Special to Iredell Free News

Local restaurant Amalfi’s Pizza will be hosting a visit from America’s Best Restaurants in early February.

America’s Best Restaurants, a national media and marketing company focusing on bringing attention to local, independently-owned restaurants, will bring its ABR Roadshow to the Statesville restaurant on February 5. Popular dishes will be highlighted, along with an extensive on-camera interview with brothers and owners Lando and Antonio Vicidomini, co-owner Rosario Colandrea and other key staff about the restaurant’s special place in the community. The episode will be aired extensively on social media channels at a later date.

The Vicidominis emigrated to the United States from Monte de Procida, Naples, Italy, in the mid-1990s, and opened this location of Amalfi’s in 2015.

Amalfi’s was nominated to be on the show by longtime fan Christine Edwards, who praised the restaurant’s freshly made homemade options, generous portion sizes, and overall deliciousness.

“The pizzas are huge and feature a housemade marinara sauce that I could drink by the bucket,” Edwards noted in her nomination. “Furthermore, they don’t skimp on toppings, no matter what kind of pizza is ordered. Don’t even get me started on desserts. The tiramisu is heavenly, but my absolute favorite in the whole wide world is the housemade gelato. You have not lived until you have tried it.”

The restaurant has a cozy, rustic vibe, with a central stone fireplace, warm colors, and red checkered tablecloths. The menu offers a wide array of Italian specialties, with eleven different chicken dishes, eight styles of pasta in a choice of fourteen sauces — and that doesn’t include the seven baked pasta dishes – seafood, New York and Sicilian style pizzas, strombolis, flatbreads, hot and cold subs, calzones, paninis, salads and soups.

The restaurant’s finished episode premiere date will be announced on their Facebook page and will be featured on America’s Best Restaurants’ website at https://americasbestrestaurants.com/rests/north-carolina/amalfis-pizza.

Restaurants featured on the ABR Roadshow are found through customer nominations or by a restaurant applying to be featured at www.americasbestrestaurants.com.

Amalfi’s Pizza is located at 1712 Old Wilkesboro Road in Statesville. (704) 873-3022. For more information visit www.amalfispizza.com.