/Santa Clara

By Michelle Carter

Zirana Managing Editor

Joey Cappello is the third generation of his family to scoop ice cream and fill cannoli at Romolo’s Cannoli and Spumoni Factory at 81 W. 37th Ave. in San Mateo. He’s also a Romolo — Joseph Romolo Cappello — so it’s only fitting that he’s taking over the management of the shop this year from his grandparents.

Angela and (the first) Romolo Cappello emigrated from Sicily 50 years ago and celebrated the anniversary with an annual summer-long trip back to visit family and friends. So, this summer, Joey has had a baptism of fire. Not that anything at Romolo’s is new to the 27-year-old UCLA grad. He’s been working in the shop since he was 14. But Nonna and Nonno were always close by when he needed them.

This summer his best assistant has been his dad, Joe, who took a leave of absence from his job as a biomedical engineer in San Diego and donned an apron while his parents were away.

But the shop is now in Joey’s hands, and he will be the one stuffing the chocolate-covered mini-cannoli at Chocolate Fest at the Congregational Church of Belmont Oct. 10-12 where Romolo’s will be a featured vendor.

“It’s up to me now,” he said while using a pastry bag to squeeze ricotta cream into a delicate cannolo shell. “Angela will be around the shop. She’s the best cake maker in the West. She has the expertise in cakes (tiramisu, cassata, rum and ice cream) and cookies.

“But Romolo, he’s done. He just wants to have coffee and hang out with his friends.”

That’s communication to Romolo, conversation over cappuccino, but Joey has introduced electronic communication to the Cappellos. He just launched Romolo’s first website www.romolosfactory.com and is enjoying the shop’s newfound celebrity as foodie websites like Yelp have discovered Romolo’s.

Angela was doubtful. “What’s Yelp? What good is that?”

But Joey knows that bloggers on Yelp and other sites are the best kind of word-of-mouth advertising in today’s age of technology. But he’s keeping things close to the south San Mateo shop. His Nonni’s image is on the new logo that’s fresh off the graphic designer’s computer.

He also has some thoughtful plans for the future. “We used to have a big wholesale business but not so much lately. I’d like to see us build that up again.”

He’s already got Romolo’s spumoni ice cream, Italian cakes and cannoli on the menus at Stella’s Alpina Osteria in Burlingame, Bertolucci’s and Bon Giusto in South San Francisco, Carpaccio in Menlo Park, Bella in Redwood City and Café Riace in Palo Alto.
And a cannoli kit is in the works.  He’s working with designers to come up with the best packaging for the frozen ricotta cheese and the very fragile cannoli shells.

A kit is on the website now offering a dozen shells, ricotta and garnishes for $45. He’s still working out the details but he said he’s found a delivery company that makes the mail-order kit cost-effective. But a small version of the kit will soon be available in the frozen food section of high-end food markets.

“The fill-it-yourself cannoli would be a great grocery product for stores like Piazza’s and Mollie Stone’s,” Joey said.

For Chocolate Fest, he will be using the chocolate-covered shells made with Guittard Chocolate, the Burlingame chocolate-maker which will be present at the four-session festival as well. However, Joey will be finishing the cannoli with pistachio nuts instead of the candied red and green cherries that Angela always used. It’s one of the few product changes he’s made over the summer.
“I don’t know what she’ll think when she gets back.”

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Among the other vendors at Chocolate Fest will be A-Lot-A Gelato, Bud’s Ice Cream, Preston’s Candies, Jeanne’s Fudge, Kathy’s Kreative Kakes, Victoria’s Toffee, Ghirardelli Chocolate, Chocolate Visions, Fortune Nut Cookies, La Tempesta Biscotti, D&D Sweet Somethings, Dianda’s Pastry Co., Schurra’s Chocolate Factory, Scharffen Berger Chocolate, Xocai Chocolate, Edible Arrangements and Whole Foods.

The unlimited tastings will be: Session 1, from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10; Session 2, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11; Session 3, from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11; and Session 4, from 1:30-4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 12.

Michael Medwid’s Jazz Ensemble will play, and each session will feature door prizes, champagne and gourmet coffee provided by Beneficio More-Than-Fair-Trade Coffee.

Last fall, nearly 1,000 guests took part in Chocolate Fest’s Silver Jubilee event. Proceeds benefited such programs as the San Mateo Emergency Winter Shelter, Samaritan House, the Bay Area AIDS Ministry, the Center for the Independence of the Disabled, Habitat for Humanity, the Interfaith Hospitality Network and projects within the church. Similar programs will benefit this year.

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