Family photo of Mamma Anna and her three sons Vincenzo, Nicola and Diego.
COURTESY PHOTO
A dream that started with two people is now being carried by four.
Walk into Mamma Anna Trattoria at Coconut Point and you can find pieces of Massimo Schiano Lomoriello everywhere.
The soccer posters on the walls. The pizza named after him. And the standards he passed down to his three sons, Nicola, Vincenzo and Diego.
And then there are the stories.
Ask his sons about their dad, and the memories start coming one after another. Before long, they’re laughing together over the little details that have stayed with them. Each remembers something a little different, but together, they paint a picture of the man they knew and loved.
“He was funny, outgoing, always smiling. As an immigrant parent, he was very commanding,” Vincenzo said.
Massimo died unexpectedly in 2021, not long after he and his wife, Anna Longobardi, opened their own restaurant.
But his absence isn’t the first thing you notice at Mamma Anna. You notice the family.
From Naples, Italy to Southwest Florida
Long before there was a restaurant in Coconut Point, there was a girl in Naples learning how to feed a family.
Longobardi was the only girl among eight children, and her mother had her in the kitchen by the time she was 13.
The family had a large farm and made much of their food from scratch. Longobardi learned to make homemade bread and cook for a house full of people.
Images and portraits of Massimo Schiano Lomoriello are displayed throughout Mamma Anna Trattoria.
DAVID WISHTISCHIN / FLORIDA WEEKLY
“She didn’t go to school. She stayed at home and helped cook for all of her brothers,” Vincenzo said.
In Italy, Longobardi and Massimo were wholesale fruit and vegetable vendors.
Massimo, meanwhile, was dreaming about the family’s future in the United States.
Friends of his had moved to the U.S. and opened pizzerias and restaurants along the Northeast coast. He wanted to follow in their footsteps. Eventually, the family sold everything and made the move to America.
New Jersey was supposed to be home. Then Longobardi and Massimo remembered something important: They didn’t like the cold. So, they set their sights on Florida.
She and Massimo worked at local restaurants working their way up.
By the time they opened Mamma Anna Trattoria, they had spent years learning the business from the ground up.
Then, soon after opening, COVID-19 hit.
Business was slow, and for a while, it was essentially Longobardi and Massimo trying to keep their new restaurant going.
Mamma Anna’s touch behind each recipe
Mamma Anna’s signature “Diavola Pizza.”
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Vincenzo has one thing he really wants people to understand about the restaurant. His mom actually cooks.
“Everything is her recipe,” he said. “She makes the lasagna, the bolognese. Everything she makes is her idea.”
Longobardi’s food is rooted in the way she grew up eating in Naples. The family describes it as Italian-American, with their own twists on traditional dishes.
The lasagna, for example, is made with besciamella instead of ricotta. The eggplant is lightly floured and dipped in egg rather than coated in breadcrumbs.
And if you’re wondering how much of the food is sitting in a freezer somewhere waiting for its turn, Vincenzo can tell you.
“Our freezer is literally just fries, gelato and veggies,” he said. “We don’t make food then freeze it. It’s fresh.”
When the family bought the restaurant, Massimo pushed for better ingredients and better cheese for the pizza. They use Italian flour and mix three different types for their dough. The cheese comes from Wisconsin.
“He cared a lot,” Diego said.
Massimo wasn’t the type to settle just because something was good enough.
“He was a very hardheaded Italian,” Diego said.
He was also the kind of person who would do whatever needed to be done. He served tables. He bussed. He worked wherever he was needed.
Diego remembers how customers loved his dad’s broken English because he was, in Diego’s words, “a real Italian.” But Massimo wasn’t all business.
“He was the clown of the family,” Nicola said.
He joked with customers, made people laugh, and didn’t have a filter.
“He was always joking around with customers, making people laugh, and just having a good time,” Nicola said.
His sons pointed out that there was one thing Massimo wasn’t particularly good at, though: making pizza. Nicola still has a video of his father making one.
“It looked like a football,” he said, laughing as he remembered the result.
Massimo usually worked more in the front of the restaurant while Longobardi handled the kitchen, so pizza-making wasn’t exactly his specialty.
The family still has Massimo’s Pizza on the menu. It was his favorite.
“It was actually his last meal,” Vincenzo said.
Massimo also had a nickname for Vincenzo. He called him “the millionaire” because he was always coming up with ideas and ambitions.
“It was because he had all the money,” Nicola said. “But he’s not a millionaire anymore because he got engaged.”
It’s the kind of family banter that makes you want to pull up a chair and join in. The brothers have a way of making even the smallest stories entertaining, and it’s easy to see how that same humor carries over to the restaurant.
Three brothers, one restaurant
Views of Vincenzo “Vinny” mixing up an espresso martini cocktail.
DAVID WISHTISCHIN / FLORIDA WEEKLY
The three brothers had already spent years around restaurants before Mamma Anna.
They worked at Amore Pizza in Gulf Coast Town Center and Coconut Point, serving, bussing tables, and making pizzas.
Now they run their parents’ restaurant together, which means they get to spend their days working alongside the people who know them best — for better or worse.
Ask the brothers what it’s like working together, and the responses don’t disappoint.
“Oh, I don’t like it,” Diego exclaimed. “I’m honest. I’m an honest guy.”
