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Half a muffuletta, with peperoncini, at Maceo's in Galveston. Photo by Alison Cook
Years ago I gave up eating muffulettas in Houston, because local versions of this epic New Orleans sandwich kept breaking my heart. The ones I sampled always seemed to lack the riproaring garlicky fragrance of the muffulettas I learned to love eons ago at New Orleans' Central Grocery, or the frisbee-size bun wasn't spongy enough, or the salami and ham weren't good enough, or the chopped olive salad didn't have the proper edge or...you get the picture.
So when my friend Penny suggested grabbing a muffuletta at Maceo's during my recent trip to Galveston, I wasn't expecting much. Surprise: this low-key spice and import warehouse on a sleepy stretch of Market Street is the real deal. Irrepressible owner Ron Maceo is selling muffulettas made according to his family's century-old recipe and--this is important--held in the cooler overnight, the better for all those flavors to commingle under the beneficent influence of extra virgin olive oil. With muffulettas a little aging is everything.
The Maceo's muffuletta is a bit of an investment at $12.95, but that 13 bucks feeds two people, easily. (For solo diners, a half muffuletta is available for $7.50.) You get a couple of invigorating pickled peperonicini (the yellowish Tuscan peppers) with that, and there are few more pleasant ways to while away a midafternoon than sitting at a makeshift table plonked down in the spice warehouse, alternating bites of pepper with meaty swaths of sandwich.
Maceo's olive salad: it makes the muffuletta, and it's sold by the jar. Photo: Maceo's
The sharp olive salad, bouncing with capers and herbs, makes this a particularly good muffuletta; and the application of serious olive oil is a huge plus. (You should hear Ron Maceo on the subject of high-profile muffuletta purveyors who stoop to using cheaper oils as a dressing.)
Genoa salami, ham and provolone come from the deli counter at your elbow, ever so thinly sliced. (Ask to try the red-peppery soppressata and you'll want to go home with a pound of it.) Maceo has his broad sesame-seeded buns custom-baked for him, but he won't say where. And he's adamant about the curing time, during which the carefully layered and paper-wrapped sandwiches must sit overnight, developing their flavors.
Ron Maceo outside his Galveston spice & import warehouse on Market St. in Galveston. Photo by Alison Cook
Maceo's will serve your muffuletta heated or not, and here's where my friend Penny and I had a bit of a tussle. She felt strongly the sandwich should be heated so as to melt the cheese; I got up on a soapbox about the flavors developing best at room temperature. But since I was the guest, I let her win. I'm not saying a melted-cheese muffuletta is bad, but the sandwich quarter I took home with me and ate for supper at room temperature (hell, no, I didn't refrigerate it!) tasted far better to me: fuller, subtler, more interesting somehow.
For the optimum effect, I'd advise you to purchase your Maceo's sandwich unheated, then walk around with it until the cooler chill has worn off. Then it's picnic time.
If you're lucky, proprietor Ron Maceo will be working the warehouse floor, showing off his family's favorite olive oils and jars of their family-recipe Sicilian tomato gravy, said to have been a favorite of bandleader Guy Lombardo back in the wild-and-woolly gambling era when Ron's great-uncles, Rose and Sam Maceo, ran such casino and restaurant venues as the Balinese Room and the Hollywood Dinner Club.
Memorabilia crowds the foodstuffs at Maceo Spice & Import, Galveston. Photo by Alison Cook
Ron has a thousand anecdotes about the Maceo bootlegging days, and the family connection to the original New Orleans muffuletta trade by way of another great-uncle, Tony Lovoi, who hawked his version of the sandwich in the French Quarter at the turn of the 20th century.
Maceo will even tell you that his kinsman sold muffulettas to the hallowed Central Grocery before they made their name as muffuletta specialists, a claim that apparently has led to some disagreements. Talking food and family legend and muffuletta origin myth with Maceo, amid his richly stacked grocery shelves, makes the Maceo muffaletta taste even better. With the door thrown open to the Gulf breeze on a sunny spring afternoon, I might even go so far as to say it makes the sandwich beyond price.
(Maceo Spice & Import Co., 2706 Market St., Galveston. 409-763-3331.)
Allison - have you ever tried the Muffaletta @ Logan Farms on Westheimer just outside the beltway? Pretty darn good!
I love muffuletta's. Unfortunately, they're not very good eat while driving sandwiches. Grabbed one at Central Grocery in NOLA and thought I'd eat it while driving back to Houston. Big mistake, olive oil all over my shirt and olive salad bits all over the car. Lesson learned, eat it there or when you get home.
Maceo's spice company is great. I used to go the shop and get muffulettas when I lived on the island. At that time it was Ron's father making them still.Being spoiled by the Maceo's, I have yet to find a muffuletta that compares and stopped ordering them elsewhere. Nothing compares to the Maceo family's recipe.....
Every time I read your articles, I feel like I'm reading a character assassination of the restaurant industry and anyone who doesn't have tastes that precisely match yours.
Example 1- getting on a soap-box about whether the cheese needs to be melted on a muff? I've called getting grilled onions on a Whataburger "life-changing" or tell someone they made a "crucial mistake" ordering their food a different way... but I'd never put that in writing as it would be 100% a joke.
On to the muff- while NOLA's own Central Grocery is a great muff (and counts as a standard-bearer as it is often considered the American pioneer), there are good muffs in Houston. The one that comes to mind is the nationally recognized muffuletta at Jason's Deli (also served at their Rao's Bakery locations). And yes, the Tortorice family still leans on their Sicilian roots, so it's as authentic as any in the U.S.
