CAFE MASPERO

He says:
In New York City there’s a famous pizzeria called Ray’s that other lesser pizzerias nearby try to capitalize on by mimicking its name. Famous Ray’s. Original Ray’s. Famous Original Ray’s. Original Famous Ray’s. The list goes on and on. The idea is that someone – probably a tourist – looking for the real thing will stumble into your storefront instead. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book, and dammed if we didn’t fall for it this weekend!

In New Orleans for the first time, Uptown Girl and I were seeking out a place called Pierre Maspero’s, which my coworker suggested for cheap, yummy sandwiches. Lo and behold, we walked past a sandwich shop with a similar name and a long line of tourists winding outside of it. Obviously this had to be the famous sandwich shop. Right?

Wrong. We later discovered that the real Maspero’s was around the corner. (Not that it was any better, but that’s for another review.) Café Maspero is just another overpriced tourist trap shilling inferior sandwiches for $8 a pop.

The mufulleta, a Big Easy favorite, is a dry, flat loaf piled with salami, ham, olive salad, and melted swiss. The meats were mere supermarket cold cuts, salty and bland. The single slice of cheese was barely heated through. And the olive salad was pedestrian. I could have assembled this bore-wich on my own for ¼ the price.

She says:
The vegetarian version of the mufulleta, the same sandwich without any of the meat, was probably worse. The only redeeming thing was washing down the overt saltiness of the olive salad with a sweet $1 strawberry daiquiri.

We say:
Café Maspero’s is a 2-fork eatery, but it loses a fork for stealing another restaurant’s name.




Café Maspero
601 Decatur Street
New Orleans, LA 70130