Central Grocery is empty . . .

No shelves filled with old-world specialties. No tins of olive oil or barrel of olive salad. No tourists, no locals, no one lining up for the sandwich, made in-house, that put this Decatur Street business on the map of iconic New Orleans locales more than one hundred years ago. The last day Central Grocery sold one of their famous muffulettas in-house was August 27, 2021—two days before Hurricane Ida devastated the city. The check-out counter and sandwich-making station: warped, unsalvageable after the dayslong torrent of rain that cascaded into the building, which was reduced to just “four brick walls and a cement floor,” according to co-owner Tommy Tusa, whose family has managed the business for three generations. A neighboring wall had come crashing down in the storm’s winds. After evacuating to Mississippi, Tusa returned to New Orleans three days following the storm. “I saw water coming out the front door,” he said. “I went in and there was water everywhere.” Tusa dashed toward the source, headed for an upstairs storage room. “When I got to the top [of the stairs],” he recalled, “all I could see was blue sky.”

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