Sam’s Deli plans to open second Fresno location. Why one business owner isn’t happy

Longtime Fresno favorite Sam’s Deli is planning a second location, aiming for a location in the Villaggio shopping center at Blackstone and Nees avenues in Fresno.

The news has customers — who have long begged the business at First Street and Clinton Avenue for another location in the city — rejoicing and sending messages of support.

But it also left one business out in the cold.

One of the three spaces Sam’s Italian Deli and Market’s owners are looking at is Sierra Nut House, the wine bar, bistro and store currently open in Villaggio near Horn Photo.

Sierra Nut House will move. However, owner JoAnn Sorrenti said she would prefer to stay and wishes the landlord had talked to her first.

“I didn’t even get a say in it,” she told The Bee. “I especially want them to know that it was not my choice.”

She first heard about a deal with Sam’s in the works while on vacation at the coast when an employee called saying someone wanted to come measure the Nut House for Sam’s.

Sierra Nut House has been at the spot for 20 years, since the shopping center opened. She’s paid her $11,000 rent on time, she said. Her lease expires at the end of the year and she had planned to renew. Instead she’s looking for a new location.

Sorrenti already has something in the works for a new location in Clovis. It’s not a done deal yet, so she won’t share details.

“I’m not saying yet, but I’m going to get a space that I’ve wanted for years,” she said.

Technically, that spot will replace the Sierra Nut House location that closed in January at Sierra and Chestnut avenues.

Sorrenti is looking also for a location in Fresno for the Villaggio shop to move to. She hopes all the hubbub surrounding the news of Sam’s new location will help identify a new home for her.

But there’s no bad blood between the owners of the two businesses. Sorrenti considers Sam’s owner Nick Marziliano a friend and the two have spoken about the situation.

Sorrenti, who said she doesn’t want to bother trying to negotiate with the landlord to stay, will keep Sierra Nut House open until the end of 2024, through the holiday season busy with gift baskets.

Another of the spaces Sam’s wants to take over is occupied by medical spa Rejuvimed. The owner was not immediately available to comment.

If all goes as planned for Sam’s, the second location will open in summer of 2025.

How did this happen?

Sam’s hasn’t signed a lease yet, but it has signed a letter of intent. That’s a real estate agreement outlining plans between a renter and the landlord.

Typically, business owners keep quiet about their plans until a lease is signed. But the news got out prematurely, Marziliano acknowledged.

“I’m very confident that this is going to go through because we’ve come to a great agreement between us,” he said. I’m pretty confident we are going to sign a lease.”

Sam’s owners have been thinking about expanding for years. Representatives of the shopping center came to Marziliano, trying to lure him into opening at Villaggio, he said.

The spot at Villaggio includes Sierra Nut House and the two spaces north of it.

At first, the shopping center offered just two spaces totaling 4,000 square feet, but that wasn’t big enough. Marziliano wanted 7,800 square feet, he said in a conversation with Pismo’s owner David Fansler in KMJ’s The Restaurateurs podcast.

He told The Bee in a phone interview that the shopping center came back with a third space that would give them the room he wanted.

“They just told us that three units were available,” he said. “That’s how it was presented to us.”

The Villaggio shopping center was built by the Fresno-based Tutelian family. It was sold in 2007 to Mobile Land, a division of homebuilder Elliott Homes in Folsom.

Elliott’s chief financial officer, Steve Hemington, declined to comment when reached by The Bee, saying a deal had not been finalized yet.

What will a new Sam’s look like?

Sam’s Deli, though in the midst of remodeling its current location, is overcrowded. Its hot sandwiches, deli meats and cheeses and wine are popular with Fresnans.

The business ranked in Yelp.com’s “Top 100 U.S. restaurants” last year. It turns 44 this year.

“Fresno has become so big that we definitely could support two stores,” Marziliano said.

You can hear Marziliano daydream about the new location in the KMJ podcast with Fansler, whose Pismo’s restaurant is in the same center.

The new Sam’s will have a front entrance and one in the back, where there is more parking available (similar to the set up Horn Photo has now).

“Everything you’ll find here at the First and Clinton store, you’ll find there,” Marziliano told The Bee.

It will have a larger cafe, deli, wine and a pasta bar. More room means they can make mozzarella from scratch, (something they can’t do now) and do more baking.

Plans are still being worked out, but there will likely be tables out front with umbrellas, and a pick-up window in the back for food delivery orders.

“I really want to make it the Central Valley’s version of an Eataly,” said Marziliano, referring to the chain of Italian marketplaces with restaurants, cheese counters and all kinds of Italian goods.

During their podcast, Fansler pledged a $100,000 investment to Sam’s new location. In addition to the money Sam’s is spending, the pair estimated they will be looking for $3 million more from investors, in $100,000 increments.

Since news of Sam’s Deli’s plans broke, the business has been inundated with well wishers.

“The community has been so great to us, supporting us here at First and Clinton,” Marziliano said.