Anna Marie’s Italian Cuisine uses recipes from homeland

Step into Anna Marie’s Italian Cuisine and it’s immediately clear that this is no standard pizza joint. The decor is upscale: rgonomic chairs, tile flooring and UFO lighting.

The eatery seats about 85, and there’s a bar area with wide-screen TVs. Expect songs such as Michael Buble’s “This Crazy Life,” Tony Bennett’s “Fly Me to the Moon” and Van Morrison’s “Moondance.” Food specials go along with happy hour. Lunch selections are $10.

The Pota family, Ralph and Anna Marie, former operators of Bambino’s, come from Italian roots. Ralph was born in Naples and began working in restaurants in the New York City area when he was 10. He and Anna Marie had long planned to open a restaurant where one can “have a nice dinner or come in with the family and not feel like you have to be dressed up,” Ralph Pota said.

Appetizers include jumbo shrimp cocktail, baked clams, chicken wings, an antipasto platter and fried calamari. The Italian club with prosciutto, ham, hard salami and mortadella goes for $11; a sausage, pepper and onion one for $10. There are also parmigiana-style sandwiches with choice of meatball, eggplant, shrimp sausage or chicken, from $9.

Diners can create pizzas with New York-style thin crust with a choice of more than 20 toppings. There also are deep-dish pizza, a thick-crust Sicilian style and the Grandma pie, a family favorite from the Pota family’s roots in Naples.

Contact Jan Hogan at jhogan@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2949.