Thank you to Joseph Amanzio for contributing this great old image of his mom and dad's Sorrento Restaurant. Click on "original" below to see the largest version of this image.

The Joe and Lucy Amanzio family came to Miami in 1947 from Long Island, New York. They started their business in 1947 across the street in a 16-foot wide store front as a beer and wine bar known as the Pirates' Cove. They soon expanded into the next door 16-foot unit and began serving food there as the first Sorrento restaurant. They then bought a property across the street and built the new Sorrento Restaurant some time in 1959. Around that time a dinner special consisting of bread and butter, a glass of wine, a salad and pasta, desert and coffee went for $3.95.

Joseph says that his older brother Vincent Amanzio was the chef from the beginning, and took over after their father died in 1974. The Sorrento building was sold in the January 1986, after close to four decades of serving fine Italian food by the Amanzio family. Joe designed the remodeled 2nd floor private dining room pictured above in the early 1960's. It was his first commission while still an architecture student at the University of Miami.

Joseph now lives in California and is a Professor Emeritus and Architect/Urban Designer.