Diners with a taste for pasta, pizza and other Italian fare will be able to satisfy that desire beginning Monday. That’s when Everyday Italian will be opening.
Partners Ahmed Hamed and Manager Abdel Mohamed have been renovating the former Billy’s Drive-in building at 3647 Vernon Ave. The new owners bring several years of cooking and pizza-making experience to Kinston.
Hamed, from Jordan, has been working in Italian restaurants in Roanoke, Va., and Greensboro for the last 10 years, upon arriving in the U.S.
Mohamed, a native of Egypt, has lived in the U.S. 16 years and worked with Hamed in Greensboro. More recently, he owned a restaurant of the same name for seven years in Newport. A Snow Hill customer, Tony Cobb, found the building in Kinston and suggested he move here.
Cobb said he often would stop at the Everyday Italian in Newport to eat when traveling to the beach.
“The food is great,” he said. “I love the lasagna there, and (Mohamed) does a grilled chicken breast that’s good.”
Cobb said his favorite is the lasagna, but he likes the Alfredo sauce, too.
The menu features pastas; subs; New York style and Sicilian pan pizzas; chicken, veal, seafood and eggplant hot plates; calzones and Stromboli; salads, including Greek; buffalo wings; appetizers; and cheesecake. There will be daily specials.
“It’s, like, traditional Italian,” Mohamed said.
The restaurant, with its Italian décor, offers a semi-casual setting suitable for families. High chairs and a children’s menu are available.
There is seating for up to 150 people, including a separate room for groups up to 60 people. Carry-out is also available.
Everyday Italian will be open starting Monday from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. For information or to place an order, call 252-686-8000/8001.
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Nolan McNabb isn’t a new barber or even new to Kinston Barber Shop, but he is the new owner. He bought the business and building from Larry Malpass, who retired Dec. 29 after 48 years of barbering.
McNabb came from his native Ontario, Canada, in 2000 to marry a Kinston girl he met online. He worked as a framer and cabinet maker until he began to have thoughts about a profession much familiar to him when he was growing up in Canada.
“The seed was planted when I was very young,” he said, “because my dad was a barber.”
When he heard about a barber school that opened in Greenville, he started attending. He graduated from Motivation and earned his barber license in 2005.
His second barbering job was working for Malpass at the shop he now owns. There, he worked for a time under Roger Stancil, now deceased. Stancil was a motivator for McNabb and taught him beyond the basic skills — the art of barbering.
“Being able to apprentice under (Stancil) was very inspirational,” he said.
The 31-year-old has one employee, Corey Barrow, 24, who has been barbering for three years. The two barbers offer classic hot shaves and haircuts.
“I like the fact that I get to talk to people every day,” McNabb said, “— you know, different aspects of life. … I also enjoy the artistic side of cutting hair.”
McNabb plans to renovate the inside of the shop and bring it back to the original brick walls, concrete floor and tongue-and-groove ceiling, and add flat-screen televisions.
“Just make it a classy little spot,” he said.
The new hours of Kinston Barber Shop, 102 W. Peyton Ave., are 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Fridays and 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. For information, call 252-527-1381.
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com.
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Do you have a new retail business or one that’s undergone a significant change? The Free Press would like to know about it. Contact Margaret Fisher at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com.