So, here’s a 64-year-old guy, Paul Nunneri, who has owned one of the most popular Italian delis in the San Fernando Valley for 40 years — Cavaretta’s over in Canoga Park — and he hasn’t put on more than 10 pounds since high school.
If I owned the place, I’d be Jabba the Hutt by now.
Between his mother’s cannoli, his homemade meatballs, and his Italian subs, forget about it. You’re putting on a few pounds with a smile on your face.
We had dinner the other night to talk about his business and family. Paul had a salad.
“Lou Cavaretta opened the deli in ’59 and sold it in ’78 to a guy named Sal who sold it two years later to a guy named Dominic who sold it to me and my brother, Joe, in 1983,” Paul said, wrapping up 64 years in one sentence.
“Joe carried the business and me for the first seven years. Without him, I wouldn’t be here today. He taught me never forget where you came from. Never complain about the long hours or your feet killing you standing all day. Just do your job and remember where you came from.”
Forty years, and Joe’s little brother hasn’t forgotten.
When Mama Nunneri heard her boys had bought the deli the first thing she asked was when do I start? She sat up front at the cash register watching her boys work and talking to the customers — getting to know their families, as their customers were getting to know them.
“They’ve literally shared my life with me,” Paul said. “They knew me when I was single, when I met my wife, when we baptized our babies, when they went to high school and off to college, when I became a proud grandpa.
“They’ve shared my life and I’ve shared theirs. I know it sounds like a cliché, but it’s not. We’re family.”
After a few years at the register, Mama Nunneri moved into the back kitchen and started making her cannoli from a 70-year-old recipe she’d rather die than give up.
“She was tireless,” Paul said. “She never took a sick day in 35 years. She’d…
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