In Carmelo LaMotta's earliest memory of his family's 41-year-old south Fort Myers restaurant, he is 7 and the year is 1979.  "My first memory? The older clientele," LaMotta said. "Coming from New York and New Jersey I wasn't used to that. In New York we had all New Yorkers, but here it's always been kind of like a minestrone, people from the Midwest and New England and New York and Jersey, all coming down for vacations."

Vacations and a taste of home. For more than four decades, LaMotta's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria served Italian-American classics in the Iona neighborhood. Way back when his parents ran the place, LaMotta said it was one of just three family-owned Italian restaurants in town.