Monday, November 29, 2010

Oh, I Guess It's The Holidays Now

Happy Holidays, everyone! Or if you celebrate nothing, happy. . . cold and flu season?! Either way, have we got some treats for you this season!

Here at 13th street, we've been eagerly awaiting the fabulous winter flavors for weeks now. I don't need to tell you about them, you know what they are. And to our delight, a few FAVORITES started rolling in over the weekend:

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Who can say no to fresh, local Mint gelato? Not me.

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And probably the most popular this weekend, Sweet Potato Pecan Praline gelato!

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Y'all better get in here, these samples aren't gonna eat themselves.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Turkey hangover: it's bad.

Thanksgiving is without a doubt one of my favorite holidays. Scads of home-cooked food and specialty dishes you have only once a year? Check. Fine drink for all to share, be it warm cider or cold white wine? Check. Seasonal family time without the obligation of buying presents for everyone, including Aunt Chelsea? Check. There's really only one problem with the holiday, that feeling of sadness as you nibble on that last piece of pie crust, washing it down with some hot coffee: you know that you aren't going to have that enjoyable feeling of perfectly balanced satisfaction again until next fall.

While we might not be able to rival your mom's secret stuffing recipe, we here at Capogiro welcome the latter portion of the fall season with open arms, and are more than happy to replicate that post-Thanksgiving pleasure buzz that we all enjoyed yesterday. Our hot chocolate is a divine treat on a cool fall's eve, and the house specialty Italian hot chocolate, a richer, hotter, and thicker version of the classic, is attaining a well-earned legendary status. Our coffee, brewed with artisinal skill by our baristi and roasted at Philly's own La Colombe, is a perfect pairing with our gelato (perhaps in an affogato) or light and crispy baked goods from Au Fournil. Heck, we even have a turkey and apple panini, the two ingredients snuggled comfortably between a light and crispy ciabatta roll along with local greens and a light olive oil dressing.

Even though the students are gone until Monday, you will find us opens through Sunday from 11AM-11PM. Pop in and warm up with Capo!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Citrus Season Sneak Preview


Ah, fall is in full effect. Heck, I'd even venture to say winter is on it's way. With this comes awesome flavors. Sure, you've seen pomegranate, in all its glory, and you are seeing tangerines, which are only the tip of the iceberg for citrus season... Wanna sneak a peek at what's to come?

Seville oranges. These little firecrackers are an explosion of sour! It's like an orange Sour Patch Kid times 50.

Cara Cara oranges are sweet, and have a mix of orange and red flesh. These are my personal favorite, and always mix well with your favorite gelato. When they come around, try it with Thai Coconut for a real treat.

Everyone's fave Moro will be back more towards winter. Blood oranges, appropriately named for their red hue, are one of our staple late fall/winter flavors. Sweet and tasty, and if you've never had it, you NEED to try it. Trying it at any other shop does it no justice. It should NEVER be fluorescent red-orange.

Lastly, clementines. These cute lil' guys are super duper sweet and tasty. Mix em with our Fior di Latte gelato for a throwback flavor much like a creamsicle!

There are tons more flavors to blog about, but you'll just have to wait and see.


By RyRu

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Don't Forget About The Standards

With all the hype we give to the seasonal favorites on this blog (pumpkin, pomegranate, and blood orange to name a few), we must not forget the standards. The mega delicious flavors each store will have a least a few times a week, all year long. My favorite standards? Well, funny you should ask. I've got two flavors that I can just never get enough of:

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Stracciatella, of course!

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And Dulce De Leche comes a close second!

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What are your favorite standards? Let us know in the comments!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Frappa-what-o?

Everyone in West Philadelphia surely knows that our world-famous gelato is the best not only in the neighborhood, but in town. Luckily for you all, CapoPenn is also home to the finest espresso drinks, vendor of the most fantastic bagels, hailing from H&H in NYC of course, and purveyor of top-notch beers, wines, and expertly-crafted cocktails, all of which feature local ingredients. Today, however, I want to focus on one of the unsung heroes on the Capogiro menu: the frappé, a simple yet divine concoction.

