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On this week’s episode of the Italian American Podcast, we’re going back to the Big Easy to chat with our friends Lena Prima and Charles Marsala to get an inside look at their new web-TV series, “Buona Sera Louisiana,” a weekly show about the Italian culture of the Pelican State and beyond! These two Italian American champions are no strangers to o...

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Being born into a loving Sicilian-Louisiana family, nurtured within the heart of New Orleans’ multicultural mélange of fabulous food, music, art and celebrations, gave me a perspective that I now acknowledge as truly extraordinary! Earliest memories are sensuous–fresh-baked schicciata, earthy pan bread pressed to perfection by loving hands, pungent...

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Tucked into Decatur Street in the middle of New Orleans’ French Quarter, Central Grocery and Deli is a third generation, old-fashioned grocery store founded in 1906 by Salvatore Lupo, a Sicilian immigrant who was famous for creating the muffuletta. The 115-year-old shop hasn’t changed, and the muffuletta has been sliced and carved the exact same wa...

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In 1806, less than a dozen homes existed upriver in New Orleans in what is now the Garden District. In that year, City Planner Barthelemy Lafon designed Place du Tivoli which was surrounded by Tivoli Circle as the street. Tivoli comes from Tivoli Gardens near Rome. Numerous cities around the world have named places after Tivoli. New Orleans has the...

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The Muffaletta sandwich was invented at New Orleans’ Central Grocery by Sicilian immigrants in the early 20th century. And even though the Saints are not in this year’s Super Bowl, the Muffaletta sandwich, in all its meat and cheese and brilliantly topped decadence, is the perfect choice as Super Bowl fare for these topsy-turvy times.  For starters...

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Barbara Chifici, owner of Deanie’s Seafood Restaurants and matriarch of the Chifici Family, has passed away. She was 77. Family members say Chifici, who was also known as Mrs. Barbara, passed away late Saturday night at Ochsner Medical Center in Kenner from Coronavirus complications. Chifici, who came from a large Italian family of New Orleans rest...

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The new a Tavola Restaurant & Wine Bar takes culinary cues from different parts of Italy. It also draws other inspiration from what its creators say has lately proven a successful recipe in Metairie — a family-friendly approach with a large dining bar for times when the family is not in tow. Holding down the high-profile intersection of Veterans Bo...

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Louis Anthony DiRosa, who served the legal profession for 62 years as a lawyer and a judge in New Orleans, died Dec. 16 at his Metairie home. He was 94. DiRosa established his private law practice after earning a law degree at Loyola University in 1950. He was elected a Civil District Court judge in 1983. Even though DiRosa left office in 1996, he...

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During 1807-1810 the New Orleans City Council established the legal name of the street as Tivoli Circle. The name has never been changed. In 2020, The New Orleans City Council passed motion M-20-170 to remedy mistreatment of immigrant groups such as Italians by changing street names. That motion did not include renaming streets which honor Italians...

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Joseph DeSalvo Jr., a New Orleans native who set aside corporate law to open Faulkner House Books in the French Quarter and make it a literary destination, died Tuesday at Touro Infirmary. He was 88. His life as a bookseller followed a career that included stints in New York, Houston and New Orleans as an attorney at Exxon, Tenneco and Good Hope Re...

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