Cavaretta’s Italian Deli owner Paul Nunneri at the Canoga Park deli Thursday, July 25, 2019. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Cavaretta’s Italian Deli owner Paul Nunneri at the Canoga Park deli Thursday, July 25, 2019. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Sound The gallery will resume in seconds

Cavaretta’s Italian Deli in Canoga Park Thursday, July 25, 2019. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Cavaretta’s Italian Deli owner Paul Nunneri at the Canoga Park deli Thursday, July 25, 2019. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Cavaretta’s Italian Deli owners David Weisberg and Paul Nunneri at the Canoga Park deli Thursday, July 25, 2019. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)



Lou Cavaretta looked west from his Boston home in the late 1950’s, and saw his future – meatball sandwiches and cannoli’s.

Thousands of East Coast transplants, tired of the freezing winters, had settled in sunny San Fernando Valley, and while they loved the place, they all had the same complaint.

They couldn’t find any good Italian deli’s out here. Chef Boyardee just wasn’t cutting it. Lou smiled and headed west.

He bought a little store at 22045 Sherman Way in Canoga Park in 1959, and opened Cavaretta’s Italian Deli. It was like the Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs had just announced they were moving their franchises west to join the Dodgers.

A piece of Little Italy had come to the west end of the Valley, and soon all those East Coast transplants were bringing their new, suburban friends over to Cavaretta’s for a meatball sandwich and cannoli made fresh every morning.

Forget about it. They were hooked. Pot roast never looked the same again.

And, here we are, 60 years later, living in a society where everything has changed talking about an old Italian deli where nothing has changed, but the prices and personnel.

Cavaretta’s is a time capsule from 1959. Old posters and pictures on the walls, shelves lined with imported olive oil and tomato sauces sold by the gallon, and customers lined up two deep at the counter watching the staff work their meat and cheese slicers like finally tuned violins.

No one in a rush, everyone just taking a number, and enjoying the smells while Dean Martin croons “That’s Amore,” just like he did 60 years ago when Lou opened for business.

“It’s nice to get a meatball sandwich from the guys actually making the meatballs,” says Paul Nunneri, whose only business plan after he bought Cavaretta’s in 1983 after Lou retired was to follow his sage advice.

Do nothing. Keep giving the customer good food at a fair price, and remember their names for the next time they come in. It worked in 1959 and it still works today.

“The first time I walked in here 31 years ago, I asked Paul if he bottled the smells?” says Jim Tabolsky from Boston. “I wanted to take them home. My go-to Christmas gift for some of my clients was a box of cannoli’s Paul’s mom made fresh every morning.”

Joanne Fine’s been walking in the door for 42 years. “The first stop I make with my parents when they come out from New York to visit is Cavaretta’s,” she says. “It’s like one big family in here.”

Pete Lamonica walked into Cavaretta’s 45 years ago and felt like he was back home in New York. “There isn’t another place like it in this whole area that even comes close, and there’s nothing you can think of that they don’t have,” he says. “Pauli’s left it exactly the way it was when Lou owned it.”

Nunneri, 60, started working at the store in 1981 making sandwiches behind the counter. He and his brother, Joe, learned the business from his uncle who had owned a deli in Sylmar.

When his uncle sold his deli, Paul got a job with the new owner’s of Cavaretta’s, and wound up buying them out with the help of his brother in 1983. In 2000, Paul’s longtime friend, Dave Weisberg, who had worked at the deli since 1985, bought Joe out.

“We’ve owned it together for the last 20 years, and changed nothing, just like Lou wanted it,” Nunneri says.

If you feel like spending a little time in 1959, stop by Cavaretta’s on Sunday, Aug. 4 for the deli’s big 60th birthday party bash. Take a number and meet the guys making the meatballs.

Dennis McCarthy’s column runs on Sunday. He can be reached at dmccarthynews@gmail.com.