The recipe for our frappés is quite basic: two scoops of your choice of gelato or sorbetto, milk or soy, followed by a healthy whirl from our lovely fraperator. It sounds deceptively simple, but in reality, the outcome is a subtle and gorgeous beast. Pairing our gelato flavors in a cup or cone is one thing... blending them together into a heavenly, rich puree is something altogether sublime. I am currently personally really into our neck pumpkin gelato, aka zucca, joined together with the timeless, peerless Thai coconut milk, a blend that was originally created as a joke "curry frappé" but ended up being absolutely delicious. Our barista Miles also has a knack for creating frappés with less traditional ingredients, such as the Owl Shriek, which combines kiwi and lime sorbetto with our excellent Two Leaves and a Bud iced green tea. The resultant frappé is light, brisk, and more refreshing than the sum of its parts. If you ever see Miles behind the case, I highly suggest asking him for his daily frappé suggestion. You will not be steered wrong.

The best part about our frappés, in my humble opinion, is that we can add shots of La Colome espresso for an added kick, or if you're in more of a rowdy mood, something from our well-stocked bar. A fior di latte frappé blended with two shots of espresso is a pick-me-up that none of our competition can ever hope to even come CLOSE to competing with, while a cinnamon and Irish coffee frappé with an added shot of Powers vodka will knock the chill out of your chest right quick.

Frappés: the unsung heroes of our little gelato universe. Come in and ask for one today!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Pomegranate: A Legend of Yore


Well chaps, it's your lucky day! Today marks the beginning of pomegranate season, woohoo! Pomegranates have been all the rage recently, what with all their magical cancer fighting, blood pressure lowering, heart disease whomping abilities. When I first think of pomegranates, however, I personally am reminded of one of my favorite mythic tales. Ahem...

Persephone was an idiot. Her mother, Demeter, who was the goddess of the harvest, had kept her hidden and safe from all the other debaucherous, rapey Greek gods her whole life. Then one day, as she was sitting idly in the forest, twisting dandelions into a giant hammock, Persephone was snatched up by mean ol' Hades and dragged down into the Hellmouth. (He'd had a thing for her since sophmore year.)

Mama Demeter was soooooo sad. She was so sad that she up and quit her job, which was making things grow. Well, you can guess what happened. All the plants died, then the animals that ate the plants starting dying, and the people who eat the plants and animals were screwed and starving. Bad scene all around.

Meanwhile, back in Underworld, Persephone is getting pretty hungry too. Trouble is that long ago, the Fates decided that you could get a 'get-out-of-Hades-free card', just so long as you didn't eat anything. So Persephone is kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place, as she would like to get back to being totally useless back on Earth.

Well, Hades wants to keep Persephone in the Underworld forever, so he hatches a plan. He knows that Persephone is dumb as a box of hammers, so he tricks her into eating six pomegranate seeds. He does this by telling her that they aren't really food yet, since they're just seeds. Plus, he adds that they are low-carb and a good source of antioxidants. Persephone takes the bait and bam, it's Hellsville for good.

Up top, things are going from bad to worse. People are resorting to cannibalism. It's chaos. Deadbeat Dad, Zeus, sees what's going on and begs Demeter to get back to work. Demeter refuses, she won't make things grow without her beloved daughter.

Zeus decides to make an executive decision, and makes a deal with the Fates. Now Persephone is allowed to come back, but she must spend six months of the year with dirty Hades in Hell, one month for each pomegranate seed she ate. Now to this day, Mama Demeter is happy and makes things grow so we humans won't eat each other for six months out of the year, and for the other six she's real sad and just sits around watching the Golden Girls.

Fin.
Pomegranate Sorbetto

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Befriending A Gastropod Can Make Your Day!


Once upon a sunny August afternoon, a dear friend introduced me to Marcel. I don't want to spoil his debut into your world, because he'll rock it just fine on his own, but he certainly deserves a little background, and you deserve a few easy justifications for viewing and reviewing his masterpiece for days on end. Marcel is a sweet, spunky, generally soft-spoken, magic-worker... and by magic-worker I mean laugh-generator and occasional (happy/gleeful) tear inducer. He's honest, gracious, sometimes sassy, and always adorable.

If you're human, and not a total scrooge, you've probably experienced something simple and small cheering you up quite a bit more than expected. You can trust that meeting Marcel will likely result in similar feelings, and may in fact turn your day around. Not a 360, more like a 180, unless your day was already awesome, in which case a 360 would be preferable. Everyone deserves an extra chance to smile each day, so to anyone and everyone , I bring you, Marcel! Enjoy :)



Here's the link jusssssst in case a llama gets your good thumb and you can't click on the video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9-sEbqDvU&feature=related

