L'articolo riguarda il negozio DeVitis Italian Market ad Akron. Il proprietario ora è Nick DeVitis, il nipote di Laura e Tony DeVitis che gestivano il negozio dalla fine di dicembre 2024. Nick si stava preparando per diventare proprietario da quando avevo 14 anni e ha iniziato a lavorare lì. Il negozio è noto per i suoi panini che vengono venduti in più di 100 località tra cui supermercati, stazioni di servizio, Summa Health, varie scuole, alcuni bar e altri mercati. Il panino più popolare è l’Hoagie Italiano di Angelo. Per $6.50, puoi comprare questo panino con una bevanda e delle patatine. Nick ora ha cominciato a vendere una focaccia utilizzando la stessa ricetta di sua nonna. Nick è la quarta generazione proprietaria del negozio. Secondo Nick, la tradizione del negozio è la stessa che desiderano per i loro clienti: famiglie che mangiano insieme attorno al tavolo e conversano tra loro.

Nick DeVitis' preparation to one day run his family business started when he was 14, dusting and stocking shelves at DeVitis Italian Market in Akron's North Hill. Now, he's the fourth-generation, sole owner of the popular market after his aunt, Laura DeVitis, and uncle, Tony DeVitis, passed the ownership torch Dec. 31, 2024.

Nick worked at the store full-time in high school during the summers and arranged his college class schedule around working at the store as a young adult. Over the decades, Nick, 41, learned from the best, including the example set by his grandpa, Angelo, and the training he received from his father, Robert, and his aunt and uncles. Uncle David, who is Robert's twin, retired in 2014 and Robert retired in 2020.

The day is long for Nick as a market owner. At least two days a week, he arrives at 3:45 a.m. and works more than 11 hours at the market, which is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays.

A graduate of St. Anthony School, Hoban High School and the University of Akron, Nick is the father of four children, ages 13, 11, 9 and 7. He and his wife, JoEllen, live with their family in Tallmadge.

Retired co-owner Laura, 62, began working full-time at DeVitis nearly 50 years ago, at age 15. She started as a cashier and then moved to the deli before spending most of her career in kitchen production. Her younger brother Tony, 59, started at about the same age and ended up in the back of the house with work in purchasing and business administration. Both Laura and Tony plan to spend more time with their families in retirement. Laura and her husband, Andrew, will move to Seattle in late March to be close to their daughter, Briana Cannon.

Siblings Laura and Tony knew the time was right to sell the business to the next generation. "For the last four years, we've been building up our workforce for this phase and we have the right people," said Laura, whose father, Angelo, was the store's second-generation owner as founder Frank's son. "We wanted to make sure he had the correct facility and the correct crew to set him up for success." "We knew it was in good hands with Nicholas. We have no reservations leaving it to the fourth generation of our founding father," Laura said Tuesday at the store. "He's doing good. He hasn't even called me."

DeVitis Italian Market recently completed a 1,750-square-foot expansion, creating an addition that allowed for more food prep space to make sandwiches and pack to-go foods in the original building's kitchen. The building addition has a walk-in cooler, walk-in freezer, office space and bathroom.

Nick, who worked in numerous capacities at the store since he was a teen, later put his business degree to good use focusing on purchasing and production. Over the last five years, he has focused on the company's wholesale business with DeVitis' Italian subs. That part of the business has taken off, prompting the need for the building expansion and new coolers.

"It's grown way more than I ever thought it was going to in the last few years," Nick said. DeVitis subs are sold at more than 100 locations, including local grocery stores, gas stations, Summa Health, schools, coffee shops and various markets and parks. Most of the sandwiches are made in DeVitis' separate commissary building.

Nick met his wife, JoEllen, when they were teens working at the store. She has stepped down from her job as a nurse to help him run DeVitis now, managing the store's social media and office. She'll also take over the wine department after current wine purchasing manager Laurie LoCascio.

DeVitis is famous for its daily Angelo's Italian Hoagie deal with chips and a drink for $6.50, as well as its weekday hot lunch specials. [In February,] Nick introduced house-made focaccia bread, an Italian flatbread seasoned with olive oil, rosemary, parsley and grated Romano, at the store. "It's just like Nonna's," he said, referring to his grandmother, Janet. "It's been a hit the whole time." [He also] created a new specialty focaccia sandwich with mortadella, prosciutto, capocollo, Italian red peppers and medium sharp provolone.

Laura remembers that it was exciting and fun to come to the store when she was little. For her first job, her father told her to clean the bathroom. She eventually worked the register on Sundays, when wine wasn't sold. Laura went to college for a year but soon realized her heart was with the store. "I say to this day, I don't know what I would have done if I didn't do what I did, because it just felt so normal and real. It was what I was called to do," Laura said. "Food is such an easy way to make people happy," she said. "Food is like a love language."

Nick, who has spent his whole career in food at DeVitis, said he never wanted to work anywhere else, either. "It brings smiles to people's faces," he said. "I love seeing people happy about our products."

As busy as the Christmas seasons were over the last 47 years, Laura said they were her favorite time at the store. "That's kind of like the most exciting," she said. "I don't know what it's like to not work at Christmas. You get your seasonal workers back. Everybody's happy." Nick said Christmas Eve is his favorite because food production is done but the store is serving happy people. "I love getting people their food," he said. "I love knowing that on all those Christmas tables, that DeVitis is gonna be part of it."

Italian immigrant Frank DeVitis came to the U. S. in the mid-1920s and became a partner with Mass Market Produce in downtown Akron a decade later. In the early 1950s, he opened Frank's Fruits & Vegetables in a converted gas station on East Tallmadge Avenue, where son Angelo joined him in business at age 20. The store moved to its current location at 560 E. Tallmadge Ave. in 1960 and was renamed DeVitis & Sons Italian Food & Produce. Frank died in 1966 and Angelo passed away last year at age 92.

Now, Nick said it's important for him as the sole owner of DeVitis to carry on the family legacy of feeding families. He talked about the importance of community at his store, where he knows many of his customers' names because he has so many regulars. "The most important part of our tradition here is the family, we want people to have family meals together, sit down at the table and discuss things and enjoy life," he said.

This article was originally published  in the Akron Beacon Journal, Feb. 7, 2025.

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