The perfect way to enjoy a beer in Summer.
One of the first things I fell in love with in Philadelphia, aside from beer, was Capogiro. As soon as I walked in and saw the bizarre flavors such as basil, cucumber, avocado and champagne mango sprinkled with cayenne, I knew I found something special. Then, after trying it I realized it was even more special than I initially thought. Already in love with this, you can only imagine my reaction when I walked into the 13th and Sansom location last March during Philly Beer Week and found a Rogue Chocolate Stout gelato amongst a few other beer flavored offerings. Rich and creamy gelato with malty, delicious beer, it’s almost impossible to go wrong with that combination.
Capogiro opened its doors back in 2002, after owners John and Stephanie Reitano made a trip to Italy and fell in love with gelato. Feeling as though there was a lack of quality gelato and sorbetto in the states, they took it upon themselves to bring an Italian tradition to Philadelphia. As Stephanie puts it: “I had gelato for the first time. I was blown away! I could not believe that someone did not take it to the states. We have cappuccino!” After some research, we realized that it is not cheap and not easy, but we decided to go for it,” she says. That shows the passion that noticeably comes out when you try their gelatos.
After mastering the art of making gelato and being a beer lover, “John and I have an all time favorite beer and that is Coniston’s Bluebird Bitter,” the next logical step was to give Philly what it deserved and needed: beer flavored gelato. “It started with St. Patrick’s Day and Guinness. Then Fergie called us and asked us to do a beer. Then Sebbie Buhler from Rogue Ales stopped by after we decided to make Rogue Chocolate Stout Gelato. We have a ton of beer crazy people working for us, they push for the flavors. It is fun to work with beer.” What started with a Guinness gelato to keep the St. Patty's fans happy, has now turned into an annual tradition. Stephanie plans on keeping the beer flavors coming every year during Philly Beer Week and is always open to suggestions for new flavor ideas.
As for what flavors we can expect this year: Stephanie only promised Rogue Chocolate Stout and Guinness again. There will definitely be a fruit beer or two used. Their location in University City carries a selection of craft beers, so she plans on playing around with them a bit. There is definitely no shortage on varieties of crazy beers in the area to use, so the options of what Stephanie may come up with are endless. We can only hope that she has been hanging on to a few bottles of Founders Breakfast Stout to whip up a batch with. Being a company that prides themselves so much on fresh and local, we can only assume that we’ll see some local brews come out this year. Either way, a stop at any of their four locations as you trek between events throughout the city only makes Philly Beer Week that much more awesome!