A Guide to Western San Fernando Valley’s Classic Italian Delis

Italian Americans don’t even number 100,000 in Los Angeles, accounting for just about 0.25% of the city’s population, but Italian food has made an outsized impact on the culinary landscape. Pizzerias, trattorias, and osterias generally get the most buzz, but L.A. also has several Italian delis that feed thousands of people per week.

Angelenos should be familiar with nearly century-old businesses like Bay Cities Italian Deli in Santa Monica and Eastside Deli in Chinatown (formerly part of a bygone Little Italy), but unless they’re locals, they may not know about high-quality Italian sandwich institutions that also sell groceries from the old country in the western San Fernando Valley. DeFranko's Submarines (1974) near Van Nuys Airport and Dan's Super Subs (1980) in Woodland Hills both serve noteworthy sandwiches, but five delis and markets truly stand out by offering more holistic Italian eating and shopping experiences.

It’s been many years since Lou Cavaretta strolled the aisles at Cavaretta's Italian Deli in Canoga Park, but his legacy lives on thanks to Paul Nunneri and business partner David Weisberg. Their time-tested deli dates to 1959 and displays a map of Italy and enough L.A. Dodgers bobbleheads to defeat a small army. Deli cases and shelves house imported Italian ingredients like prosciutto, mortadella, Pecorino Romano, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and provolone cheeses, San Marzano tomatoes, a huge variety of dried pastas, olive oils, and sweets. Sandwiches arrive on sesame seed rolls delivered daily. “The Italian” is a good place to start, stacking mortadella, Molinari & Sons salame cotto, capicola, and provolone with “the works.” House-made lasagna baked every day with ricotta, Italian sausage, ground beef, mozzarella, and marinara is another crowd-pleaser. Bonus: first-time customers receive complimentary cannoli.

Cricca's Italian Deli & Subs in Woodland Hills is a great last stop before driving or biking into the nearby Santa Monica Mountains. Italian-Argentinean brothers Dante and Jose Cricca teamed with wives Elvita and Lucrecia on this family deli in 1969. Current owners Kevin McHenry and wife Marla took over Cricca’s in 2016. They stock a limited selection of Italian groceries, not much beyond extra virgin olive oil and Luigi Vitelli Italian peeled tomatoes. People come to Cricca’s for large “Super Subs” on either soft or crusty rolls. The Godfather is their most popular sandwich, a six-meat monster teaming turkey with roast beef, capicola, ham, salami, and pepperoni, joining provolone, Swiss, and fixings. Toasted subs like The Dillinger, named for notorious Midwestern bank robber John Dillinger, may be even more devastating, cramming pastrami, meatballs, sausage, pepperoni, mozzarella, garlic butter, and house-made marinara in a hoagie.

Domingo's Italian Deli has been an Encino mainstay since Phyllis and Frank Domingo debuted in 1948. The business reached another gear after Carlo Ghailian bought Domingo’s from the previous owner in 2010. Ghailian’s family goes back generations in Calabria and Naples, so when he took over, added a “Little Italy of the Valley” tagline to further cement the business as “more than just a sandwich shop.” When we’re not in a pandemic, he frequently travels to Italy to source prized ingredients like limited-edition salumi, prosciutto di Parma aged over 36 months, Parmigiano-Reggiano from vacca rossa (red cows), Wagyu-style bresaola, and 100-year balsamic vinegar from Modena. Sandwiches on crackly house-baked ciabatta include Naples-style sausage and rapini and the Spicy Dom. Frittata di pasta, a Naples-style pie made with leftover pasta, egg, tomato, Pecorino Romano, and “Sunday sauce,” is a hot case specialty. They also make sausage in-house and pipe cannoli with sheep’s milk ricotta.

Barbara Pollastrini recently became Domingo’s executive chef. “We’ve always catered to the New York transplant who’s looked for a classic Brooklyn or Arthur Avenue-type deli,” Ghailian says. “With Barbara in the house, we speak to the true Italian as well.”

Philip and Maria Magnanimo partnered with Benito and Gina DeGiosa on Italia Bakery & Deli in 1971. Daughter Maria Angela Magnanimo currently runs the small shop in a Granada Hills strip mall. A deli case displays meats and cheeses, including Italian imports like Cambazola cheese, peppery Norcia salame, garlicky Lombardo salame, pignoli (pine nuts) and bottarga (mullet roe). Shelves house olive oil and other Italian products, and a freezer case features different bagged ravioli. Sandwiches come on a choice of soft, house-baked French-Italian roll or hard baguette. Their basic cold cut sandwich stars mortadella, Genoa salame, salame cotto and Provolone cheese. Chicken Parm, prosciutto, and sausage & meatball sandwiches are also popular. A family member runs a different Italia Deli in Agoura Hills, but they’re not in business together.

Two brothers opened San Carlo Italian Deli in Panorama City in 1974, but it didn’t work out for them. The Roberto family purchased San Carlo in 1975 and made the business a success. The deli’s original location succumbed to a fire during the 1992 riots, but San Carlo reemerged later that year in Chatsworth. In 1994, the Northridge earthquake rocked the deli, but San Carlo again recovered. Now Pasquale Roberto runs San Carlo with Puglia-born father Giovanni Roberto.

They craft pastas like spaghetti, manicotti and tortellini in-house and bake soft and crusty sandwich breads. Sandwiches feature proteins like meatballs, sausage, and silky prosciutto with mozzarella. Several Italian products are also for sale, including San Marzano tomatoes, prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Sicilian olive oil, and preserved fish like anchovies, sardines, and tuna.

Don’t look for innovation at San Carlo. “Not much changes around here,” Pasquale says. “We try to give people a quality product at a reasonable price.”