30a restaurants italian

June 10, 2021

Angelina’s Pizzeria & Pasta: Building a pizzeria from the dough up

June 6, 2021
By Pam Windsor

SEAGROVE BEACH – When it comes to local favorites, Angelina’s Pizzeria & Pasta ranks high on the list.

The family-style Italian restaurant featuring homemade pizza and specialty pasta dishes first opened its doors in February of 1994. Owners Brian and Jan Ethridge got the idea for Angelina’s after reading an article in Entrepreneur Magazine about another husband and wife that opened a successful pizzeria in California.

“I thought, we can do this!” Brian recalls. “So, we started looking at different locations.”

They had already decided on South Walton as a great place to live and raise their daughter, and with only one pizza restaurant in the area at the time, it seemed the perfect spot to open their new business. They also had unique backgrounds that Brian says prepared them well for this type of restaurant.

“Jan went to Johnson & Wales University (for culinary arts and restaurant management), and I worked in pizzerias and restaurants growing up. In fact, I lived behind a pizzeria in New Jersey and that’s where I learned to make pizza.”

“I’d say that’s pretty much the key: making your own ingredients. And we hand-toss all of our pizzas to order.” – Brian Ethridge, co-owner

At Angelina’s, the pizza – and just about everything – is made in-house.

“We make our own dough, we grate our own cheese, and we make our own sauce,” Brian says. “I’d say that’s pretty much the key: making your own ingredients. And we hand-toss all of our pizzas to order.”

While Angelina’s is well-known for pizza, there are many specialty pasta dishes that also keep customers coming back. Like the chicken piccata.

“It’s not like most chicken piccatas,” Brian explains. “We marinate the chicken in Italian dressing and when you do that, and you put it into the flour, it almost creates a batter on the chicken. And when you finish that off with butter and lemon and capers, how can it not be good?”

Lasagna is another popular dish, made here with beef and sausage. Then, there is the Stromboli.

“The Stromboli is to die for,” says Brian with a laugh. “We use a pizza dough, then add provolone cheese, salami, ham, pepperoni, and mozzarella. Then we roll it off, bake it in the oven, and serve that with marinara. It’s really good!”

Along with the expansive food menu, guests can choose from a variety of beverages like Coca Cola, Dr. Pepper, iced tea, lemonade, coffee, and more. Beer and wine are also available, and for a little something special, the white sangria comes highly recommended.

Desserts include the classic tiramisu, along with French silk, key lime pie, and others. Specialty coffees are also available.

While carryout is always available, guests choosing to dine-in can enjoy a warm, cozy atmosphere.

“We have the checkered tablecloths, and my wife has an Italian background, so she has her Italian family pictures on the wall. It’s a very home-like environment.”

Nearly three decades after opening its doors, Brian, Jan, and the entire staff at Angelina’s Pizzeria & Pasta remain dedicated to serving exceptional food and offering a memorable dining experience, every single day.

Angelina’s Pizzeria & Pasta is located at 4005 E. Co. Hwy. 30A in Santa Rosa Beach. No reservations needed; reach them by phone at 850-231-2500 or online at www.angelinas30a.com. Open seven days a week, Sunday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

January 18, 2019

Chef Manolack Vongsouvanh Embracing The Comfort of Italian Cuisine

Blog

By Stephanie Burt

Chef Manolack Vongsouvanh is used to people stumbling a bit at his name, so as he’s moved up to his role as executive chef, he’s happily adopted the moniker “Chef Lock.” He’d rather those at the chef’s counter feel comfortable chatting with him than feel worried that they might mispronounce his name. It’s that same accommodation, that same desire for guests to feel comfortable, that keeps him coming back to amici 30a Italian Kitchen daily, continuously tweaking a menu that changes every other month.

“We really want to keep traditional flavors – and we have – but our focus is that this is a place for everybody,” Chef Lock said. “That’s really why we have gluten-free pasta options. It’s important to me that everyone feel comfortable here, that they come in and there is something that they can eat.”

Chef Lock knows a thing or two about feeling comfortable. He and his family migrated from a war-torn Laos when he was just a child, and the family settled in Utica, N.Y., in a neighborhood full of Lebanese and Italian immigrants. Although Lock describes himself as “not really involved in cooking at home as a kid,” he spent a lot of time in his friends’ homes, and it was the food – especially Italian food – that really started to anchor him in his newly adopted country.

Although he did a lot of other jobs, cooking eventually found him, and he dove into the precise work with gusto, moving up through the kitchen ranks, then moving to the 30A area a couple of years ago for a change of pace.

“I love this place,” he said. “It’s so laid back and it’s great to be around the water. This is the place to be to reflective and enjoy life a little.” He worked at Seacrust Pizza in Seacrest and as a private chef before the Corchis family tapped him to open amici last year as its executive chef.

Spend any time at the restaurant, and you’ll notice that the chef’s counter is the place to be, namely because Chef Lock loves to interact with his guests. He believes that food is about building community, and he really enjoys seeing the people he cooks for eat the food that he has prepared with his staff.

“Our kitchen is totally open, so I’m right there with the guests,” he explained.

Sure, it might be a little unusual to find a first-generation Laotian American cooking traditional Italian with local Florida ingredients, but to Chef Lock, it just makes sense. He’s drawn to the way Italian cooking places an emphasis on letting the ingredients shine, and the simplicity of fine ingredients creates a base where fresh and flavorful become the standard.

Take for instance, his love of the warm green salad, something he says “is so simple but one of my favorites. We do this kind of spin on collards, but with Italian greens, and we add some parm[esan] and a little chili flake for heat. It’s kind of a wow factor because it’s so simple that people don’t always go for it, but when they do, they are wowed by the amount of flavor in this dish. It’s what we like to do: wow people with fresh.”