Capogiro Gelato

[shacke]

Could it be? A negative comment in the Capogiro thread?

Yup.

I was there tonight and they changed their cups. It appears that the piccolo is now more piccolo. I called them on it and they told me that while the container has changed, the amount has not. I must say that I don't believe it. I go there frequently enough that I think I can tell the difference. I would venture that the small size is now 25% smaller but that is a guess. My wife agreed. For the first time, she didn't feel like it was "enough" for her and I concur. Frequent flyers know the drill. Scoop up the gelato with the spatula and slide it onto the side of the cup, rotate 180 and do the same thing. You can't fit the spatula edge into these cups. The new "medio" appears to be nearer to the old "piccolo".

Anyway, it ticks me off a bit because

1. It is messing with a good thing and

2. $4.25 is a healthy price to pay in the first place and now this?

Does Capogiro have to go the way of the smaller devil dogs, ring dings and suzy Q's? I hope its a temporary problem. I am not fooled.

I have emailed them to make my voice heard.

Having said that, I plan on being there again tomorrow with a few fellow gulleteers if all goes well and they can confirm or dispel my theory.

Evan

[ellencho]

Yeesh. I hope the mini cones don't shrink, those are my personal favorite!

If they are downsizing their portions perhaps it's because they aren't doing as well in the supermarkets as they had hoped they would? Most folks don't want to pay 10 bucks a pint (except for us of course).

[philadining]

hmmm... I had a piccolo at the 13th street store and it didn't feel smaller, the gelato was still heaped pretty high on it. Seemed like the right amount to me, but maybe that depends on who's scooping.

But as evidence I can only offer this Ray Lichtenstein-esque response to the new cups:

Oh, righ, the report:

Turkish Coffee- hearty, intense, and a little chunky with a bit of that sludge at the bottom you end up drinking no matter how hard you try. Authentic! just colder...

Cinnamon - because it seemed like a good match, and it was.

Edited April 10, 2006 by philadining (log)

[Neuronix]

$4.25 for a small? They can keep it. I'll keep heading to More Than Just Ice Cream down the street. Capogiro is tasty, but wayyyyyyyyy overpriced. For the price of a medium (3 small spoonfuls?) you can get a half gallon of ice cream.

Sharon's Sorbet at Trader Joe's also. At $2 a pint the lemon sorbet is what water ice only dreams it could be.

[shacke]

hmmm... I had a piccolo at the 13th street store and it didn't feel smaller, the gelato was still heaped pretty high on it. Seemed like the right amount to me, but maybe that depends on who's scooping.

←

Was it the "new" ridgy cup? Perhaps the 20th st staff missed the "heap it up" missive with the new containers from the boss.

Do I sense a mission here, philad? (insert MI theme here)

Evan

[philadining]

It was indeed a ridgy cup, and now that I think back, it did feel smaller in the hand. But again maybe I got lucky and got a healthy mound, such that it didn't seem skimpy to me.

I don't really begrudge them the $4.45 for a good product, but at that price it's stupid for them to get stingy with the portions.

I agree that this bears further research....

Edited April 10, 2006 by philadining (log)

[shacke]

Lightning fast response from John Reitano:

Hi Evan,

Which store did you visit?

Was the cup plastic or paper? I am really curious to know which cup you were served in. I am sorry that you walked away disapopinted.

Everyone is trained to pour the same size portion regardless of the cup that is used, so there has not been any change-up in the offering. In fact, you can always ask them to weigh it if you are afraid that you have been short-changed. It is important to us that the same size serving be offered consistently.

We ran out of our logo'd cups and we have been waiting for all of our new cups to arrive.

Thanks for letting me know about your concern.

Best,

John

PhilaD, looks like you got the goldmine and I got the shaft with the smaller cups Glad to know portion size change is not the issue and this is all temporary, just individual servers not compensating for the smaller cups with a heavier hand.

Phew.

Edited April 10, 2006 by shacke (log)

[Holly Moore]

Neat that John Reitano responded. Decided to see for myself, not that I need motivation to head to Capogiro. Went there after lunch today. I also felt my small size portion was skimpy.

I got two flavors - kiwi and butterscotch. The server put one spatula of each flavor into the small dish (wavy blue stripes). It is the first time there were 1/2" gaps on each side of the slathers. Another first - I could see the bottom of the cup on each side.

I think the problem is training on the temporary cups. Or maybe server resistance to the temporary cups. Perhaps the cups are awkward to work with.

[mrbigjas]

we went tonight and i'm not sure if my serving was skimpy or not. but the combination of seville orange sorbetto and chevre gelato was fantastic. although really all the flavors i had tonight (pineapple sage, anise, mint, hibiscus) were deeeelish. this was the 20th st store.

