Avdiu, who has Italian roots, said Fort Dodge needed a restaurant like Napoli’s.

“I like Fort Dodge,” he said. “I have been looking at a restaurant in Fort Dodge for a long time now. It’s a good community. Fort Dodge needed a home-cooking Italian restaurant.”

The restaurant opened Nov. 21 at 140 S 25th St., the previous location of Lomita’s Mexican Restaurant.

Avdiu said other than the kitchen, the building has not been changed significantly.

-Messenger photos by Chad Thompson Saamy Moriqi, one of the restaurant managers, shows off some freshly baked bread at the recently opened Napoli’s Italian Restaurant, located at 140 S 25th St. in Fort Dodge, recently.

“When I got it, 80 percent of the building was the way I wanted it,” he said. “We just changed 20 percent of the inside. New paint, new tables, new chairs. We did a lot of work in the kitchen. The kitchen is the most important part.”

Avdiu will continue the operations of the Spencer restaurant in addition the one in Fort Dodge.

Saamy Moriqi and Danny Imeri will primarily manage the Fort Dodge location, according to Avdiu.

The two restaurants will also feature the same menu.

Napoli’s offers a wide range of Italian dishes, including baked pastas, pizzas, subs and seafood.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Tony Avdiu, prepares one of his specialty dishes at the newly opened Italian restaurant in Fort Dodge.

“I try to put a little bit of everything on the menu,” Avdiu said. “My favorite one is the seafood combo.”

The seafood combo includes shrimp, scallops, mussels and a choice of either alfredo, marinara or scampi sauce.

“If I am going to eat seafood, that’s what I am going to eat,” Avdiu said. “Everything is going to be amazing, but my favorite one is the seafood combo.”

As far as the chicken dishes, Avdiu said the chicken scarparelli is a favorite.

“I will take all of them, but my favorite one is the chicken scarparelli,” he said.

That dish includes mushrooms, onions and bell peppers with a pink sauce, Avdiu said.

He said the sauce is a mixture of alfredo and marinara.

The pizza is hand-tossed and cooked in a brick oven, according to Avdiu.

“We make our dough daily,” he said. “We make our bread daily. We make everything daily.”

Avdiu also made a promise.

“If anybody comes into my doors and says I am hungry, there wasn’t enough food on the plate, that second plate is on the house,” he said. “Our portions are fair. We put a lot of food on the plate.”

Avdiu learned from his grandfather, Antonio, that the freshness of the food is of most importance.

“Everything we do here is order by order,” Avdiu said. “It’s not pre-made. Everything gets made from scratch. Made from the beginning. If you order seafood combo or shrimp scampi, we will make the sauces right there. All the recipes I have are family recipes.”

“My grandfather had an Italian restaurant for a very long time and everything I learned to do was from him,” he said. “He taught me the most important thing is the product you put out on the table. It’s not the location, it’s not the building, the product is the most important thing.”

Avdiu’s father is Albanian; his mother is Italian.

Avdiu was born in Albania, but spent time in Italy before his family moved to the United States.

“Albania is too close to Italy,” he said. “Albania, if you have a spit ball you can make it there from Italy. It’s right across from the sea. If you have a speedboat you can make it there in less than 30 minutes.”

In 2011, Avdiu moved from Fort Worth, Texas, to Spencer.

“I like the Midwest style to live in,” Avdiu said. “I come up from cold weather and snowing. So I kind of like the life on the Midwest.”

Avdiu said his grandfather, who passed away, also taught him the importance of leadership.

“Every time I work now in the kitchen, I can feel him,” Avdiu said. “The way he was. Like in a kitchen you don’t need to be stressed. You need to be nice, easy and calm because there is a lot of work in it and everything is dependent on you.”

“He told me one day I would be the leader running the kitchen and people would be cooking for me,” Avdiu added. “If you are stressed and screaming that won’t help you with anything. It’s just going to make people not want to be around you. You want people to want to be around you.”

He recalled watching his grandfather in the kitchen.

“I watched my grandfather make homemade sauces, eggplants, cooking pastas,” Avdiu said. “It was fun watching him do it. He would just stand in the kitchen and listen to music. And I watched him go to work. Everything I picked up, I picked up from him. He was fun. He was really nice. It was easy to work with him.”

Avdiu said he can’t imagine doing anything else other than working in a restaurant.

“This is the only stuff I know how to do,” he said. “Because if you put me in front of a computer, I don’t know where to start. But you put me in a kitchen, I know my way. I have been doing this for all my life.”

Napoli’s is open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.