IAMA Friday Night Spaghetti Dinners a Big Hit

Charlie Chiarelli and IAMA president Peter DiNardo.

Every last Friday of the month the IAMA in Long Branch serves a homemade spaghetti dinner, that includes much more than just spaghetti with bread, salad and dessert. If you’re not a pasta person there’s also meatballs, ziti, sausage and peppers, chicken parmigiana,  linguine with clam sauce and pasta fagioli. This is all for only $12 per person. Wine and other beverages can be purchased at the bar, manned by David Pizzo.

IAMA president Peter DiNardo was visiting every table selling 50/50 tickets.

Catering the dinners are Kathy and Bob Kenny who are experts at keeping everyone full and happy. “We’re a small organization, but with the money raised we give out the most scholarships to Long Branch High School students out of anyone,” Kathy said.

The number of people attending the dinners had dropped off drastically due to COVID, but attendance has been rising steadily since they started cooking again.

A family-oriented dinner, all the tables seemed full of diners on Friday night, who eat from the buffet until full while listening to the music of Richard Sorrentino, who croons most songs In Italian to the delight of the diners.

“He was so nice to volunteer to play free at every dinner,” Kathy said. “We hope to get more people as time goes on.”

The IAMA is located at 125 West End Ave, Long Branch. The next dinner will be on August 30th, 5-7pm.