Anto's Pizza Romana & Italian Market In Conway, South Carolina: Meet The Chef

Jun 30

We sat down with Executive Chef Anthony Ludovici DeBrigida of Anto's Pizza Romana & Italian Market in Conway, South Carolina. Anto’s Pizza Romana & Italian Market is a warm, nostalgic experience, with its family-run vibe, intimate decor featuring personal photos, and soft jazz filling the air. Their New York and Roman-style pizzas, crafted with a unique NY Watermaker filtration system to replicate authentic New York water, deliver a perfectly crisp yet chewy crust, paired with fresh, high-quality ingredients like those in their signature Margarita or meat lover’s pies. Many consider Anto’s the best in South Carolina for this innovative water process, authentic recipes rooted in the owner’s Italian heritage, and exceptional garlic knots, earning rave reviews for a true taste of Italy in the heart of Conway.

Tell us about what your morning routine looks like, and how you like to end your day?

I get to the shop between 8 and 9 every morning. First thing I do is make an espresso and take our dough out of the cooler to sit out a bit. Most days we make 3 batches of dough first thing (2 batches of our NY dough and one batch of Roman dough). While that’s mixing, I start making our slice pies to start the day. We’re downtown so we usually get a pretty good lunch crowd with a lot of people coming in for pie by the slice. I’ll make anywhere from 15-20 different pies to start, and then I start partaking our Roman crusts for the day. I like to end my day with another espresso after the shops all cleaned up and ready to go for the next day, and my wife and I will usually sit in the dining room and make dinner before we go home for the night.

Do you have any awards or achievements you’d like to mention?

We just won Best Pizza on the Grand Strand from WMBF news here in Conway. Sun News also had a Best of the Beach contest which were also a finalist for Best Pizza but that voting is still going on. We were nominated for Best Pizza in South Carolina from the Guide to South Carolina but I dropped the ball and never confirmed our entry in there because I saw their email 3 months late lol. We had our first competition in Vegas this past March and finished 6th in Roman Pizza and 24th in Pan overall. Our second competition will be in Rome at the Pizza World Cup at the end of September. It’s been a busy 8 months since we opened up.

Do you have a favorite chef that you look up to and what advice would you give to aspiring chefs?

I’d have to say my favorite chef is Chris Bianco. I try and do my own thing as far as our style of pies but if I had to emulate one chef it would definitely be him!

What do you typically cook at home?

I don’t cook at home very often cuz my wife is a much better cook than me, but when I do it’s usually just traditional Italian food. I still use my Pop’s sauce recipe and cook a good amount of pasta, lasagna, risotto, things like that.

What’s a food trend that you’re loving right now and why?

Just like everyone else I’ve been on the hot honey train for a couple years now. It’s just so good and pairs with so many different flavors that it’s hard not to throw that on a pie. But lately I’ve been really into microgreens and different citrus zests.

What’s the strangest food combination you’ve ever tried? And, did you like it?

That’s a tough one, but I think it’d have to be duck confit on a pizza. I’ve been making a lot of pies with Chef Darren Smith, who owns Rivertown Bistro just down the street from us. He’ll come down after closing time with a bottle of wine and some different things from his restaurant and we’ll come up with some crazy pies. He brought some duck confit down and I wasn’t really familiar with it, but strangely enough it was really good on our Roman crust.

What drink do you enjoy most?

Sunday through Saturday evening my favorite drink is a double espresso. Saturday night after we close my favorite drink is a glass of Chianti or two. We’re closed Sundays, so Saturday is the end of our work week. That’s how we like to end the week.

Have you ever cooked for a celebrity? Do you have a story to tell?

I think the closest I’ve come to cooking for a celebrity is making a pie that Dave Portnoy reviewed when I was working in the Florida Keys. That was fun because he gave me a hard time after I showed him my tattoo of Tom Brady getting strip sacked to lose Super Bowl 52 (Go Birds).

What’s your Instagram so readers can follow you?

Our Instagram is @antospizzaromana and our Facebook page is Anto’s Pizza Romana & Italian Market!

Why should readers visit Anto’s Pizza Romana & Italian Market in Conway, South Carolina?

I think our pies are different from a traditional NY style pizza shop you would go to in the area. We are one of the few in the state that offer Roman Style, and although we call our round pies NY style it is kind of a cross between NY and Neapolitan style pizza. We pride ourselves in only using the freshest and cleanest ingredients - and we have had tons of people that are gluten intolerant or can’t eat pizza or most dough, come in and have had no issues eating our pies.

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