Indras Govender is not Italian by heritage, nor was he born American. That makes him especially proud of running Giovanni’s Pizza, one of the oldest Italian-American restaurant empires in Santa Barbara. Today, 35 years since he first set foot in the pizza parlor, Govender owns the original location that started on State Street in 1979 and just opened a new location this year near the corner of Hollister and Storke in Goleta.
“I’m so passionate about the business and what it’s done for me,” said Govender, whose family is originally from India but settled four generations ago near Durban, South Africa, where he was born and raised. “Imagine coming as a foreigner to a new country and, within four years, having the opportunity to own your own business. It sounds cliché, but I really am living the American dream.”
(The third Giovanni’s location in Carpinteria, opened in 1987, is still owned by the second generation of the Noormands that cofounded the brand with the Babai family. Other locations once existed on Coast Village Road and the Mesa, while Noormand descendants also own Crushcakes, Yellow Belly, and Pegaslice.)…