Seriously, character assassination? I actually respect the Houston restaurant industry a lot, which is why I have written about it all these decades. My tastes are my own, and when people disagree with them, they are free to have at me.
The soap-box reference was a gentle joke. Sorry it didn't strike you that way. I was being a little bit funny..or at least I thought I was being a little bit fumny. It never quite seems to work out the way you intended it online.
The Tortorice's are relatives of the Maceo's, by the way..... I just wouldn't believe everything you hear, Allison....Its a good muffaletta, but Central Grocery's got them beat by a mile.
You need to try Logan Farms on Westhiemer. They make the best in Texas. I know New Orleans well and they are the next best sandwich. Their olive mix rocks!
Hope you had time to stop by Sonny's to say "hey".
The joys of living on the island. Maceo Spice Company is a favorite to stock up on great spices. We have so many great restaurants there is no need to cross the causeway.
Sonny's grilled muffaletta is even better. If you have not had it, you need to try it before deciding which on is the best.
When I worked in Galveston in the late 70's, I had Maceo's muffaletta many times for lunch.....it has always been the gold standard to me. I can't wait to get down there and have another. A half muffaletta and a couple of cold beers.....hard to beat!
Ragin Cajun in Sugar Land. Better than Central Grocery.
There's a very unassuming, no-frills sammich joint just west of Reliant Park off Knight Rd. and Holly Hall called "Houston's Famous Deli." The place is very good with excellent Muffalettas. Give it a shot sometime.
Jason's Deli - yuch
Leibman's - yuch
Murphy's Deli - OK
Alonti's - OK
McAlister's - OK
Rajun Cajun - not memorable (but certainly overpriced)
Schlotsky's and Zero's - these aren't muffalettas
Logan Farm's - mmmm, mmmm, good!
Make your own with Phonecia olive salad - mmmm, mmmm, good (but wish I had a good muff (he said muff) bread source)
I will try Maceo's next time I am in Galveston. A place called Candeleri's is opening on Memorial near Dairy Ashford near me, will have to try theirs.
Alison - can you post a running list of all the places in Houston that serve muffaletta's...I'll start on that after I've worked through all the hamburger joints (would be good to have a list on that, too, and not all those fru fru gourmet burgers!)
The bread source for Central Grocery's muffs is:
Leidenheimer Baking Company
1501 Simon Bolivar Avenue
NOLA, 70113.
(www.leidenheimer.com)
504-525-1575.
OMG, GREAT BREAD!
It's all in the Olive Salad! Central Grocery is "THE" standard. I have tried twice to visit Maceo's, closed both times, darn!
11-5 Tue thru Fri
11-4 Sat
closed Sun and wholesale?, only on Mon.
So...I guess I will try to visit again, this Sat. (for lunch).
Good Article, thanks and God Bless Texas
You gotta remember, these guys down here are on Island time. Adjust and enjoy.
In late '70's and '80's, Yamin's served a good muffaletta sandwich.
Thank you Allison. I look forward to trying Maceo's.
There's alot of great places like Maceo's. Just slow down Houston. We love you here.
This is why we love you so much, Alison: "For the optimum effect, I'd advise you to purchase your Maceo's sandwich unheated, then walk around with it until the cooler chill has worn off. Then it's picnic time."
Love it, just love it.
it doesn't look very good to me. I have had many good muffs in new orleans. a lot of crap in houston is just houston crap.
I live in Houston and use Boscoli olive salad to make my own Muffaletta. I get it from HEB and Rice Epicurean. Other supermarkets carry it also. Their olive salad is THE BEST!
i need to try maceo's next time i am out that way.
best muffaletta in HOUSTON is without a doubt at AIRPORT DELI (across the street from hobby airport). they do not f**k around.
i tend to find that unless people have really had a Central Grocery muffaletta, their opinion on them is seriously suspect. also, i can safely say that 95% of the sandwiches people call muffalettas in this town are disgusting.
the olive salad makes or breaks them.
Maceo muffaletta IS the real deal there is no better
It is all in the olive salad and the generosity of the olive salad put on the bun.
Ronnie Maceo ships muffulettas to Patty and me here in Dallas every now and then. And they make the trip unrefrigerated, and they are just perfect.
And this nonsense of heating a muffuletta certainly didn't originate in New Orleans or at Maceo's, for that matter. Eat them at room temperature.
Ronnie ships his muffalettas to Patty and me here in Dallas. And they come unrefrigerated, and they stay at that temperature while we eat them. Heating a muffaletta couldn't have possibly been originated by by anyone who KNOWS a muffaletta when he eats one.
The basic secret of the muffaletta...the one that is paramount over all others...is the recipe for the olive salad that's used, and that the bread is properly saturated with it.
And while we're at it, there is no olive oil that comes close to being as good as Sicilian olive oil. Often hard to find elsewhere, Ronnie keeps a great supply.
Thanks for giving the Bay area a spin. Always good to discover new walk around food and this muffaleta might just be the new deal for me!
I was visiting Houston last week and my cousins and uncle and I drove down to Galveston for the day. My cousin was adamant that we stop by Maceo's and have a sandwich and oh my gosh your sandwiches are out of this world... Very delish!.. Glad we stopped by. Next time I'm in Galveston, I'll definately stop by...
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