Giuseppe Manco didn’t know what to expect on Oct. 20, the day his restaurant in University Village Shops near Florida Gulf Coast University held its soft opening. “There were 150 guests on that first day,” he said. “They were lined up. I have to say, it was the nicest thing.” And when San Matteo Italian Restaurant & Bar held its grand opening Dec. 4, about 450 showed up.

“I’m very grateful," said Manco, a co-owner along with his wife Eleonora Calvacchi and chef and business partner Fabio Casella. "I love this community." The path that brought him here is a winding one. While home for Manco is Napoli, Italy, he “always wanted to come to the United States.” He was in the “right place at the right time” when he got a job, ironically enough, in Naples where he worked for Rossopomodoro’s first U.S. franchise.