Foodie File: Bellini’s serves up family-style Italian
Dot Brown stands with Scott Groth, owner of Bellini’s Italian Restaurant, after a satisfying meal of spaghetti and a house salad. Our family went out to dinner to celebrate the Hotel Putnam’s recent victory and DeLand winning the America’s Main Street contest. What better place to celebrate than Bellini’s Italian Restaurant, a family-owned DeLand r...
Alessandro Nesta: A soccer legend in our midst
He is a World Cup champion, two-time Champions League winner and four-time Serie A Defender of the Year. The $33 million transfer fee A.C. Milan paid to get him from Lazio is one of the highest-ever for a defender. His perfectly timed slide tackles, pace and grit were on full display in a 2011 Champions League match when he repeatedly thwarted Barc...
Le Sirenuse Makes Waves in Miami
Positano’s household name, Le Sirenuse, has arrived Stateside, with a restaurant and champagne bar situated in the historic Miami landmark the Surf Club. Serving authentic Italian cuisine at the iconic oceanfront property, in a space designed by Joseph Dirand, Le Sirenuse Miami is the family-owned resort’s first venture away from its Amalfi home. S...
Still hidden, still tasty, Buon Appetito Cafe turns 13
Finding Buon Appetito Cafe in south Fort Myers still takes a little work. Set away from the streets amid nondescript rows of office buildings on Corporate Court off College Parkway, the restaurant is easy to miss. But scratch-made Italian dishes and familial service have drawn people to it for more than 13 years. Most customers hear about Buon App...
Local advertising executive Herb Montalbano dies at 85
Herbert “Herb” Montalbano Sr., the advertising executive whose 57-year career include creating successful marketing campaigns and catchphrases for dozens of local businesses and clients, died Tuesday. He was 85. Montalbano and his wife of 43 years, Cheryl, founded the advertising company, Herbert P. Montalbano Inc. Advertising and Public Relations,...
Who Is Rep. Steve Scalise, House Majority Whip Wounded in Alexandria Shooting
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, wounded Wednesday after a gunman opened fire on an Alexandria, Virginia baseball field, has stepped up to the plate for Republicans many times since taking office in 2008. His first year playing in the annual congressional baseball game, he wore a jersey repping his alma mater, Louisiana State University. In 2011,...
Italian exchange student 'lives a movie' while at CHS
When Elena Mullano first landed on United States soil, she was not stepping into a different country, but jumping into one of the many American films she had seen as she grew up. The 17-year-old Italian hailing from Sardinia, a large island in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea, said it was an almost immediate reaction when she stepped off the plane....
Divieto's twist: Real fettuccine Alfredo made in cheese wheel
You haven't truly had fettuccine Alfredo until you've had it served from a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Ruota di Parmigiano — Italian for "wheel of Parmesan" — is the specialty of Divieto Ristorante in Coconut Point in Estero. Order it and a friendly server will appear tableside with a large wheel of the salty cheese and freshly prepared fettuccin...
Bill Kirby Jr.: A ‘Taste of Italy’ coming downtown
You can almost smell the sauces from those family recipes. Almost. “It’s been one thing after another,” Antonella Scibilia, 47, says about the Italian restaurant she was hoping to have open this month downtown. “I don’t even know if it will be July, but it’s coming.” And be assured, when “Antonella’s Italian Ristorante – A Touch of Italy” does open...
At Cape Coral's Mangia Bene, Italian family tosses pizza for the ages
At age 7, Anthony Salvatore used to stand on top of tomato cases. This allowed him to peer over the edge of his father’s countertop and make his first pizzas. Thousands of pizzas and almost 30 years later, Salvatore, 35, no longer needs a boost. At Mangia Bene, one of the oldest and only authentic Italian restaurants in Cape Coral, the pizza pies a...
Frank & Dino's Italian restaurant relocates to Boca Raton
After seven years, this Rat Pack-themed, Southern Italian restaurant has moved from Deerfield Beach into the former Merlino’s with a startling design change from traditional to modern.“We think our core of clients are from Boca Raton, especially downtown,” co-owner Carlo Vaccarezza says. “Boca Raton has became a mini New York City with new restaura...
Giò Ponti works on exhibit in Georgia, US
Italian architect and designer Giò Ponti creations will be on display from the end of this week onwards in the U.S., as a collection of his work is exhibited at the Georgia Museum of Art. Born in Milan, Italy, in 1891, Ponti kept working all over his 60-years career and left a permanent mark on the manufacturing industry, design and architecture of...