America’s Best Restaurants will visit Benvenuti’s Ristorante, a local Italian restaurant, in late June, highlighting the restaurant’s popular dishes and discussing its place in the Norman community.
America’s Best Restaurants focuses on highlighting local, independently-owned restaurants. According to a press release, restaurants featured on the show are chosen based on their customer reviews, menu items, social media presence and level of involvement with their community.
Benvenuti’s Ristorante, owned by Anthony Compagni, combines an upscale dining experience with classic Italian dishes. The restaurant offers classical music and dim lighting paired with generational family recipes.
The dishes that may appear on the show include meatballs, pasta from hell, artisan pizza, pig and scallops and bistecca di santo, according to the release.
Benvenuti’s opened in 2005. The restaurant uses local produce and naturally raised meat from chicken, pork, beef, lamb and veal. The pasta is handmade daily, and desserts are made from scratch every morning.
According to an OU Daily article, the restaurant's popular meatballs are made using recipes handed down through generations of the Compagni family. Many dishes on the menu either originate from the family's heritage or draw inspiration from Compagni family traditions.
“Everything that you can order is a part of a heritage or inspiration, whether that be from my classical training or from my nana,” Compagni told OU Daily in October 2022.
America’s Best Restaurants will film at Benvenuti’s from 2-5 p.m. June 26. The episode premiere date will be announced on the show’s Facebook page and can be found on its website.
This story was edited by Ana Barboza. Riley McDaniel and Avery Avery copy edited this story.
