CHOCOWINITY — Mi Amor’s Pizzeria in Chocowinity is creating a new legacy in a familiar place.

Claudia Malone and her husband Pedro opened the pizzeria back in June, and for Claudia, it was like coming home.

The Chocowinity native started there as an employee back when the same Town Center space off of U.S. Highway 17 Business was called Bob’s.

“I started here. I was a waitress and I delivered,” Malone said. “Because I had enough cooking experience, I helped out in the kitchen.”

She said she has about 15 years in the pizza business, working at Pizza Inn, Papa John’s and the now-closed Time Out, to name a few.

The restaurant space changed hands after Bob’s, finally closing its doors with a less-than-stellar reputation under the name Fox’s.

But the restaurant’s fate would change after disaster struck for Malone and her family. Her husband was injured at his construction job, so the family was in need of a new way to earn income. The two have a total of eight children together.

They took the money they had saved for a house, found one in Farmville and used the rest of the money to open the restaurant. The family received keys to the new home and restaurant space on the same day.

Malone’s first suggestion was to name it Pedro’s Pizzeria after her husband, but he didn’t like that name, so she decided on Mi Amor’s, “my love” in Spanish.

“Our dream was always to open a restaurant,” she said. “I wanted a pizza restaurant. (Pedro) wanted a Mexican restaurant.”

The pizza idea won out, but with one condition: putting a Mexican pizza recipe on the menu with fresh jalapenos included.

“That was the deal,” Malone said. “I cook everything my way. What I can do homemade is homemade.”

Everyone pitches in to help, Malone said, including her mother, her sister and previously two of her daughters.

She said she learned to cook from her mother and got plenty of practice, as her mom was a single mother and had to work long hours.

“We didn’t have a whole lot to eat because she was working,” Malone said. “My mom actually told me over the phone how to make homemade barbecue sauce.”

She said she places a lot of importance on the homemade aspect of the business, even down to making her own oil and vinegar sauce and ranch dressing.

“A lot of my recipes I have actually came from Bob,” she said. “The best thing is me and my husband are like best friends, so we love working together.”

Starting the restaurant certainly wasn’t easy, and they are still working out some kinks, Malone said.

“The biggest thing here is just letting everybody know, ‘Hey, we’re open and the food is really good,’” she said, adding that they want to be a community-based restaurant. “We’re trying to see what the customers want. … There’s nothing we won’t try.”

Eventually, Malone said she hopes customers will recognize the restaurant space for what it is now, not for what it was, and come in to enjoy the casual, family-friendly atmosphere.

“We want a restaurant that’s geared towards the community,” she said.