Milano’s Italian Grill coming to downtown Vicksburg

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Milano’s Italian restaurant is coming to downtown Vicksburg. It will be in the 1300 block of Washington Street across from 10 South and the Key City Brewery.

Owner Ylli Makolli (pronounced U-Lee Ma-ko-lee) believes he will be open in about six weeks.

Makolli operates restaurants in Louisiana including Milano’s Italian Grill in West Monroe along with a Roma Italian Restaurant. Makolli had originally planned to open a Roma at the corner of South and Washington in Vicksburg but that was just before COVID-19 hit.

Makolli was born in Albania and grew up in Europe. Albania is due east of Italy, just across the Adriatic Sea. Makolli later moved to New York and then to Louisiana about 10 years ago.

“When I came to America I worked 20 hours a day for almost two years non-stop,” explained Makolli. “I started cooking about eight years ago.”

“We as an Albanian community here in the United States, we help each other. We put ourselves in, like a chain, and we help each other. Whatever they need done businesswise or whatever. We are very connected to each other.”

Speaking about Milano’s, Makolli said, “All our dishes, all our ingredients are fresh. We cook the bread fresh every day, we make it in-house. All lasagnas are made in the house. There is nothing we buy ready[pre-made].”

“We love Vicksburg. We’ve been trying to come here for five years. It takes a lot to make a business work and we’re ready now,” said Makolli.

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Editors note – a correction was made to the article. Albania is east of Italy. We blame David Day.