Giovanni’s Closes on Coast Village Road

By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   January 17, 2019
Giovanni’s on Coast Village Road closes its doors after 32 years in business. Owner Alex Noormand thanks the Montecito community and his loyal customers for three successful decades of serving pizza and authentic Italian food.

After 32 years in business, Giovanni’s on Coast Village Road closed its doors earlier this week. Owner Alex Noormand, who has spent six days a week at the pizzeria for the last 32 years, tells us the closure is “heartbreaking,” and he will miss seeing his loyal customers day in and day out. 

The space in Coast Village Plaza was once home to Wells Fargo Bank in the 80s; Noormand moved to town after owning a chain of restaurants in Los Angeles and opened Giovanni’s in both Montecito and Carpinteria. He says his four kids and eight grandkids have grown up in the old school pizza parlor, which has been the backdrop for many family parties and celebrations. Noormand and his wife, Sheri, have been married 52 years, and three of their kids, Shannon, Alex, and Shawn, have gone on to own and operate their own eateries. Shannon owns the popular Crushcakes chain of restaurants; Alex owns Yellow Belly on De La Vina Street in Santa Barbara, and Shawn has owned and operated the Carpinteria Giovanni’s for the last decade. Noormand’s son Justin works in computer science. “He was the smart one for not following in our footsteps!” Noormand laughed. 

The casual space featured arcade games and gumball machines, as well as large TVs, making it a kid-friendly dining option in Montecito. “It’s been a pleasure to serve three generations of families here,” Noormand said. “My customers and I are on a first name basis; they know my family and I know theirs,” he said. Since the beginning, the eatery has served only homemade, authentic Italian food, utilizing old family recipes. “Everything is made from scratch here, including all of the sauces and dressings,” Noormand said. 

Noormand says that since word got out that his lease would not be renewed, which was not his decision, customers have been extra supportive the last few months, bringing in their families multiple times a week for dinner. “It’s been really incredible, the support and loyalty from the community for all of these years, and especially in the last few months,” he said. In December, on a normal Wednesday evening when Noormand was manning the counter at the pizza parlor, several of his close friends and family members started trickling in the door. “I thought it was coincidence that everyone was going to eat here,” he said. But when over 40 of his friends and family members showed up, he was touched that they had organized a surprise reunion of sorts, a last hurrah to mark the end of an era at the Montecito Giovanni’s. “It was really special,” he said. 

Noormand, who says he is not yet done with the restaurant business or Giovanni’s, is actively looking for a new space to reopen. “First I’m going to take a long vacation,” he laughed. “But when I get back, I’m going to find another place to open up.” Until then, his massive pizza oven and equipment will be stored away until a new space is identified.

“I can’t thank my customers enough for all their support,” he said. With each year better than the last, he has the Montecito community to thank. “They could have stopped coming years ago, and I would have gone out of business. But they didn’t. They just kept returning to support us, and I will never forget it.” 

 

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