Local Pizza Place Lands on List of Most Amazing Tiny Restaurants in Illinois

You know what I love about Only in Your State? It has introduced me to so many places and things I've never seen or heard about here in Illinois. Any time my boyfriend and I would come up empty with ideas on what do to over any given weekend, especially during the summer months, we'd pull up Only in Your State and check all of their "best of" lists.

It's what brought me to Starved Rock State Park, Illinois Beach State Park and a handful of out of the way restaurants. One of those restaurants, which I actually learned about last year, was just featured on "These 10 Tiny Restaurants in Illinois are Actually Amazing" list.

When talking about good things coming in small packages, Anna's Pizza in Winnebago definitely earned their spot at number 4 on the list.

Anna's Pizza was the winner of our Rockford's Best contest last year for "Best Pizza;" that's when I met their owner, Brian Weavel, for the very first time. He's by far one of the most passionate people you will ever meet when it comes to all things pizza, which explains why the community of Winnebago, and now the entire state of Illinois, loves Anna's so much.

Does your kid need a great job? Brian will give them one. Do you have a child with special needs who wants nothing more than to come in and be a pizza maker for a day? Brian and the staff at Anna's will make it happen. Is their a cause that your passionate about and want to raise awareness and spread the word? Oh yeah, they do that too.

Anna's Pizza may be small but it's run by people with huge hearts and they serve the best food with big flavor. I'm honored to call Brian and his staff my friends.

Who else made the list?

• Landmark Cafe and Creperie in Galesburg
• Schiraz in Jacksonville
• Billy's Tap, Canton
• Isidro's Tamales and Taqueria, Kankakee
• Doc's Smokehouse, Edwardsville
• Otto's Place, Galena
• This is it Eatery, Freeport (yay Freeport)
• Bobby's Barrel Inn, Volo
• Jimmie James Blue Gooses, Mount Vernon