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Philly Homegrown Tour

So by now you're all well versed in our devotion and love for our local purveyors. The good news is, you're not the only ones! With food savvy awareness becoming more chic than ever, our longtime loves over at City Food Tours have debuted the Philly Homegrown tour. It's a two-hour walking tour that stops at some of our favorite spots including the Fair Food Farmstand, Salumeria, Tweed and our 13th Street location. The tour will run three consecutive Saturdays (November 27, December 11 and December 18) from 3-5pm. Come see us! To make reservations for the tour, you can go to City Food Tour's website or call them at 800.979.3370! We're stoked. You should be too.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Preludes and Piercings


Loki Gunderson was a dinosaur. A toy stegosaurus to be precise. After being crafted by some lovely Chinese people, he was sent across the ocean with hopes of a bright future. He was purchased from a little shop in Philadelphia a few months later when the kids at Capogiro needed a new plaything. That's when things started to get a bit dodgy..

Loki arrived to his new home with joy. Looking around him, all he could see what sweet treats, yummy gelato, and smiling faces. The sweet aroma of espresso and coffee swirled around him. Everything seemed great with the world, until he was taken into a small, cold back room. Once there, the Capo kids treated him with no mercy.

They first shoved an Exacto blade through the roof of his mouth. Could he have, Loki would've screamed in protest. The soulless kids then pierced him with a ring, attached to which was a shiny silver key. Loki thought the worst was over, until he realized why he had been taken to this new home. Day after day, he would be dragged by customers to the water closet, where he was forced to witness them do unspeakable acts.

One day in November, Loki decided he'd had enough. When the kids were distracted, he took the opportunity to get the attention of a small child and give him his best puppy dog eyes, pleading silently to be rescued from his bondage. The child took the bait, snatched the dinosaur up with sticky, Scuro-covered hands, and marched him out the front door. At last, thought Loki, freedom!!!

He managed to remain unseen for a few blocks, as the child carried him nonchalantly while trotting alongside his mother. When they rounded the corner of 18th and Walnut, however, the child lost all interest in the small dinosaur, as he was distracted by something shiny. The child dropped Loki onto the hard cement, and he and his mother wandered off. A skinny hipster with a chip on his shoulder walked by a few minutes later, and kicked Loki nice and hard, sending him sailing into the park. Hipsters are known to be dinosaur haters.

Loki landed with a thud, and took a second to collect himself. He stared around into the vast forest that lay ahead of him. Filled with trees and benches and bustling with people, Loki thought he had finally found the promised land. That is, until night fell..

NEXT CHAPTER - 'Jurassic Park: Brave New World of Crackheads and Folk Singers'

Monday, November 8, 2010

Sweet Potato with Pecan Praline gelato

OMG, it's here!!
The store fronts along Walnut and Market streets began decorating for the holidays the second all the Halloween candy ran out, but I never begin to get that warm holiday-season-y tingle until we start serving our Sweet Potato with Pecan Praline gelato, and yesterday, I got that tingle... It's back y'all!!

The only other advice I might offer, after "sampling" the Sweet Potato all day yesterday, would be to try it with Gianduia. That's chocolate with hazelnuts, if you didn't know. They pair tremendously!!
And remember, you can always check our "Daily Flavor list" to see which stores have which flavors each day.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

A Fitting End for Mr. Frog



There was a rainbow of bunnies arcing far above the dewdrop-kissed gumdrop forest in a cerulean, cloud dappled sky; bunnies running across the sky in varicolored celebration of hop-scamper whisker-twitch life delight. Sandwich cats nested in their cozy burrows with elk swans and a travelling group of otter manx, while Popup the Duck began frying bologna and yams for breakfast. Up on Verity Hill, Toasters Gnome meditated in perfect stillness while green herons gently brushed the fennel pollen from his furry eyebrows with their wings.

Where was Yankee Frog? Grumpily floating on Shhhhhh Pond. Grumpy, scowling, snapping up dragonflies and munch munching them even though he wasn't hungry, and spitting them into the water. A group of young bluegill hovered below him, happily gobbling up his discarded treats and singing mocking songs about silly grumpy frogs.

Oh, Yankee Frog was scowling! Scowling so ferociously that it looked like a pantomime grimace, like a kabuki grimace. Nobody stopped to ask why he seemed so grumpy because they were too busy hastening to greet the lovely day and go about the business of enjoying life. That, and he looked so ridiculous grumpily floating there, everyone was afraid they'd burst out laughing if they attempted to speak to him.

The fact that everyone was going out of their way to avoid speaking to Yankee Frog made him even more bitter. His froggy stomach was like a balloon of hot bile and his skin tingled with excited anger. Suddenly, with a shudder, he kick kick kicked as hard as he could and hop! onto the bank of the pond and hop! right into the little creek that emptied the pond and he lay there in an eddy of cool, swirling water.

