Hug a Barista

Meet Zach and Joe (left and right, respectively). They have been working with Capogiro for years. They're both at 20th near full-time, so you're bound to have seen their shining faces at one time or another. Don't tell anyone, but I think they may be two of my favorite people in the whole world. Shh.. In any case, I thought to let you get to know them a little better.

Joe. Joe is an art geek, film student and pun connoisseur. He is also very politically active. When he's not slinging gelato or finger painting, Joe spends his time trying to get citizenship and job placement for Canadian geese. When he's not at Capogiro, you can often find Joe at your local mall, picketing Chik Fil-A stores to open on Sundays. He is deathly afraid of the dog with the Jerry Garcia mask in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Often referred to as the Guy with Glasses (Yelp.com), Joe would like you to know that he is not, in fact, trying actively to look like a hipster. His words of wisdom to us all are, "Don't squat in spurs."

Zach. This little bugger has been working on and off for Capogiro since the tender age of 16. A self-proclaimed ladies man, Zach occasionally attends classes at Rutgers and one day hopes to be a smarmy hotel manager in the Caribbean or somewhere equally exotic where people wear swimsuits most of the time. Zach loathes having to wear hats, but owns more pairs of shoes than Imelda Marcos. He recently returned from a road trip through several National Parks, and would like all women in Philadelphia to know that he's, "really muscular and loves to make out." While I can't post his dreams on this family-friendly blog, I can say that Zach's greatest fears include ugly children, jail, male pattern baldness, being dirty, and the wrath of John.

To Our Regulars...

Lights of our lives!

We see you on the daily. In the morning, around lunchtime, after dinner, and sometimes even riiiight before bed.

If you're at Capogiro more than once a week, or better yet, more than once a day, you've earned that coveted title and you should be proud of it! We want to shout out - radio dj style - to all of the familiar faces that help make our day.

We appreciate your patience, your smiles, your quirks and your quick wits. We love that many of you know and greet us by our names. We we love meeting your kids, your spouses, your friends, and your 'special friends'.
We love being the first people you talk to in the morning, the ones who relieve you from the office with toasty panini in the afternoon, the ones who chat with you on an iced coffee break, and the ones who help you satisfy that sweet tooth (I mean, calcium and vitamin D craving obviously) before or after dinner. Or both. No shame in having dessert first OR twice. You're a rock star.

Linda, Sam, Charlie, Charlotte, Tim, Sarah, Chris, Jordan, Michael, Susan, Brian, Julie, Bob, Kiwi Lady, Elliott, John, and so many more... you're awesome! We love you! And above all else, thank you! We wouldn't be here without folks like you :)

Free Panna.

If I've heard it once then I have heard it fifty-billion times, "What the heck is Panna??" Seeing as I come from a background of people who are completely ignorant of all things Italian I can understand the confusion.

All of our stores, in one fashion or another, advertise 'Free Panna'. I suppose the combined mystery of a foreign word accompanied by 'Free' will tend to make many a Gent or Lady quite the curious cat. I have spent years explaining what exactly panna is (I feel like I'm being a little dramatic since it takes about three seconds to explain)so for a change I would like to list some things that 'panna' is not:

-water

-sprinkles

-chocolate

-a candy

-any type of clothes

-a relative

-a slang word

-offensive

-a cone

-gelato

-a spaceship

-Facebook

-a drink

-me

I really needed to write that down, because I'm pretty sure on one occasion or another at least one person may have thought that 'panna' was one or more of those things. If you still are unsure of what exactly 'panna' is, take a look at this:

Stay dry and creamy this weekend!

Yesterday was nuts

Right?! So crazy. Rittenhouse was teeming with people all day Tuesday, tourists mostly. By the overwhelmed looks on their faces and the brand new Drexel and Penn t-shirts, it was pretty obvious that the kiddies are arriving for their first year of college. In droves. Just imagine that you're a parent of one of these students, already scared for them to be leaving home, driving them into a big city filled with miscreants and near-do-wells, starting to unload the car when huh? An earthquake! (See Dawne's post below). Suddenly your head explodes and you turn into a zombie.

