Capogiro, how I love thee

I almost forgot about this!

Now, anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE food. Capogiro is one of my favorite places in the city - they make their own gelato each morning and use many local fruit and herb products in their gelato. The couple who own Capogiro went to Italy to study the art of gelato, bought special gelato-specific equipment, and have done so well in their first location that they opened a second store last year. Their first location is at 13th and Sansom, which is mere blocks from our house. Sometimes I look at this as a good thing, and sometimes, it's too close for comfort...

Some of my favorite flavors, and believe me, I've sampled a lot, are rhubarb, lemon verbena, lemon opal basil, pineapple sage, pineapple mint, and mojito sorbettos; their bittersweet chocolate gelato is simply out of this world. It's chocolate heaven. They make some plain old nut flavors, like black walnut and hazelnut, which are excellent, and a few different coffee flavors. Some of my other favorites are pistachio, Saigon cinnamon, Thai coconut milk, and Fior di Latte. Fior di Latte serves as the base for all the gelato flavors, but it's nice, light, and a little bit milky sweet just by itself. Okay, enough about flavors. Check out their website (http://www.capogirogelato.com) - they update their flavors each day, and each location has its own set of flavors each day.

They use seasonal ingredients, so in the fall you'll see flavors like butternut squash, pumpkin, sweet potato streusel (and yes, they're really good. I should stop saying that. I've never had a bad flavor.). Rhubarb pops up right around now, and later in the summer we'll see blueberry thyme and peach. The fruity flavors are usually sorbettos, which contain no dairy products. That means they're also lower in fat and calories (so you can eat twice as much, as we say).

What I especially like is that they experiment with unusual flavors and flavor combinations - some odd ones I've seen are olive oil (smooth, tastes like olive oil), sassafras (haven't tried it yet), marshmallow (not as sweet as fluff, which is a good thing. I've only seen it twice - I'm dying for them to make it on the same day as they make peanut butter so I can have a fluffer nutter gelato!), and some of the fruit/herb sorbettos. I wouldn't have thought to combine lemon and opal basil, but it is my favorite flavor right now and it'll serve as an inspiration for me to make my own sorbet and see how it turns out.

The only down side is that Capogiro is not cheap, but not many wonderfully delicious things are inexpensive (that's my rationalization, anyway). A small cup runs about $4.50, but it's a true treat, and I appreciate the fact that the owner is up at 4 am making batches and batches of fresh gelato that will be served that very day. It's not an everyday treat, but definitely something to splurge on once in a while. Oh, and they'll give you samples of any flavors you want - take advantage of this! I always try something that I'm considering before I commit to that as one of the flavors in my dish. And if there's a new flavor I've been curious about, I ask to sample that too. It's quite a neat store. If you ever want somebody to go with you to Capogiro, you know where to find me!!!

Now, I'm off to the hotel gym to work off my lemon opal basil from Saturday night...