This is the story of Anna Longobardi.
“Everyone calls me Mamma,” she said, settling into a far back booth of her Italian restaurant in Estero on a recent Thursday afternoon. “Even if they don’t know me.”
Six days a week, you’ll find her here, at the wildly popular Mamma Anna Trattoria in Coconut Point.
Only not sitting still like she is now.
One minute she’s disappearing into the kitchen, and when she reappears, it’s usually with a piping hot and glorious dish of something she prepped that morning.
Her lasagna — a “secret recipe” crafted from sheet after sheet of fresh pasta layered with slow-simmered bolognese, bechamel and mozzarella — is legendary.
When asked about it, her reply is short and to the point.
“Oh my God,” she said.
Anna Maria Longobardi prepares a veal dish at her popular Italian restaurant, Mamma Anna Trattoria, in Estero.
Take a bite, and you’ll know exactly what she means.
“Sometimes customers will clap like she’s a movie star,” said her oldest son, Nicola “Nick” Schiano Lomoriello.
Even when she’s not in the dining room, accolades follow her.
“I go in the kitchen, they open the (kitchen) door and say, ‘Thank you,’” Anna said.
And while she makes it look oh-so easy, it’s been anything but.
Mamma Anna Trattoria is a bustling Italian restaurant at Coconut Point in Estero.
After finally achieving their American dream of owning a restaurant, her beloved husband died unexpectedly, leaving her and their three sons devastated.
“It was a really bad time for us,” Nick said.
Anna was on the cusp of walking away from their then-brand-new restaurant.
But let’s start from the beginning …
Cooking from the heart in Naples, Italy
Anna Longobardi serves her family’s recipes at Mamma Anna Trattoria at Coconut Point in Estero.
Anna grew up with seven brothers about 16 miles southwest of Naples, Italy.
“Make sure to say Monte di Procida,” she said, proudly pointing to a football scarf bearing the name of the small town in the region of Campania on her restaurant’s back wall.
“Yeah, please make sure you add that,” said Nick, who remembers going to football games in Italy when he was a child. “I remember sitting in the stands with my dad. He would take me every weekend, home and away games.”
Anna’s mother taught her how to cook at an early age.
“We get up at 4 (a.m.),” she said. “And we cooked everything ― pizza, bread, focaccia. I loved it.”
Anna Maria Longobardi, owner of Mamma Anna Trattoria, poses with her sons Nicola, left, and Vincenzo Schiano Lomoriello.
Her passion was born in those early hours before everyone got up to go to work.
“It comes from the heart when you like to cook,” she said. “Seeing their faces — brothers, parents, friends — when they enjoy my food, it makes me very happy.”
When Anna was 19, she met her future husband, Massimo Schiano Lomoriello, 21, in Bacoli, “a coastal town at the bottom of the mountain.”
Massimo loved American movies as much as Anna loved cooking.
Most days, you ‘ll find Anna Longobardi in the kitchen of her Mamma Anna Trattoria in Estero.
“The first time they met, he came up to her and held out his hand,” Nick said. “He said, ‘My name is Bond, James Bond.’”
(And yes, he drank martinis shaken, not stirred, Nick laughed when we asked).
“I fell in love,” Anna said. They married in 1996.
While his family owned gas stations and hers were in the fruit and vegetable business, the young couple had other plans.
Many of their friends and families were moving to the United States.
Vincenzo Schiano Lomoriello prepares a pizza at his family’s restaurant, Mamma Anna Trattoria, at Coconut Point.
“They all had restaurants and pizza places up North,” Nick said. “So we followed.”
Except for the up North part.
“My dad didn’t like the cold,” Nick said. “We came down here.”
“He came from the Mediterranean,” Anna added. “He likes the water.”
Living the American dream
Anna Longobardi and Massimo Schiano’s wedding photo is proudly displayed at Mamma Anna Trattoria in Coconut Point. Massimo died suddenly at the age of 50.
They moved to Southwest Florida in 2005, when Nick was 9 and Vincenzo (Vinny), their youngest son at the time, was 4.
“It was my husband’s American dream,” Anna said. “We come to own a restaurant.”
But it took time.
For more than a decade, Anna and Massimo “worked a lot of places,” saving up for their restaurant.
“I cleaned hotels, washed dishes,” she said. “Trying to make money to buy a business. My husband was always a waiter. It was very hard with two small kids.”
