| Sometimes a meal is just something you grab on the run, fuel to get you through your busy day. But, sometimes a meal is to be deliberately enjoyed as a full-blown sensory experience, when every ingredient is carefully chosen to enhance the marriage of flavours, décor and table dressings are carefully chosen to display the food, and impeccable service adds class to the dining experience.
Offering not just a meal – but an experience, too – is tiny chef-owned Capo, tucked inconspicuously off Inglewood’s main strip. Opened by Chef Giuseppe Di Gennaro, Capo is Italian for chef, and you will often see Di Gennaro observing his intimate dining room operations from the kitchen entrance and emerging to chat with diners. Originally from Italy, he has operated kitchens in three different continents. Prolific in the Calgary restaurant scene since arriving in 1996, he was executive chef and co-owner of Il Sogno for five years.
Di Gennaro has created Capo as a destination restaurant, where reservations are made, and the guests linger for hours while savouring both the food and the ambience. An evening at Capo called for the company of two of my classiest gal pals, so we booked a table for a late Friday dinner (one girlfriend cheekily referred to our 8:30 p.m. reservations as dining "European style") and dolled ourselves up.
When we arrived at the restaurant, our table wasn’t available, so the hostess seated us in the private banquet room to enjoy complimentary glasses of sparkling Prosecco wine while we waited. The other party must have been enjoying their dining experience, so we were brought a sampling of appetizers – bite-sized creamy cheese balls, prosciutto and goat cheese with tangy balsamic vinaigrette, and a mini salad with prawns – to tide us over until the main meal.
In the dining room, creamy white leather banquette seating lined the room, making the ultra modern chocolate brown and pale baby blue palette pop. From the dark mahogany floors, to the huge powder blue globe lights hung low, the finishing touches gave the already small space an even more intimate feel in the dining room (Calgary designer Sally Healy was commissioned to create the sleek and cozy space). The attention to detail and extravagance is evident in every inch of the room, from the tables dressed in House of Frette linen to the Fortessa bone china and Schott Zwiesel crystal displaying the food and drink.
We eyed the descriptive menu, and settled on sharing one appetizer, since we had already had a taste of the great things to come. The roasted red pepper was filled with chilled, fresh crab and rich mascarpone cheese, drizzled with a raisin and honey balsamic vinaigrette, and accompanied by a micro basil salad with thick lobster mayonnaise ($12.95). Since each bite was a wholly new sensation, we ate slowly, savouring the unique blend of tastes.
For the main course, after much deliberation I settled on the thyme marinated grilled prawns with shellfish saffron cream, and pan-seared spicy micro mushrooms ($29.50). One friend ordered the pan-seared, seven-ounce AAA beef tenderloin, young Gorgonzola mousse, port reduction and broccoli rabe ($34.50). Even though she ordered the beef well done, it was still juicy and tender. Both our dishes came with small, cast-iron pots of grilled vegetables, making the portion sizes quite generous. Our third friend chose the house-made ricotta dumplings with lobster Americaine sauce, white truffle oil and onion sprouts (16.95). The buttery dumplings were served in a lidded ceramic pot with a rich, tomato-based sauce.
One dessert split between the three of us with rich Italian Illy coffee was the perfect, decadent finish to the evening. Our waiter chose our dessert selection and brought out the warm dark chocolate cake, served with banana ice cream and gianduja mousse ($9.50), and it was every bit as sinful as described.
Having eaten like kings and been treated like queens, we left Capo feeling favoured, fabulous and deliciously full.
Capo is located at 1420 9th Avenue S.E., phone; 264.2276. |
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