This is the only thing that I can think that led to the hordes of bewildered people in and around the Square last night. If you looked outside, you saw tons of parents slowly stumbling from one block to the next, whilst their children looked equal parts scared and annoyed by them. We welcomed the parent-tourist-zombies and their young into Capogiro, and introduced them to a wondrous new treat (I've never explained what gelato is more than I did last night), and they loved our urban chic-ness and stainless steel "spaceship" cafe. They were adorable. For a Tuesday night, we were slammed. We were slinging gelato like mad people. There were so many maps of Philadelphia strewn across our tables. We were giving directions and suggestions for people for hours. Crazy!

Then came the grad students. After the parents went back to their hotel rooms and the students went to go cry or drink it off in their new dorms, the older ones came. They were pretty awesome. It's really nice to get a new perspective of Philadelphia from folks who just moved here. Makes it seem shinier somehow. We had the grad students pouring in until just about closing time, when we finally pulled in the tables and breathed out the chaos of the day. Welcome back, y'all.

Shake Shake Shake....

Nope, not a frappe... I'm talking about Philadelphia!

It's not every Tuesday that an earthquake is felt along the East Coast. Heck, it's not even every decade. While all Capogiro stores are on ground level, we were still acutely aware of our lights, tables, and computer monitors rocking, and a gentle yet sort of alarming rumbling. What caused it? A 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Virginia! How COOL?!

Social media was INcredible today. The speed at which quake-related tweets, check-in's, and Facebook posts appeared was insane. Excitement, disbelief, and a wee bit of fear sum the mood well. Sarah and I were sitting in the office for a moment when the quake was felt, and at first, we brushed the rumbling off as a big truck passing on the street above. As things continued to rumble, Sarah's eyes grew larger and she suggested (with some urgency) that we leave the office lest we be buried alive in it.

Little to no damage occurred in our area, though the folks in Virginia (such as our Dear Kristin's parents!) felt a longer, more feather-ruffling shake. Upon learning that we had just experienced an earthquake - especially one of a respectable magnitude - I must admit I was more excited than concerned. I majored in geology in college, and could only imagine and envy the excitement an East coast quake would have sparked in classes.

Anyways, we hope you're all well. Plenty of folks celebrated their work-free afternoons with us :) Aftershocks or not, we're here for ya :)

Get a load of our melons!!!

Everybody loves our melons!

It's Melon Season!! Here at Capo, we hunt melons. Bumpy ones, a little off center, we like em best that way - just ladybugs and compost (channeling Joni Mitchell - "just give me the birds and the bees - PLEASE!") We relish in their diversity and their ability to make us dance. No pesticides or fertilizers - they are imperfection! Come, enjoy our melons while they last... The Farmer's Daughters' Melons Collection: Canary Melon Sorbetto - White flesh, slightly tangy, the Ginger on the island of melons Cantaloupe Melon Sorbetto - Prosciutto's best friend Sugar Baby Watermelon Sorbetto- A melon small in size only! Honeydew Melon Sorbetto - pale green flesh, sweeter, the Mary Ann on the island Hot Pepper Gelato - Because all that cool needs some heat! Cactus Pear Sorbetto - Why? It taste like a melon, swear! Click HERE to get your hands on our sweet melons!!!

Blogging about blogs

So before I started working with this fabulous company, I had never written a blog before. I know, crazy right? In any case, this past year I've been a weekly blogger, and it's led me to appreciate the blog posts of others on a whole new level. Capogiro has conveniently provided a list of blogs we like as a company (see right sidebar). I'd like to share with you some of the funnier and/or wittier blogs that I've stumbled upon personally.

Regretsy You've probably heard of this one, but Regretsy takes the most obsurd postings on Etsy.com, the popular "homemade" craft and jewelry site and belittles them. It is amazing what some people consider art, and even more incredible is the amount of said art that people try to sell that is somehow made of their own hair. Gross. One of my favorites of all time is this little gem below, where an incredibly talented artist will draw you with Justin Bieber, sitting on a unicorn. Winner!

FUPenguin FuPenguin is a blog where the author takes out all of his aggression on the world by insulting it's cutest animals. He takes a picture off the web of some adorable creature than proceeds to belittle them. Actually quite entertaining if you're in a mean-spirited mood. Or if you just hate cute things.

Hyperbole and a Half This is a blog by a hilarious girl in the Midwest, who has an uncanny ability to blog about her life in a side splitting way. One of my favorites of hers is when she lambasts people who write the word 'a lot' incorrectly, so she chooses to personify it as a hairy creature.

