It’s 5 p.m. on a Friday afternoon and the dinner rush has just swooped in. The line’s so long it continues out of the store and onto the sidewalk.

Pizzas are twirling in the air and orders are flying back and forth. The smell of cheese and dozens of other interesting toppings glaze into the customer’s noses. The sound of coins jingle as they are tossed into the tip jar labeled, “God knows when you don’t tip.”

It’s another regular day at Antonio’s Pizza by the Slice in Amherst, Mass.

To anyone growing up in Amherst, Antonio’s Pizza is part of the community. Its “pizza by the slice” attracts kids, teenagers, college students, and adults. With its downtown location, many middle school and high school students stop by after school for a bite. Students at Amherst College and the University of Massachusetts drop in while cruising the downtown area.

Upon stepping into the pizza shop you can just feel the air changing. Antonio’s has an environment that speaks greatly about Amherst’s culture. When I lived in Amherst I was amazed if I managed to get a table or a stool by the window. The shop had clearly outgrown its space but continued to operate in the long strip of stores separated only briefly now and then by an alley so narrow only one person could fit through it at a time.

Due to the space restrictions the store constantly buzzed. It seemed no matter how many customers were in the shop, there was always a need to get them in and out ASAP. The workers talked fast, and it seemed as if all of them knew Spanish. Used to busy days, they always made sure you got your order fast so that they could keep the business running smoothly.

It isn’t just the atmosphere of Antonio’s Pizza that gives it its reputation. The pizza itself varies broadly and is its own unique genre. Toppings you would never think to put on a pizza or add together are right in front of your nose. And, amazingly, they taste extraordinary! There has never been a piece of pizza I have tried from Antonio’s that I did not fall in love with.

Antonio’s opened in 1991 and, at the time, Amherst was its only location. Townspeople in Amherst like to claim there is no other pizza place like it. The success of Antonio’s was so great, the shop grew across the country. Shops set up near Brown University in Providence, R.I., Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

After leaving Amherst I thought I’d seen the end of pizza places like Antonio’s. So imagine my surprise when I learned that there is an Antonio’s Pizza in the very town I moved to when, up until that time, I thought Antonio’s Pizza was only in Amherst. It amazed me. I thought, “What are the chances that the two places I have lived in are the two places that this same pizza place resides?” The idea was, to be straightforward, utterly exciting.

As soon as I entered the Antonio’s in Campustown I didn’t need to be told twice that it was related to the Antonio’s Pizza in Amherst. The arrangement of the shop was scary in similarity. It even had the signature giant mirrors lining the walls.

The one main thing I noticed that was different was its size. Although the same shape as the Antonio’s in Amherst, the Antonio’s at the U of I doesn’t have the feeling that its maximum capacity will burst at any moment. There are tables available to sit at, and you don’t feel as if you couldn’t be any closer to the person waiting in line next to you.

But everything else seemed almost identical to the Antonio’s in Amherst — most importantly, the unique and delicious pizza.

Amherst and Champaign-Urbana are not exactly amazingly similar. But one thing connects them in a sensationally appetizing way: Antonio’s Pizza.