serious historic weight. The 500 Chartres Street structure was built in 1794 and enlarged in 1814 for New Orleans Mayor Nicholas Girod, and the building was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1970 and recognized as one of the city's finest examples of French-influenced architecture. Local legend holds that Girod intended the property as a refuge for Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile.
Muffuletta Landmarks in the French Quarter
Restaurateur Ralph Brennan purchased Napoleon House in April 2015 after 101 years of ownership by the Impastato family, appointing Chef Chris Montero to preserve the restaurant's classical music soundtrack and weathered historic interior, per Biz New Orleans. Establishing National Muffuletta Day fits into that same era of modern stewardship layered atop an old-school institution.
Central Grocery & Deli, the Decatur Street market where the muffuletta was created in 1906, remains tied to the sandwich's history in the French Quarter. The celebration lands at a moment when the sandwich's history remains tied to the French Quarter.
A Dance Troupe Built for the Occasion
The Muff-a-Lottas, a New Orleans Mardi Gras dance troupe founded in 2009, will perform at 11:30 a.m. as part of the festivities. The group wears vintage diner-waitress costumes and performs to 1950s/1960s music — a fitting bit of local flair for a sandwich holiday born in the French Quarter.