HappyPlace This one has been on Facebook a lot recently, but it's seriously the funniest site on the web. Basically a compilation of pictures that readers have submitted, it ranges from hilarious gay marriage protest signs to clever responses to random signs. Such as this gem.


So, in any case, blogs are fun. They are not just for super nerdy gamers anymore who need a forum for their world of warcraft ranting (sorry, Caitlin). Send me suggestions for other funny ones, I need more laughter in my life!

Bzzbzzbzz.

So you know how we REALLY like to pair with cool local people doing cool local things? We're up to shenanigans again! We can happily say that we're going to be making gelato with some of the mostest specialest local honey around, gifted to us by Daniel Duffy. Daniel's been maintaining a community apiary at the Woodland Cemetery with the help of some local kids, which is definitely the sort of thing we can get behind. (Here's a link! You'll have to cut and paste, because I'm less HTML savvy than your average dim-witted four year old: http://nakedphilly.com/university-city/beekeepers-guild-to-teach-bee-yard-to-farm-stand-youth-program/)

So the honey...totally raw. Murky. Funky. Got some mint going on (what are these bees eating, anyway?) In the interest of full disclosure, I'm...kinda not a honey afficionado. But Sarah's pretty agog over the stuff, so it must be good. Sarah's got reasonably good taste. And it'll be here Saturday! Like, mañana! It's part of the Sustainable Saturdays gig in West Philadelphia, which is another thing that makes West Philly FAR cooler than South Philly or Fishtown or wherever you ersatz trendsetters think is cool these days. And before you ask (I can see some of you fixing to raise your hands already), we're not going to be mucking it up with any rosemary or goat's milk. Of COURSE the rosemary/honey/goat's milk is one of the mind-blowingest gelati that we make. Everyone loves it, and rightly so. But this honey...it's got layers, man. There's some stuff going on in there. We don't want to mask any of that. It'd just be gilding the lily. So just our famous milk paired with some awesome honey.

So tomorrow! Come say hi on the west side! And Daniel, we're saving you a pint! Thanks about a mason jar-full!

And what the hey, seems like as good a reason as any to post this:

Have a good weekend everyone!

All I took pictures of were trees and food. No really.

So last week I went on a roving vacation with my Mom through the South. We drove from Delaware to Hilton Head, South Carolina and it only took us a hundred and fifty hours. Ok more like fifteen. But still, it was an epic, Bataan Death March meets the Odyssey kind of drive, but we made it, relatively unscathed, to the swampish heat of the coast. Some of the best food we had the whole trip? Wilson's BBQ and Grill, in Emporia Virginia. I'm pretty sure BBQ is my number one comfort food, falling somewhere neck and neck with Vietnamese. They had some of the best pulled pork I've ever had - and their baked beans were top notch. Oh and for anyone interested, they've got one of the most sadomasochistic "how much can you eat?" throwdowns I've ever seen. All I'm going to say is it involves a pound of bacon, a pound of ribs, and that's just the first two of TEN courses. Oh and you have 23 minutes. But hey if you eat it all you don't have to pay for it! Shudder.
Once we got to Hilton Head, we were adrift in a sea of tourist trap nightmares. Capn' Jacks Crabby Crab Shack! type places (no offense to anyone who happens to have named their establishment Capn' Jacks Crabby Crab Shack - any resemblance to actual places is purely coincidental). But there were some seriously amazing tucked away spots.
I'm a raging snob. I'm the first to get in line to admit it. Combatting it and or hiding it from people is something I try to do gracefully, and let it slip in gradually once people get to know me. However when I discover a restaurant I'm interested in going to is located in a shopping center next to a Piggly Wiggly and a laundromat, I'm probably going to either try to find somewhere new, or resign myself to whatever is in store (except, I say again, Vietnamese places...they can pop up anywhere and be the best friggin thing ever). Kenny B's French Quarter Cafe was AHMAZINGOHMYGOD. Go there. Drive to Hilton Head just to EAT THEIR FOOD. That plate took me three days to work through, seriously, and pretty much left me only able to drink water for days after that without starting to whimper and cry at the site of food. I've never had jambalaya that good in my life.
Giant buspan of stone crab claws. Died. Heaven. Went to.
And a FUZZY MONSTER CRAB CLAW!
Juleps. Had to. And not a bad cocktail bar, The Gin Joint, in Charleston. Loved Charleston. Amazingly beautiful. I might have to live there one day, after I move to Savannah for a little. Fantastic cities, both.
And ok, one non-food picture. En route to Charleston we took a short detour to see the Angel Oak. I'm a sucker for trees, so I spent the majority of the trip alternately falling over things because I was so busy marveling at the Spanish moss that was everywhere, or getting misty eyed over oysters and soul food. The Angel Oak defies words.
This trip reaffirmed many things for me, namely, yes, I definitely hate "family style seating" (sorry, Mrs. Wilkes, you were a bummer), 99 degrees with a 115 degree heat index will take just about anyone down, unless you're bolstered with bourbon and lemonade, and watching Chopped reruns with your Mom while polishing off cheap bottles of wine is more fun than just about anything else in the world.

