So Long, Farewell

On this epic post-election Wednesday, it seems trivial to post a blog about moving away. To leave a city you've grown to love and friends that you'll have in your heart forever. I know that after a night of moving speeches and countless victory addresses, my thank you to Philadelphia and to Capogiro may seem a meager one, but I mean it with the utmost humility and sincerity.

This is my last week as the General Manager of Capogiro 20th Street. Next week I will be moving back to Richmond to work with some amazing people in a new venture and to pursue graduate school. I know I will be returning to Virginia a different, stronger, more educated and aware person because of my years in Philadelphia. I know I will treat my customers with greater patience and tenderness because of my time with Capogiro.

To our loyal Capo regulars, thank you. Thank you to the sticky-handed children with giant scuro grins, to the well-dressed lawyers who live on Pellegrino. Thanks to the med students who keep us company late into the night. Thank you to the throngs of weekend gelato fans who drive from almost everywhere to come and have our world-famous deliciousness. Thank you to Mario and Enzo, for showing me just how much espresso Italians can actually drink throughout the day. Thanks to the first-daters who come in for awkward conversation and late-night pastry. Thank you to the Village Whiskey drinkers, who never cease to amuse us. Thank you to the samplers, the aficionados, the ones who care about local ingredients and artisanal know-how. I salute you.

To my coworkers, thank you. You are truly the greatest group of people I've ever had the pleasure of working with. You are my family, my dysfunctional, weirdo relatives. I will miss you most. Thank you for the hard work, for the laughs, for listening to me, for caring. Thank you for your dedication to me and to this company. You are amazing. Ryan, you are the best, most reliable person to work with ever, and I wish you the world. Sarah, you have taught me so much through your dedication, perseverance, and ethos. I am honored to call you my friend.

John and Stephanie, thank you so much for this experience. I know you will have continued growth and success in everything you put your minds to. What an amazing place you have created.



Later, dudes!

Changing seasons, Changing hours

For those of you who weren’t with us last season, you might not be aware that we change our hours after daylight savings.  So be sure to note that we close one hour earlier everyday (Sunday – Thursday at 10:30, and Friday and Saturday at Midnight).

Apologies to all who missed our blog last week, although chances are you didn’t have power to read it anyway.  Everyone at Capogiro sincerely hopes that you made it through the hurricane okay!  We closed early last week during the storm and re-opened at Noon on Tuesday.  After opening the store last Tuesday, I had doubts that Capo would see a lot of customers but to my surprise the store was quite busy!  It seems even a hurricane can’t quell the thirst our customers have for La Colombe's awesome coffee.  Even in the cold and still rainy weather people were coming in for gelato.  All day I was swapping storm stories with Capo’s regulars as well as our lovely visiting customers.  It seems Philadelphia was quite lucky compared to our neighbors in New Jersey, New York, and Bucks County.  Capogiro sends all of you good energy and hope for a fast recovery!

Anyway, Capo is running at full capacity and even though the air has a wintery bite to it, we’re still serving our fall flavors.  These next few weeks will be the last chances to taste some of these flavors so make sure you come in and bid a proper adieu before they are traded in for our winter fare!   They are just as tasty and unique as the fall ones.  You can look forward to blood orange and pomegranate as well as a ton of other winter favorites.  We’ve had cranberry apple sorbetto all week and I have to admit that I am addicted to it already (it reminds Sean of his mom's homemade apple sauce!)  We hope to see you soon J

Capo Happenings

Hey all! Wanted to say real quick, if anyone is listening from the NYC area, that WE LOVE YOU AND ARE WORRIED ABOUT YOUR FACES!! And other parts, but. Ya know. Grubstreet posted this super awesome ditty today about things you can do to help restaurants get back on their feet - the devastation felt by all up and down the East Coast corridor has my empathy in high gear. We've been up to some pretty fun things lately, though - my favorite project in a long time has been gelato for the University of the Sciences - here's a picture of chocolate covered crickets before they met their fate in marshmallow gelato.

We're also about to debut our gelato made with Spodee wine. We cooked up a silly good jam made with raspberries (HOW ARE WE STILL GETTING RASPBERRIES IN NOVEMBER!? I ASK YOU!? Crazy weather. Grumble.) and are going to spin it with mascarpone gelato. Look for it at Penn on Friday! Tomorrow! We're also having a ton of fun with Spodee cocktails at the bar - if you haven't had it yet, really...probably about time you left the house more. Just sayin. Also, on the horizon, CAPOGIRO IS ALMOST TEN YEARS OLD!!! This December marks a very important birthday for us, and we're so thrilled to share it with you guys. Any flavors you'd like brought back to mark the occasion?? Let us know. So lots of love from this end of the woods. Stay dry, stay safe, and keep your heads up.