“They spoke broken English,” Nick said. “We went to Bonita Springs Charter. My dad went up to (then principal) Mrs. (Deborah) Tracy with an Italian-English dictionary. He said, ‘I want my son to learn English.’ After school, I would go home and teach them.”
One bite in and Mamma Anna Trattoria’s Diavola pizza instantly became one of our favorites.
Diego, the couple’s third son, was born here in 2008.
“I called my mamma every day,” Anna said. “Every day she would cry and say, ‘When are you coming back?’”
But their American dream was strong.
“My husband said, ‘One day we will buy a business and call it your name,’” Anna said, smiling. “And here it is.”
Anna eventually ended up working at Amore, a small Italian restaurant in Coconut Point. Massimo waited tables there a couple days a week in between other jobs.
Mamma Anna Trattoria is a beloved Italian restaurant at Coconut Point in Estero.
“The owner wanted to retire,” she said. “He believed in me.”
A short time later, their dream came true when they opened Mamma Anna Trattoria in 2019.
Mamma Anna Trattoria nearly closes
With Anna churning out her family recipes in the kitchen and Massimo working the front, business was good from the get-go.
Then it almost all fell apart.
“COVID hit, and about a year later, my dad passed,” Nick said.
Owner Anna Maria Longobardi poses with Vincenzo Schiano Lomoriello, one of her three sons, at Mamma Anna Trattoria at Coconut Point in Estero.
Massimo died from a brain aneurysm at the age of 50 on May 21, 2021.
“If it was not for my sons, I would have left (for Italy) the next day,” Anna said. “I wanted to go back.”
“She would have certainly gone back,” Nick said. “She really wanted to sell.”
Fortunately, Nick, Vinny and Diego thought otherwise.
“They said, ‘Mamma, this is (Massimo’s) dream,” she said. “They convinced me to stay open.”
Lasagna is a signature dish and a must try at Mamma Anna Trattoria in Estero.
But it wasn’t quite so simple.
“Mom and I had no experience running the business,” Nick said. “Dad did everything. We learned from her brothers and my dad’s best friend. They taught us how to do this and that — everything. We’re still learning every day.”
Nick and Vinny were working at DeRomo’s in Bonita Springs at the time and left there to help at the family restaurant.
They’re still there today, waiting tables and doing whatever is needed, while Diego is going from bussing to serving, too.
Anna Maria Longobardi is the owner of Mamma Anna Trattoria. Her three sons, including Vincenzo Schiano Lomoriello, work at the Italian restaurant in Estero.
“At least one of us is here every day,” Vinny said. “We take turns.”
Although it’s been five years, Massimo is still a big part of the restaurant.
His and Anna’s wedding portrait can be seen hanging toward the back of the restaurant, and it appears on the back of the menu, too.
“A few months after we reopened after my dad passed, business really took off,” Nick said. “A regular came in and said, ‘This is your dad bringing him here.’ My dad wouldn’t believe how busy we’ve been.”
“We’re a small restaurant, but we do about 1,300 guests per week on average,” Vinny said. “A lot of customers remember my dad. They get emotional talking about him. We are very grateful to all of them.”
Mamma Anna Trattoria has wonderful seafood dishes too.
Anna, meanwhile, hasn’t been back to Italy in 21 years.
“She says it would feel wrong for her to go back without my dad,” Nick said. “We’ll all go visit soon, though.”
In the meantime, you’ll find Anna at their restaurant, prepping all sorts of goodness in the morning. Wonders such as her meatballs and eggplant.
“No one can touch that,” she said of the latter. “When I make that, I always eat the first one.”
(And don’t miss the pizza — made in a 20-year-old gas-powered brick oven).
After prepping, Anna will go home to take her dogs out, then return to the kitchen later in the afternoon.
“Besides her kids, she loves those dogs most in the world,” Nick said.
And if you’re really lucky, she’ll show you photos of them in between darting back and forth from the kitchen.
She paused for just a second when we asked if she would do this all over again.
“I would 100 percent,” Anna said. “I’m very happy. I have three beautiful boys. I’m with family.”
Happy Mother’s Day, Mamma.
Visit them in Coconut Point at 23111 Fashion Drive, Estero; (239) 992-4500; mammaannamenu.com or on Facebook
Robyn George is a food and dining reporter for The News-Press. Connect at rhgeorge@fortmyer.gannett.com
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Mamma Anna Trattoria stays strong and thrives in Southwest Florida
Dining and Cooking