Laurie and Brittany Malcolm are part of the family team at Tommy's Restaurant in Visalia. Tommy's photo via Facebook

A family-run Visalia restaurant was recently featured in the national web series America’s Best Restaurants.

Located next to the historic Fox Theatre in Downtown Visalia, Tommy’s Restaurant & Lounge has been a fine-dining spot for many years, originally known as Mr. Gable’s Restaurant and Bar. Current owners Laurie and Wayne Malcolm purchased the business in 2009 with no prior restaurant experience.

It is a second-generation family business, with daughter Brittany Malcolm involved with the business since high school.

The segment, available on YouTube, begins with host Jacalyn Mains in the kitchen with Chef Jesse Padilla as he prepares a lobster shrimp pasta. Then Mains sits down with Brittany Malcolm to sample several other creations, including giant cedar plank ribeye.

Brittany Malcolm said she was blessed to have parents who were also business mentors. Before taking over Tommy’s, Brittany’s mother Laurie worked in marketing and eventually bookkeeping, which is how she came to work for the previous owners of Tommy’s.

They started from nothing, built their lives to what they wanted and now they are well-off business owners,” Brittany Malcolm said about her parents.

America’s Best Restaurants has more than 11,200 subscribers on YouTube, and features restaurants from across the country.  A Fresno restaurant, Aromas, father-daughter owners Benjamin and Maria Torralva and his chicken and waffles were featured in an episode in in December.

To nominate or apply for a restaurant to be featured on America’s Best Restaurants, visit the website.