“Oh my gosh, terrible,” Nicola said.
Vincenzo laughed and explained the difference between working with a brother and working with anybody else.
“If you tell an employee what to do, they’ll do it. If you tell your brother what to do, it’s, ‘Why don’t you do it?’”
“Or, ‘I’ll do it later,’” Nicola added.
If there’s one thing the brothers can agree on, it’s that working together comes with its own set of challenges — most of them pretty small, and some of them involving silverware.
“Sometimes, one of the brothers doesn’t like to do his work at the end of the night, like rolling up the silverware,” Nicola said.
“Yeah, because he’s doing other important stuff,” Vincenzo said, defending himself.
It’s a familiar kind of back-and-forth, the kind that comes from growing up together and knowing exactly how to get a reaction out of one another. And just when you think the brothers might agree on something, Vincenzo has one more joke about his youngest brother.
“And the little one? He’s always right.”
Diego, the youngest, recently turned 18. He has been working at the restaurant since he was about 13, starting as a busser and runner before learning to serve.
His brothers have apparently noticed his growth. “Diego just turned 18,” Vincenzo said. “He’s been a busboy his whole life. He just learned how to tie his shoes and ride a bike.”
Diego has learned plenty since then, including how to talk to customers. That wasn’t always easy for him.
“You can’t be shy,” he said. “You have to be respectful. You have to make jokes and stuff. Make people laugh. Make people happy.”
That was something his father taught him.
“He always wanted the best from us,” Diego said.
Massimo expected his sons to work hard, do what was right, stay out of trouble, do well in school, and pursue their interests. He wanted them to be themselves, treat people well, and make customers feel welcome.
For all the joking about fighting, the brothers don’t hesitate when they talk about working together.
“No, but working with your brothers, it’s amazing. It’s awesome overall,” Vincenzo said.
Diego sees the good in it, too.
“You’re not arguing with some guy who thinks he’s better than you,” he said. “You guys live together, you guys talk, you have the same type of views.”
They’ve always been close. Losing their father hurt, but it didn’t change that. If anything, the restaurant became one of the places where they continued doing what they had always done: showing up for each other.
Some have moved out, but Mamma Anna Trattoria still feels like home.
When they come back to the restaurant, Vincenzo said, “It feels like it did when we were growing up.”
Nicola, naturally, had something to add.
“And we all fight too.”
They know how to get under each other’s skin, but there’s an ease to their teasing, too. Beneath the jokes is a closeness that comes from growing up together — and knowing that, whatever the day brings, they’re in it together.
A restaurant that still feels like home
Many customers come to Mamma Anna Trattoria and end up becoming regulars due to the astounding service and love that goes into the dishes and experience of this family-owned establishment.
DAVID WISHTISCHIN / FLORIDA WEEKLY
Customers seem to pick up on that family feeling, too.
David Kipp has been coming to Mamma Anna regularly for about three years. He described the food as homemade and said the service is consistently good.
Word of mouth plays a major role for this restaurant. Kipp and other customers agree that it’s the most authentic Italian food they’ve had, and it’s worth every penny.
But what stood out the most to him was the feeling of being there.
“You just always feel like you’re in somebody’s kitchen,” he said.
And in a way, that’s what Mamma Anna Trattoria has always been about: bringing people together around good food, the way family does around a dinner table.
Longobardi is a big part of that.
“If she’s not in the kitchen, she’s watching what’s coming out. She walks around to the tables and customers know her,” Vincenzo said proudly.
Her sons notice what happens when people try her food.
“She loves seeing people’s reactions when they try her food,” Nicola said.
Look a little closer
Views of customers dining at Mamma Anna Trattoria.
DAVID WISHTISCHIN FLORIDA WEEKLY
After Massimo died, Longobardi considered leaving the restaurant behind and returning to Italy. Her sons convinced her to stay, coming together to help carry on the dream their parents started.
Over the years, the family renovated the space, changing the floors and walls, painting the tables, and bringing in new ones. Business has gotten busier, too. Customers have even suggested they buy the space next door.
Nicola already knows what Massimo would say if he walked in today.
“Wow! You guys are busy!”
Diego thinks his father would be more than surprised.
“Oh, he would be… What’s that word? Flabbergasted.”
It’s hard to know exactly what Massimo would think of everything his family has built since he died. But his sons have a pretty good idea of what he would notice.
His wife is still the heart of the kitchen.
His sons are helping her carry the dream.
The food is still made the way he believes it should be made.
The jokes are still being told.
The brothers argue and they still show up for each other the next day.
Nicola dreams of having his own pizza spot someday. For now, the family is focused on continuing to improve the restaurant their parents started.
There will probably be more arguments.
There will definitely be more jokes.
And there will probably be more silverware roll-ups nobody wants to do.
But the four of them are still carrying the same thing.
“We’re only here because of this. This is our everything,” Diego said.
Massimo is no longer sitting at the table, but look a little closer, and you’ll find his presence in Longobardi, their three sons, and Mamma Anna Trattoria.
Mamma Anna Trattoria, located at 23111 Fashion Drive, Estero inside Coconut Point.
DAVID WISHTISCHIN / FLORIDA WEEKLY
In The KNOW:
WHERE: 23111 Fashion Drive, Estero
WHEN: Monday-Friday 4-9 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.