Imagine a typical "Instagrammable" restaurant. There's probably bright and colorful decor, almost definitely a photo backdrop wall, which is most likely covered in some sort of plastic greenery, and a neon sign — and not the old-school beer kind. The food is presumably pretty, likely at the expense of some flavor. And there are no doubt hordes of customers snapping selfies.
At Amici Pizza in Mesa, the exact opposite is true. Yet the restaurant has over 300,000 followers on TikTok and 24 million likes.
So, what's the secret that made this little pizzeria go viral online? We stopped by to find out.
Amici Pizza is owned by Kateri Cusumano and Vinny Pante. Pante's father owned Buono's Pizza from 1989 through the early 2000s, and the Cusumano family bought the restaurant in 2018. In 2023,