Local pizzeria to be featured on show

VW independent staff/submitted information

Local restaurant Wild Willy’s will be hosting a visit from America’s Best Restaurants (ABR) in early August. 

America’s Best Restaurants, a national media and marketing company focusing on bringing attention to local, independently-owned restaurants, will bring its ABR Roadshow to the restaurant on August 7.  Popular dishes will be highlighted, along with an extensive on-camera interview with owner William Gamble about the restaurant’s special place in the community. The episode will be aired extensively on social media channels at a later date.

Wild Willy’s was nominated to be on the Roadshow by customer and fan Michael Banks. 

Gamble opened the first Wild Willy’s in 1994 in downtown Van Wert, left for a career with the post office and then reopened the eatery with friends in 2008. He left again, the restaurant closed after a time, and Gamble reopened about one-and-a-half years ago.

The family-run eatery serves a variety of subs, pizza, pasta, wings, stromboli and calzone, and desserts. The restaurant is active in the local community as a sponsor and doing fundraising for such organizations as the Van Wert County Council on Aging and local theater.

America’s Best Restaurants will be filming on location from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Wednesday, August 7.The restaurant’s finished episode premiere date will be announced on their Facebook page and will be featured on America’s Best Restaurants’ website.

Restaurants featured on the ABR Roadshow are selected based on their customer reviews, menu items, social media presence, and level of involvement with their community.