About Us
Francolini's is an homage to the Italian delis all over New Jersey where owner Tara grew up. She grew up in a big, Italian family, where prosciutto and lasagna graced the Thanksgiving table instead of turkey. After moving to New Orleans in 2018, she quickly realized that while there were a ton of great food options across the city, there was a lack of her childhood food. She met Cesar Nunez while working at Longway Tavern and briefly discussed the idea of opening a deli. Cesar, a huge lover of both sandwiches and the Yankees, was immediately on board. Our goal is to have a local neighborhood spot where unpretentious vibes are paired with high quality food, to simply make people happy.
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Nicolo's Deli, Montclair, NJ
Community Involvement
Fracolini's is committed to giving back to the city that fuels us. Each owner has chosen a local charity that will recieve a portion of monthly sales. Each month, a team member also chooses a charity that is meaningful to them to receive a portion of sales as well. While we will always respond to donation requests, please understand that we are a small business and while we would like to donate to all local causes, we feel that funneling our efforts into these businesses with a larger donation will make more of an impact than spreading ourselves too thin around a bunch of organizations.
Tara's chosen charity is Innocence Project New Orleans. She began donating to the New York chapter as a teen and has remained passionate about the charity in New Orleans.
We're proud to partner with Glass Half Full NOLA for all glass recycling, and we encourage patrons to bring their glass to us for recycling as well! We try to create as little waste as possible, and are always trying to get creative with would be waste. When you get sandwich catering orders you don't get single use plastic trays - the platter that it comes on has been thrifted (many by Tara’s mom) in order to provide reusable options. Feel free to hang on to it, or bring it back to the shop for $1 off your next order.
One of the only things Tara loves more than cutlet sandwiches are dogs.
Meet The Team
Nocca
Nocca is the #1 taste tester at Francolini's. She exclusively eats meat and cheese, please do not feed her vegetables, she will not accept. She prefers a firm cheese over a soft one, although she has a new appreciation for the odd texture of fresh mozarella. Proscuitto is her meat of choice (30 month aged ideally) but has been known to snack on salamis now and then too.
Cesar Nunez
Cesar is one of the nicest and calmest humans in the world. He also happens to be a fantastic chef and a crossfit expert. In his spare time he does everything you can possibly imagine and then some.
Tara Francolini
Tara was born and raised in Jersey, a fact that for many years she was not proud of. She started working in restaurants in high school and proudly proclaimed herself done once she graduated from college and moved to LA. Six months later she decided that she hated office jobs and restaurants were actually pretty cool. For the next 5 years she managed bars and restaurants in Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Massachusetts before settling in New Orleans. She finally decided it was time to open her own place when she got tired of having to fly to NYC for a cutlet sandwich. She is now very proud of NJ's bread scene, even if it took her 20 years to fully appreciate it.