Fort Myers, Cape Coral: 4 longtime restaurants that closed in 2025
Cape Coral and Fort Myers experienced the closure of several beloved longstanding restaurants in 2025, marking the end of eras both cherished and significant to the local community.
Longtime Cape Coral restaurant Mangia Bene is closing for a major renovation and rebranding.Owned by the Salvatore family since 1999, the restaurant will undergo a complete interior makeover.The new menu will focus on specialty pizza slices, subs, and desserts, while removing some higher-end pasta dishes.
Mangia Bene’s interior is exactly what you’d expect to find in any longtime Italian restaurant.
Comfortably padded reddish brown leather booths lined up back to back, trimmed with dark wood posts.
Decorative bottles of olive oil and wine stand watch on top of one wall. Half pergolas trimmed in garlands of faux grape leaves and grapes run the length of the dimly lit dining room. Venetian plastered walls here, there and everywhere.
It’s all so classically cozy, rustic and inviting.
And it’s going away very soon.
The family-owned and operated Cape Coral restaurant is about to get a huge makeover — production and decor-wise.
“We’ve been wanting to do this for so long,” said Teresa Salvatore, who opened the restaurant off Del Prado Boulevard in Coralwood Shopping Center in 1999 with her husband, Peter. “But when you’re so busy, you’re afraid to make changes.”
“It’s tough to change,” son and now co-owner Anthony Salvatore added. “I’ve known this place like this all my life, from high school to now.”
Mangia Bene will close after business on Saturday, Oct. 18. Work on the interior begins the next day.
“Everything is going,” Teresa said. “That wall, the floor, counters. All are going to go. When we reopen, you won’t be able to recognize this place. People are going to come in, and they’re going to be in shock. A good shock.”
Why switch it all up now?
“Things change,” said Teresa, who often works 12 hours a day, five days a week. “I’m getting older and we want to make this more casual. The operation will be a lot easier.”
All of their menu items are made from scratch, including the higher-end pasta and seafood dishes.
“They are costly to make and we can charge only so much for them,” Teresa said. “We make everything — sauces, bread, stock, desserts — so it’s all high quality. Our food will be the same, but we will cut the menu a lot and add some.”
Think more of a pizzeria shop with gelato and coffees and less of a full-service restaurant with higher-end items.
“We will have all the pizza specialties and slices all day long,” Teresa said. “We will have all sorts of beautiful stuff. A few pasta dishes — we will keep the favorites. Hot and cold subs, salads and desserts galore. And more breads. Anthony loves to create.”
“We will transition more toward pizza,” Anthony added. “And doing more things like focaccia bread, new cheeses, stuffed pizza, bruschetta. The slices will be huge — they’re from a 22-inch pizza.”
Display cases will be filled with slices, gelato and desserts. It will be more fast-casual style as customer work their way down the pizza cases to place their orders. Items will be brought to your table when ready.
While all this is new to Mangia Bene (which will undergo a name change too), it’s not new to the Salvatores.
Capriccio’s in Cape Coral was the first for the family
After moving here from Long Island in 1989, the couple opened Capriccio’s on 46th Terrace in Cape Coral the following year. It would be the first of 13 restaurants they owned over the years, from Tampa to Naples.
In 1999, Mangia Bene was the second one.
“One of us was in one, one was in the other,” Teresa said. “I literally gave birth in the dining room (to son Stefano).”
Stefano, who makes the New York-style pizzas, and older brother and chef Anthony grew up in the restaurants.
“They were always running around,” Teresa said. “As soon as they could reach the counter, they were making pizza.”
The family would open a restaurant and “after two or three years, sell it and buy another.”
“We had three at one time,” Teresa said. “That was bad. My kids were young. I think one is good.”
Going back to their roots
Somewhere along the line, they opened another Capriccio’s on Summerlin Road in Fort Myers.
“Lunch was crazy there,” Teresa said. “We had a showcase of all different pizzas, pinwheels, stuffed pizzas. We are going to do something like that here. We will showcase our food. It’s going to be phenomenal.
“We had many restaurants, but we always kept this one. We love it. This is our heart right here.”
Teresa estimates Mangia Bene will be closed “at least a month.”
“We have so many beautiful customers,” Teresa said. “They all know me by name. It feels like family. We appreciate their support all these years. We are so excited to bring this change after years and years.”
“We want to make this lovely,” Anthony said. “It’ll be something new. It’s going to be fun.”
Mangia Bene, 2301 Del Prado Blvd., Unit 870, Cape Coral; open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday until Oct. 18; (239) 673-8290; mangiabenecapecoral.com or on Facebook
Robyn George is a food and dining reporter for The News-Press. Connect at rhgeorge@fortmyer.gannett.com
Dining and Cooking