So long, Sandy!

Well, we all survived Hurricane Sandy here in Philadelphia, and are wishing the best for our friends in New York and New Jersey in this soggy, dark time. We closed a little bit early on Monday but were back on Tuesday to sling gelato and pull espresso shots for the brave souls who ventured out into the fray, and were actually nice and busy last night. Thanks for coming out of your houses, Philly!

What got me watching the coverage leading up to and during the storm were all of the crazy Photoshopped pics people were creating to make the storm seem like the end was nigh for NYC. One Twitter user even cheated and just posted a photo from The Day After Tomorrow, with the Statue of Liberty engulfed in torrential waves. Although I do have to admit, this shark swimming through the waters off of the East River is pretty freakin' cool..

Weather's comin' Ma! Better bring in the cows!

So it looks like we're maybe in for a good solid blow late this weekend and into next week. Exciting! We're hardcore at Capogiro. Tough as postal carriers. We all have little plaques in the back of our cafes that say, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these baristi from the swift completion of your awesome cappuccino with a wicked little laurel." Or something along those lines. I'll have to check and get back to you. 

But really! You should plan ahead a bit. Stash a few pints of scuro and pumpkin gelato away in your freezer so you know that when the power goes out, you can say to yourself honestly, "Self, we simply HAVE to get down on this entire pint of gelato RIGHT NOW, else it will melt and we will be sad that this frozen awesomeness went to waste." It's totally justifiable.

Of course, the reality is that we live in a major metropolitan environment (you. Look at you! SO metropolitan!). Toss on your boots and go for a walk! I love walking around in gnarly weather. You have gotten yourself some legit boots by now, right? I mean, I know last winter was kind of a fizzle, but boots. They're for sure a must-have.

Else how are you going to troop yourself and a friend or seven to our store? And why WOULDN'T you? Come in the morning and congratulate yourself with some oatmeal. Hearty revitalization, that! And of course my most-advocated lunch for troopers such as you--soup and a strong beer! Good for the constitution. Just don't have so many strong beers that you decide Walnut Street would make for a pretty good impromptu slip-n-slide. I can't condone that. 

So embrace the weather and go for an urban hike! Assuming it arrives, of course. We all know how much those friendly, over-zealous meteorologists like to rile us up with threats of impending doom. Every now and again, though...they sure do nail it. Remind me sometime to tell you about the thundersnow in Seattle. Thundersnow! In SEATTLE! But rest assured that we'll be here for you. 'Cuz we're tough. 

It Actually Is Easy, Being Green

 New favorite flavor - Green Tea Gelato. It's amazing, it's stupendous! It's the best of East meets West. Subtle yet savory, Green Tea is my new official top pick. We haven't seen it around Rittenhouse for a while, but a customer requested it a few weeks ago and it's back by popular demand. Come in this week and try some, you won't be sorry.

In other green news, Stephanie's recipe for Cream of Broccoli soup is out of this world. It also just hit the stores, and it's going quick. Served with a sprinkle of shredded cheddar and a nice hunk of Metropolitan bread, it's the perfect precursor to a cup of gelato. Get here now before I eat it all. Sorry, vegetarians, it's not for you. We do offer plenty of other veg soups, like today's Beluga Lentil or our amazing Pumpkin with Coconut and Ginger. Yes.

Jeeper Creepers

To celebrate Halloween our wonderful kitchen staff has been carving fruit jack-o lanterns to spookify our gelato and sorbetto and each fruit has a different expression.  We promise you fun Halloween treats without any tricks.  Be sure to sample all the flavors with the fruit-o-lanterns, and definitely give our pumpkin gelato a taste if you haven’t gotten a chance.

Now I know many of you have been enjoying our late hours throughout the week and especially on the weekends but please note that our hours will be changing at the end of Daylight Savings Time.  Starting November 4, our hours are:

Mon – Thurs 7:30am – 10:30pm

Friday 7:30am – 12:00am

Saturday 9:00am – 12:00am  

Sunday  10:00am - 10:30pm

On another note, for our soup lovers, I spotted Cream of Broccoli being prepared in the kitchen! 

Juuuust a quick update on what we've got going on 'round here...

