Building and expanding on his Luigi’s Pizza Ė Pasta place that opened last fall in Miromar Outlets, Antonio Longobardo offers another Estero restaurant with a more upscale look and feel.
After a soft opening last weekend, Pezzo Pizza + Bar went live Monday next to Zino Italian restaurant at 20041 S. Tamiami Trail, Unit 18.
“This is a bigger place with a full bar. It’s beautiful inside. It’s definitely a step up from Luigis in price point and the ambiance, definitely the food as well,” Longobardo said. Zino is keeping the restaurant side of its local business but its pizzeria side is now Pezzo. “So, I’m taking that 2,500-square-foot space next door, basically,” Longobardo said.
Longobardo spared no expense and attention to detail for the bar’s centerpiece: a translucent, quartzite natural stone bar with LED lights beneath it that can slowly change color from red to magenta to purple to blue to green to yellow to orange and back again.
“So, it all lights up. It’s beautiful in there. It’s awesome,” he said. “Got a cool sound system. It’s a little sexy, too.”
Expect gourmet pizza, salads and some cool craft cocktails with names such as The Italian Margarita and Glitter Mafia. There’s also an espresso martini.
“The presentation is really beautiful,” Longobardo said. “The bartender’s going to fresh-grate Parmesan cheese on top of the espresso martini and the drink is called Tell Me When to Stop.”
Pizza, of course, is still the center of attention. The savory pies are the creation of Chef Taddeo Annielo.
“So, we’re doing smaller, 10-inch pizzas along with the bigger size too, but it’s more personal. It’s more like shareable, but it is gourmet. It’s a little higher end,” Longobardo said.
Not only is Longobardo’s new space larger than Luigi’s but so is the size of the menu.
“So, we’ll have pastas. We have four or five really nice salads,” he said, noting that one of the salads is called Just Peachy. “We have a Caprese on the menu that we do with peach, mozzarella di bufala, mint, extra virgin olive oil and this hot honey drizzle. So, we’re doing some interesting stuff on the menu, too.”
Just Peachy’s peaches, mint and honey drizzle replace the tomatoes, basil and balsamic drizzle of a traditional Caprese salad, which they also offer.
Pezzo, pronounced PET-so, is Italian for piece, such as piece of pizza. That’s where the restaurant’s concept starts.
“The idea here is I wanted to have a place where you could have two of the most fun things, and two of the things people like to take socially,” Longobardo said. “It’s awesome to go out and have pizza, whether it’s a date night or with your family. It’s awesome to have pizza and to go out and socialize over a drink. It’s two of the best forms of socialization, especially now in today’s age, when everyone’s looking for an experience even more than just going to get food. They’re looking to have a night, an experience, something you can go back home and talk to people about. So, the main piece comes from these pizzas that we’re doing that are smaller and so they’re really going to be shareable.”
The idea is that a family of four can order three of these small pizzas and a salad and share them. “You can try three or four of these really gourmet, well-done pizzas that are a step up from your normal pizza. So, we got the idea from pezzo. Everyone wants to share a piece. That’s where the idea for the name stems from.”
In addition to dining in, Pezzo Pizza + Bar offers curbside pickup and no-contact delivery. The new business is open 3 to 10 pm. daily.