Dear Sky, We're Not Really Thirsty Anymore. Looooooove Philadelphia!

Been around anytime over the last week? It's been damp. Sometimes it's misty or sprinkling, sometimes it's steadily rainy, and sometimes it's ga-zillions of 4 ounce drops of rain pelting and soaking everything in sight. Now don't get me wrong, I actually really love rain - and weather in general, but many Philadelphians harbor a ridiculous fear-related aversion to being touched by the stuff, and won't step out of their homes, offices, schools, etc during a storm lest they become a smidge... wet.

This weekend's storms brought some serious rainfall to our coast. That radar image of Sunday's storm was a littttttle scary, and some unusual spots flooded, like the Broad St ramp off I-95, with that poor cabby stuck in it. Severe thunderstorm watches and crazy flood warnings always incite a bit of alarm, however most of Philadelphia survived just fine (though the PWD had a good deal of sewer drain cleaning to do Monday morning).
Anyways, we've hit mid-August (Sorry! It's the truth.) and frankly, I'd love to enjoy as many more sweet late summer days as possible. Rain doesn't technically stop anyone from enjoying their day, but it does tend to alter plans... SO, fat cloudy rain clouds, please move out to sea, and rain on the water. Swing by anywhere that's undergoing a drought, too, they'd appreciate if you shared.
Thanks!
Philadelphia

Because I'm an Adult

Joe and I just had popcorn for dinner. Really delicious popcorn from the Roxy movie theater in fact, where they still use real clarified butter. Yum. This is one of the things that makes me really glad to be an adult. While it's a shame that now we all have bills to pay, etc., there are many perks to not having to listen to anyone's rules anymore. Such as;

Dessert for breakfast! Often, we will get folks who come in around 10am and get gelato. They always seem to need to make a remark about how they know it's wrong to have dessert that early, but they also always seem to have a mischievous glint in their eye when they say so. We salute you, daytime gelato eaters, and fully support your morning indulgences.

Drinking from the milk carton. This drove my mother insane. But hey, sometimes you just want a chug of milk, and don't want to have to bother with a glass. It's a simple pleasure that this brings me now, it's my damn milk and I'm gonna drink it straight from the gallon. Take that, Mom!

Staying up all night for no good reason. When I was young, New Year's Eve was like a magical night where I was allowed to stay up until midnight to watch the ball drop and ring in the new year. It was like being given a glimpse into the dangerous darkness of night, for at least 20 minutes before I was shooed away to bed. Now I'll just stay up all night for the heck of it, but I always feel a little guilty when I see the sun coming up.

I will say, that the very best thing about being an adult is the shower beer. If you have never had a beer in the shower before, you are missing out on a magical experience. For some reason, there is nothing more rewarding that starting your weekend off with an ice cold beer in a steamy hot shower. It is for this reason more than any other that I am glad I am a grown up.

I Love Jackie Barry.

Jackie Barry: woman, artist, nut enthusiast, friend and (most importantly) Capo-ite. Jackie recently wrote an article for Phrequency (a pretty nifty Philly website geared towards young urban adults aka Hipsters) about her five favorite coffee spots in the city. Well, CapoYunk made her list and I'm SUPER excited about it! She threw in some really cute paintings of all the shops too, and Yunk is my personal favorite.

It was an honor to get a personal mention in her writeup. Everyone should check this out, it's awesome! LOOK AT THIS YO!

Red Currant, I Adore You

Red Currants have descended upon us! While some people approach the lovely pink sorbetto with hesitation (because of its stunning beauty of course), we seasoned Capogiro-ians approach it with open arms, hearts, mouths... etc.