Totally fall out. Totally! Love it. Definitely my favorite time of year. (I know, I know. It's a little on the warm-ish side today. And we're all bracing for thunderstorms tonight. Which, sure. I like a good thunderstorm as much as the next guy. But it IS the middle of October, and I'm on the lookout for snow. SNOW!) Late summer is probably our best season for sorbetto, when we're rolling through all kinds of awesome fruit. But fall? Fall's when we get acorn squash, and pumpkin (which, to get out ahead of it, tastes a lot more like pumpkin than it does pumpkin pie. We get asked a lot.), and now we've even got cream cheese gelato with Medjool dates. Those three are a medio cup waiting to happen if you ask me.

[A quick aside, acknowledging that I've had a problem with parantheticals for a long, long time: I went looking for a picture of Medjool dates and this popped up and totally distracted me:

Bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with chorizo and gorgonzola. STOBBIT. BRB, copying recipe.}

And we've been blowing up our bar menu, too--it was definitely time to tuck away our warm weather drinks for a few months. You need something with a little more hair on its chest when the winds start blowing cold! So our mulled wine is back but no, we're still not going to share the recipe. Sorry! You'll just have to come see us for it instead.

We've added a few cocktails that are sort of already our favorites--the white manhattan for one. It's a take on a traditional manhattan using Philadelphia Distilling's Shine Whiskey. It's okay. Y'know. No great shakes or anything. (It's awesome. Come by for happy hour tonight and try it.) And we're still loving us some Spodee! So good in a chocolate frappe. Suddenly...suddenly I'm wondering about a frappe with Spodee and cream cheese and date gelato...might have to try that out when I'm done working later today. Also, for no other reason than I like it a lot, the John Henry 3 Lick Spiker Ale is back. If you haven't had it yet, it's a chewy, semi-sweet, super-strong sipping ale. One of the best beers I've tried in the last year or so. Definitely a favorite.

OH and SOUP! Soup's back. Gonna hold us in good stead through what rumor says is likely to be a gnarly winter. I LIKE gnarly winters. Everyone glares at me when I say that, and I sorta don't care. BRING IT. You're worried? Then you probably need better boots. So. You're coming in for happy hour for a bowl of soup with a healthy hunka bread, a white manhattan, and then a Spodee frappe for dessert. Yes? Yes.
 

Politics, Schmolitics, Let's Eat Gelato!

In case you've been living under a rock, it's an election year! Last night's debate has the world of social media in a tizzy, and everyone is screaming their opinions from the rooftops about one candidate or another. Personally, although I love discussing current events with our lovely customers, I can't wait for this election to be over so that everyone on Facebook can go back to posting about their unruly cat's hijinks or what they ate for dinner. Also, relationship statuses, can't wait to get back to you.

If there is one thing in the world that doesn't care about politics, it's gelato. Gelato is the Great Unifier. Gelato does not care who you support or what social issues stick in your craw. It just wants to be enjoyed and savored for the delicious treat that it is. Can we all please take time out of our rants and raves and come together to share in the experience of gelato? I challenge you all to come down to Capogiro today and share a cup with a friend or coworker and try to see what you have in common, versus how you differ. I'm sure you'll both agree that gelato is delicious, and we should all have the freedom and economic stability to enjoy it on the regular.

Today is a great day for flavors - first day of the season for Caribbean Sunrise Papaya, always a crowd favorite. Also on the ballot there's Molasses, Zucca (longneck pumpkin), Lemon Basil, and Pineapple Mint, just to name a few. Lets all put our differences aside and have a cup togethe!

Fall Soups and Flavors

First order of business, Soup’s on!  This week we’re serving Ribollita but I heard a rumor that our famous Spicy Tomato Soup will be making an appearance soon too.  For now, come in and enjoy a cup of our Tuscan Ribollita soup.  This hearty soup is full of Cannellini beans, black kale, carrots, celery, onions, parsley, garlic, and tomatoes that all swirl around in a steamy-hot beef broth.  ‘Tis the season of sniffles and sneezing, so come armor your body with a cup of hot, vegetable-rich soup or a cup of fresh squeezed orange juice!

Next  order of business, Mele e Mascarpone.  Mascarpone, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, is a sweet, light, traditional italian cheese that is made with milk and a citric acid.  It is an excellent pair for Heirlook Apple.  For those of you who know what Mascarpone is, I’m sure you are already on the way here.

Remember that we also have Apple Cider and other fall flavors!  In the picture above, you can spot our Bourbon Vanilla and our Zucca (Pumpkin) Gelato sandwiching the Mele con Mascarpone in the middle.  Why not get a medio with all three?

See you soon!