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Opening day at Due Amici pizzeria was proof that New York-style pizza can be popular no matter where you make it.

The line from the service counter stretched outside and around the front of the 60-seat restaurant when it opened nine years ago.

Owners Art Cornielle and Paul Cina welcomed about 200 customers that afternoon, as many people as they serve all day on a busy Friday.

The due amici, or two friends, met here in Charlotte at Corneille’s other restaurant, Ciro’s Italian Restaurant. Later, Cina managed a second Ciro’s that Corneille operated in Pineville for five years. Soon they decided on a new, more casual venture. “There was nobody doing pizza by the slice,” Corneille recalls.

A pizzeria in New York would thrive mostly on walk-up traffic. This one, is done Charlotte-style, with plenty of parking.

The centerpiece of the menu is the pizzas, sold whole (14 or 16 inches) or by the slice. The staff makes the sauces and dough in house every day, using recipes that Cina and Corneille developed.