The city’s best muffuletta sandwiches right now

Although muffuletta sandwiches have been a N’awlins go-to for the past century or so, until recently, very few shops in Toronto made them. A bit late to the party, a few of the city’s restaurants and bakeries are crafting their own versions of the charcuterie sandwich. Here, four versions you can tuck into right now.

Sanremo Bakery

374 Royal York Rd., 416-255-2808, sanremobakery.com

“I’m sure we were the first to offer it—I was actually upset when I heard someone copied us,” says Sada Omeragic, who’s managed the front-of-house operations at Sanremo for the past 22 years. This sandwich is so huge, most people get half to stay and half to go. Rosemary oil–brushed focaccia is stuffed with sopressata, genoa salami, ham, capicollo, mortadella, provolone and a spicy olive-and-pickled-cauliflower mix, which is also for sale by the jar. $9.

P.G. Clucks

610 College St., no phone, @pgclucks

Before Pawel Grezlikowski started slinging fried chicken, he built a business on curing meat. His muffuletta marries his two specialities with a pile of his house-cured meats (genoa salami, ham, mortadella) topping a hunk of deep-fried chicken. Olive tapenade and a helping of pickled eggplant hits this stack out of the park. $9.

OMG on the Park

47 Abell St., no phone, omgbakedgoodness.com

Served on Lesley Mattina’s much-loved herb-and-garlic focaccia, this sandwich always sells out by closing. “Other kids had peanut butter and jam sandwiches at school—we had muffulettas,” says Lesley’s brother, Doug. Ever the pastry chef, Lesley decided to make her muffuletta prettier than the ones her mom used packed for her lunch. She’s swapped out olive salad for a red pepper–eggplant sauce because it adds a hit of colour to the cold-cut stack. $8.25.

Cheese Boutique

45 Ripley Ave., 416-762-6292, cheeseboutique.com

Since shuttering Porzia, chef Basilio Pesce’s been helming Cheese Boutique’s kitchen. For his sandwich, Pesce toyed for weeks with a bread recipe until he was satisfied with his focaccia bun. This muffuletta is probably the most pedigreed in the city: the mortadella’s imported from Bologna, the genoa salami and hot sopressata are actually from Genoa and the ham’s Tuscan. Some pickled vegetable-and-olive mix and a lashing of spicy bomba complete it. $2.39 per 100g. (Depending on how tall you want your stack the price ranges from $10-17.)