Photo by Carla Merrill

Emily Stewart, Chandler Parker, Chase Ferguson and Emily Oldham enjoying pizza at Little Italy Friday afternoon.

Auburn students asked for it, and the Little Italy Pizzeria delivered. Owner/manager Mark McCurg said that when visiting the restaurant in Athens, Ga., Auburn students have always urged the Little Italy Pizzeria owners to open a restaurant in Auburn. The owners answered the call and opened the Little Italy Pizzeria in Auburn last Thursday at 129 E. Magnolia Ave.

“Every time a lot of the Auburn students come up there to Georgia they’re like ‘when are you going to put one down here,’ McCurg said. “So, finally we started looking around a couple of years ago and in December everything kinda fell into place and we decided to open one up down here.”

While there are several restaurants located in Athens, Little Italy is still a family owned business that has been around for nearly 20 years. The restaurant also uses only fresh ingredients.

“We make our own dough, we make our own sauce, we grate our cheese, we cut our cold cuts fresh every day, we cut produce every day fresh - none of our stuff comes frozen,” McCurg said.

Little Italy offers pizza by the slice, whole pizzas, subs, calzones, stromboli and salads. Prices range from $1.85 for a slice to around $23 for a 16 x 16 inch pizza. Pizza crusts offered are Napolitan (thin crust) and Sicilian (thick crust) and customers can also build their own pizza. All subs are footlongs and run around $7.

Little Italy will soon offer Budweiser, Bud Light, Amberbock and Michelob Ultra on tap and other bottled choices. They will also serve wine by the glass.

Little Italy is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m.