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The best stateside restaurants in the area tend to be in Lewiston, about 10 mi north of Niagara Falls, New York. If you're seeking a five-star dining experience, it's worth the 30-minute drive (if border crossings are clear) to Niagara-on-the-Lake.
On Lewiston's historic main street (Center Street), Carmelo's has a classy small dining room with an oiled wooden bar, dark-wood beamed ceiling, partial stone walls, and white tablecloths. Fresh and often local ingredients are used in pastas, like homemade ricotta gnocchi with rapini and sweet sausage or slow-cooked veal, pork, and pancetta Bolognese, and in entrées, such as peppercorn-encrusted ahi tuna with a ginger-soy glaze.
Since 1927, the Antonacci family has been serving traditional dishes from the south of Italy like veal à la Francesca, chicken cacciatore, and veal Parmesan. The interior is an explosion of floral wallpaper, pastoral-scene murals, glitzy chandeliers, and faux grapevines.