Yankee Frog realized, as he floated there swirling in the eddy, that he had never been in the creek that drains the pond and he wondered why not. It was very peaceful with the water burbling over rocks and not a soul to be seen. And quieter, too. This pleased him very much, and for the first time in days he cracked a smile. Then, his sort-of smile turned into a real smile and he closed his eyes and let himself relax in the gently whirling waters.

But he wasn't suddenly happy, oh no. He was smug. Smug in his aloneness: criticizing the others for buzzing around, socializing, visiting to and fro, laughing and gamboling about. This was the true bliss, he thought, with not a soul around and quiet whispers of breeze through reeds. Meditative. A place where a superior mind could philosophize and really make sense of his place in the universe. Perfect...perfect...burble burble...

You probably guessed already that Yankee Frog was not really alone at all. He was in the home of Charlie Trout and Charlie Trout (as everyone else knows) is a real vicious bastard. Charlie Trout gobbles up ducklings KAPOW! Charlie Trout gobbles up minnows SLASH! Charlie Trout is, basically, the lion of the stream that drains the pond. Duh, Yankee Frog, you idiot.

This story ends predictably. Charlie Trout woke up in the cold depths of the eddy and took a couple of invigorating laps around the pool. Fully awake, and very hungry, he cast his eyes to the sun-splashed surface of the creek and what do you think he saw? The silhouette of a very foolish frog, eyes closed, floating serenely on the water. Mr. Trout giggled, he was so tickled, and after a silent pass underneath dum dum Frog to make sure everything was copacetic (no hidden fish hooks, anglers with nets on the bank) wasted no time in KERSPLASH! snapping him right in two.

Charlie Trout gulped down the legs-half first and left the head-half bobbing up and down, then gently sinking to the bottom of the pool. Which gave a very surprised Yankee Frog just enough time to reconsider his life philosophy and repent his foolishness before a very satisfied and large trout finished his morning meal.

The end.

image swiped from the defunct blog buzzmunkeysmunkeycage.wordpress.com

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Get Your Candy On!

Wow, some amazing goodies have arrived this week, just in time for the holiday season. I'm talking about candy, y'all, and boy do we have some wonderful selections for you to nom on.

Sundaes Best Little Diggers Spoonable Dark Chocolate: These little guys are made with a family recipe that's over half a century old! Using only the finest cocoa and pure cane sugar, you can dig right in to these fudgy delights (little spoon included)! They go great with gelato or simply by themselves. Yum.

La Suissa Mixed Nuts Chocolates: These little Italian guys are like amazing truffles full of assorted creamy nutty goodness. With flavors like pistachio, hazelnut, and walnut, they are sure to please the sophisticated chocolate lover in your life.

If you could put bacio gelato in your pocket without making a complete mess of yourself, it would come in the form of La Suissa Crunchy Gianduiotti. Combining the amazing tastes of rich milk chocolate and savory hazelnut, these candies hail from the Piemonte region in Italy, which is world-renowned for its chocolate artisans.

Caitlin is mesmerized by the wonder of Barnier Caramel Lollipops. These little French beauties come to us all the way from the town of Rouen. These caramel pops come in such decadent flavors as coffee, citrus, orange, mint, and butter salt. Oui, sil vous plait!

Also hailing from France, we are pleased to offer Jos Peron Galettes du Beurre. Although technically not candy, we had to include them in this post, because they are awesome. The Jos Peron butter biscuit makers still use their original family recipe, and have been making these galettes since 1916. Flaky and decadent, they make me think of something you would receive with your champagne if you were flying first class on Air France. Yup, they're delicious.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Michelangelo Pistoletto visits Capogiro (well... kinda)

Over the weekend a crazy famous Italian artist did a crazy famous thing, and he did it right through the Capogiro 20th street area. Here, take a look:

Arrivederci! Rinvieremo questa Primavera!!


With a heavy heart and feeling warm and fuzzy about our hood, Capoyunk is saying goodbye for the winter. We love our cozy little spot on the block and wish we could be around for the chilly weather, but we have to rest up for the next season. Next season we will be back with movie nights and knitting circles and all the awesome people that you know and love. They are moving to other Capos, so come see them at 13th, Rittenhouse or Penn.

Thank you for supporting Capoyunk. Thank you for stopping by on our last day, having a free cone, and wishing us well. Let's wish the winter away asap!