[shacke]

we went tonight and i'm not sure if my serving was skimpy or not.  but the combination of seville orange sorbetto and chevre gelato was fantastic.  although really all the flavors i had tonight (pineapple sage, anise, mint, hibiscus) were deeeelish.  this was the 20th st store.

←

Damn that post was fast mrbigjas! Well, crisis averted. The portion size was back to normal for sure. Sounds like it was a staff education issue and no way intended as a slight to the customer. Holly, maybe the staff "retraining" happened after you left. The portions may have been supranormal tonight. John obviously valued a customer's opinion and corrected the problem.

Philadining has the photo proof.

Today I had dark chocolate and cashew. That mint was fresh and tingly and oh so very happily minty, like rolling around in a fresh mint patch (like someone would actually do that but y' got the imagery I hope).

Evan

[Holly Moore]

I went to the 13th Street store. Guess next time I'll try 20th Street

[philadining]

Evan didn't even threaten any angry emails, but it certainly did seem like someone got the word to compensate for the smaller cups:

That's a serious glacier of Anise on the left, some Mint peeking out from underneath, in the right-hand cup. Cashew and Dark Chocolate in the other one.

The Anise was really quite bold, while being somehow restrained at the same time. Really nice. But the mint... yikes, that was actually tactile in its mintiness, one of those hallucination-inducing flavors that makes you wonder if this is really just gelato.

The Goat Cheese flavor was doing that tonight too, sneaking around and tapping you on the opposite shoulder, then running off laughing.

These flavors are getting scary.

[Holly Moore]

Taking one final whack at the dead horse, I didn't even get half that amount.

[Diann]

That dark chocolate is like frozen melted brownies. No wonder they ran out!

The cup I had (pineapple sage and hibiscus) was tropical and perfumey. Lovely.

Next time I'm thinking... dark chocolate and seville orange? Dark chocolate and pineapple sage? Or anything citrusy, really. I know they have a million other flavors, but I need to recombine some of the ones we had last night. Dark chocolate and goat?

[ellencho]

A friend and I stopped by to buy a treat for another friend convalescing at Jeff today. I watched while the lady packed our cups and was worried that her scoops looked scant, but once we got the gelati back to the hospital and distributed the cups they felt pretty heavy considering the size.

I wish I had brought my camera with me, but I had the red grapes and plain pineapple (my all time favorite flavor combo), my friends had grapes and blood orange, and dark chocolate and grapefruit.

[SG-]

Went to Ciao Bella at the Ferry Building here in SF the other day and all I could think of is how much I miss Capogiro.

Could this be the best gelato joint in the country or what??????!?!?!??

[Bobby 2 Shakes]

Taking one final whack at the dead horse, I didn't even get half that amount.

←

Next time put your camera where they can see it...

[urbanfabric]

Stopped in the 13th Street location today for a sandwich and tried a spoonful of the champagne mango sorbetto. It was heavenly. Not too sweet, very creamy!

Get it while the champagne mangos are in season!

[philadining]

After some spicy food from Four Rivers, gelato was required.

Orange Cardamon, and Thai Coconut Milk.

They were both surprisingly subtle, but tasty nonetheless, and really hit the spot.

Good portion size...

[jason32]

I stopped by the 20th steet location on Saturday afternoon and combined the dark chocolate with the lime cilantro sorbetto...it was amazing! The flavors played off each other so well, with an initial burst of citrus from the lime giving way to the richness of the chocolate and capped off with the lingering freshness of the cilantro. So good!!!

As for the oft-debated serving size, hopefully any previous problem has been rectified as mine was more than adequate.

[mrbigjas]

stopped by capogiro 20th st on sunday, and had two fantastic choices: strawberry chartreuse, and sassafrass. the strawberry chartreuse could actually be considered a failure if you're looking for an interesting interplay between strawberries and the bitter herbal aspects of chartreuse--the chartreuse wasn't in evidence at all. however, the strawberries this year have been fantastic so far, and on the strength of that alone, this was great.

the sassafrass was not overly powerful with root beer-y flavor, but leaving you with a hint of root beer float or something in your mouth, something a little elusive but absolutely refreshing. fantastic.

[shacke]

I have been intermittently in contact with Stephanie Reitano who makes/owns Capogiro Gelato in the hopes of getting an egullet gelato "tasting menu" going, with accent on interesting, even unusual flavors. Wouldn't that be interesting? She has been swamped and I have been lax too but if anyone would be interested in doing that, PM me so I can gauge interest levels. Would probably be a weekend morning to give her the opportunity to sell off what we don't wind up consuming.

Evan

[philadining]

Lots of Capogiro gelato for breakfast?!?! I'm in!

[Diann]

Count me in too! (I'm out of town June 22-July 4, but any other time works for me.)

Have her hurry up and send us a menu so we can start debating wine pairings...

[Mummer]

Now that's the breakfast of champions!

You could twist my arm...