There’s something about the smell of garlic, onions and tomatoes cooking. It’s like a warm embrace. That’s exactly what you’ll find at LaMotta’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria. The family team of Maria and Sal LaMotta and their son, Carmelo, immigrated to the U.S. from Palermo, Sicily in 1976. Food has always been central to the LaMottas. Sal was born in his family's kitchen — literally.

In 1979 he opened his first restaurant in the Iona neighborhood of south Fort Myers.  Originally named Guiseppi’s, the 40-year-old LaMotta’s is the longest operating, family-run Italian restaurant in Lee County. “We were surrounded by fields full of gladiolus flowers, tomatoes, and cattle," Carmelo said of his memories of the area in the late 1970s.