A beautiful hue of red, and cute as a bunch of spherical buttons, red currants yield a delicate and surprisingly delicious flavor. The currant fruit grows on a bush, and as summer progresses, the berries mature into their tart flavor with a hint of sweetness. Not just for sorbetto, you may be familiar with currants in non-Capogiro dishes such as jams, salads, garnishes, or drinks when in season. How versatile of the currant!

Are they good for you? Yep :) Black currant is more traditionally associated with medicinal uses, but many herbalists consider red currant berries to have fever-reducing, sweat-inducing, astringent, appetite increasing, diuretic and digestive properties, and more. The added plus of high levels of vitamin C, fruit acids, and fiber make currants a solid addition to your diet, sorbet form included!

A short season (you're used to this by now, no?) means get out that door and high tail it to Capo. Red currant sorbetto will boost your health AND slap a smile on that darling face of yours ;)

I almost didn’t believe it there for a second…

Did anyone else have this experience? It wasn’t until it was widely announced that everything had been put back together that I realized just how close I had been to what would have been an exceedingly unpleasant fall and winter. I mean…this is AMERICA. We have traditions, and ceremony, and history. It’s how we pace the rhythm of our lives, how we recognize our own tribe, how we spend our Sunday afternoons.

I’m talking about football, of course.

I’ll stipulate for the record that I’m a baseball guy first and foremost. Baseball is jazz, and chess, and ballet, and quite literally poetry in motion. (Though Tim Lincecum’s delivery is more awkward 14 year old than T. S. Eliot, if you see what I’m saying and I think you do. Three wins in four games in San Francisco! HA!) Baseball is becoming truly international—Japan, Cuba, Central and South America—we’ve taught the world our game, and I really hope that someday soon we’ll have a real World Series. The World Baseball Classic is a step in the right direction.

But football. No one else does football right. (And no, this is decidedly not a blog post about futbol. I’d post the obligatory Simpsons video clip, but it’s been overdone. I’ve tried to enjoy soccer. Hell, I PLAYED soccer for a long time. It’s interminable to watch. Positively stultifying. I’d rather watch golf.) I think there’s a certain amount of intrinsic American swagger, or braggadocio, or bombast, that other nationalities just can’t understand. That and the differences between a free safety and a strong safety.

And we almost LOST IT. I’ll totally stipulate that it was a tantrum-throwing contest between millionaires and billionaires, though there were some real issues in play—long-term health care for retired players and the multitude of concussions, for example. We can have that more intellectual conversation if you like, just not right now.

SERIOUSLY, WE ALMOST DIDN’T HAVE FOOTBALL. Could you imagine? No fantasy football! No Eli Manning being a whiny-pants! No Tony Romo choking away games! Troy Polamalu’s hair! OchoCinco’s weirdness! Tono Romo choking!

And the Eagles are gonna be huge this year. YOOGE. I mean, obviously the offense is going to stomp up and down on people. Michael Vick’s only going to be better. DeSean Jackson wised up and went to camp. Vince Young though…really? Yeesh. That’ll be a wait-and-see situation for sure. But the defense. The D-FENCE! Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Asante Samuel , AND Nnamdi Asomugha? You’re really going to try to throw against that, huh? Good luck, Tony. I’m predicting the team will grab 173 interceptions this season.

A small sigh: this is always the time of year when I start sorta-kinda-only-a-lil wishing I was still in Seattle. SO nice to wake up at 10:00, roll over and turn on your tv and…look! Football! In the morning! But then I’d be stuck in a town where a college team—A COLLEGE TEAM—is empirically more popular than the local pro team. That just ain’t right. I mean, when was the last time the University of Washington was good at anything other than turning out doctors, nurses, and clinical psychologists? Feh. Who needs ‘em.

So the Eagles: gonna stomp on people. A lot and all the time. The Phillies: Already stomping on people, all over the place and better than anyone else. Still owe my mom one more game this season, too. Looking like a good fall, people. I’m waiting for it to snow!

Holy BERRY BUSH Melinda, I wrote you a poem!

This is a poem, which you may agree,
Is a most silly way to express to thee
My love for the flavors we've had recent weeks
If you visited Capo, you need no sneak peeks.
To top off the blackberry, mamey, and the razz,
We've ordered some fruits with even more pizzazz.
A few great surprises, are soon on the way
And I'll give you a hint that won't take you all day
A currant, a forest, and perhaps a dark berry...
Blend together to make hot summer evenings so merry!