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Nona’s Italian Deli will officially open this Monday at 415 E. De La Guerra St., the former home of the Italian Grocery.
Behind the wheel is Edith Ziliotto, who came to the United States as a teenager from northern Italy in 1949.
Ziliotto’s former husband, Valentino, operated the grocery store with her help before his passing in 2014.
Ziliotto had the building constructed back in 1976 and brings 40 years of deli experience to her business, the family matriarch told Noozhawk.
Family, community and history intertwine at Nona’s, which translates to grandmother in Italian. As a child growing up in Italy, Ziliotto said she would run out to buy her family’s food, and still comes in to work at 7 a.m. every day.
“She’s been working her entire life,” said Marli Acquistapace, one of her granddaughters helping with the opening.
The continuous work is much more fulfilling than “lying in bed and staring up at the ceiling,” Ziliotto said.
Nona’s is also an opportunity for members of the family — children, grandchildren and, eventually, great-grandchildren — to work.
Ziliotto’s granddaughters described neighbors’ hugs, flowers, presents and even tears after finding out she was reopening the longtime staple of the community as a deli and grocery store.
The new establishment modernized the facilities, they said, while continuing to offer traditional Italian tastes, with a focus on northern Italy.
Nona’s now sports indoor seating and will have grab-and-go hot food, cold food, sandwich combos, salads, tiramisu and, soon, hot sandwiches and soups.
The deli will have specialty Italian items that can’t be found anywhere else, Ziliotto said.
Modern ONTRApreneur Awards accepting applications
Ontraport, a Santa Barbara-based company, is accepting applications for its second-annual Modern ONTRApreneur Awards, a competition for entrepreneurs and their small businesses who are succeeding at organization, marketing, publishing and selling.
The 10-year-old company provides an all-in-one business-management platform where businesses can automate a variety of business processes and logistics.
The platform “basically simplifies entrepreneurs’ lives by taking all the single-point solutions that you would use, the very different tools that you would use out in the world to run your business, and bring them all together in one streamlined simple tool,” Ontraport president Lena Requist told Noozhawk.
The applicants will be judged on the success of their marketing and sales campaigns, their presence and business operations and the creativity of their answers.
The five winners’ prizes include $5,000, a one-year account with the company and an all-access pass to Ontraport’s October conference.
“The people who should apply are really people who, like Ontraport, are on a mission, trying to make a difference in the world, and are hustling and doing some great things,” Requist said.
The concept for the awards originated with Requist’s amazement with the success of entrepreneurs who utilized their creativity and grit to make their companies succeed with little outside help.
“There aren’t a ton of awards out there that recognize hustle and creativity and doing something good for humanity and overcoming the technology burden,” she said.
Ontraport’s conference, Ontrapalooza, will be held October 13-14 at the Fess Parker, A Doubletree by Hilton Resort at 633 E. Cabrillo Blvd.
Requist said she expects some 600 business owners to attend the workshop-oriented event, which focuses on taking steps at the event itself to improve businesses’ marketing and management.
The deadline to apply for the Awards is Aug. 19.
Joseph DeVivo stepping in as InTouch Health CEO
Telehealth company InTouch Health named former AngioDynamics president and CEO Joseph DeVivo as its new CEO.
The Goleta-based company provides technology-based services to healthcare providers so they themselves can provide their own health services via telecommunication.
DeVivo is taking over for Yulun Wang, who has been InTouch’s CEO and chairman of the board since the company’s beginnings in 2002. Wang will continue on as chairman and the company’s new chief innovation officer.
DeVivo “brings the right kind of leadership and experience to help our customers and company achieve increasing success as telehealth expands on a global scale,” Wang said in a press release.
The new CEO brings 25 years of healthcare-industry experience from a number of organizations to InTouch, the company said.
Santa Barbara Pet Services rebrands itself as Nathan Woods, Dog Trainer
Santa Barbara Pet Services is now known as Nathan Woods, Dog Trainer.
Woods offers comprehensive individualized and group self-paced dog trainings and consultations in the Santa Barbara area.
Along with the rebranding, Woods will be investing greater time and energy in dog-training educational resources, including training films and DVDs, an e-newsletter, and training tips, according to a press release.
Woods also runs the Loose Pooch Dog Club, a dog daycare facility at 1925 State Street in Santa Barbara.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.