Posted on 06/16/2012 5:02:05 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Customers line up to buy cannoli at Romolo’s Cannoli & Spumoni Factory on 37th Avenue in San Mateo Wednesday. The store is run by Mike and Joe Cappello, who have taken over the family business.
Brothers Mike and Joe Cappello love their jobs. They get to eat Italian desserts all day, whenever they want, as they are now master spumoni and cannoli makers. They learned their craft from their grandparents, Romolo and Angela, and have since taken over the family business on 37th Avenue in San Mateo. Romolo’s Cannoli & Spumoni Factory is celebrating its 44th year and the brothers have painstakingly calculated that the dessert shop has just sold its millionth cannoli.
This Saturday, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., the brothers will roll back prices on cannoli to $1 apiece, the same price their grandparents sold them for in the 1970s. They are calling it a cannoli party and will crown San Mateo resident Joanne Curley as the Cannoli Queen as she was the lucky person to purchase the millionth cannoli from Romolo’s.
Curley gets a free cannoli a day for the next year as part of her prize.
New customers to Romolo’s can get a brief history of the shop, hear and see how cannolis are made and sample the spumoni.
“They are all handcrafted by me and my brother,” Joe told a customer Wednesday. “We make it all ourselves.” Joe’s favorite cannoli is chocolate with pistachios. The brothers’ grandparents moved to the Bay Area from Italy in 1958, bringing along their special dessert recipes.
Romolo’s has been at the same spot on 37th Avenue since 1970 and the brothers spent many a summer at the shop during their summer vacations from Southern California. As children, the bubblegum ice cream was their favorite. “We would go straight for the bubblegum box and stuff our faces,” Mike, 26, said.
As their grandparents got older, they would return to Italy for summers and close the shop for months. In 2008, the grandparents invited the brothers to take over the shop and they spent countless hours training side by side with their grandparents learning the craft. “This was my first job,” Joe, 30, said. “I loved the ice cream store and I couldn’t stand the thought of it going away.”
So, the two brothers relocated from Southern California and are continuing the family business.
“It is important we preserve the family name’s reputation,” Joe said. “Every product we sell is important since it says Romolo’s on the door.”
Cannolis are baked or fried shells filled with ricotta or ice cream, topped with nuts, cherries or other delights. The brothers swear by the ice cream, too.
“We have the best spumoni in the Bay Area. Maybe a couple of chefs around here can do as well,” Joe said about the Italian desert. Spend some time in the shop and you can see the brothers enjoy each other’s company.
“This is a great job. We’re not getting rich but I get to hang out with my brother all day and take ice cream breaks whenever I want,” said Joe, who is getting married next month.
Mike, on the other hand, is single and available, they joked.
Romolo’s Cannoli and Spumoni Factory is currently closed Mondays and Tuesdays but open the rest of the week. It closes a little earlier on Sundays as the 37th Avenue business district gets quiet, Joe said.
The brothers’ grandparents still live locally but are set to return to Italy as they are officially retired.
That’s a nice feel-good story.
San Mateo has several good pastry shops.
“San Mateo resident Joanne Curley gets a free cannoli a day for the next year as part of her prize.”
If she doesn’t already, she’ll weigh 300-400lbs when the year’s up. Good eating, I’ll bet! Good story. (Watch it, Joanne!)
(it had to be said)
My son in law (who bears an Italian name) burned himself quite badly making cannoli a couple of weeks ago. But he said it was worth it, and he knows the trick now of dropping the shells into the fat without splashing.
Their cannolis are excellent. I can’t go there too often or I’ll blimp out in no time.
My exact same first thought.
Leave the gun, take the cannoli.
Roughly 50 minutes and 5 posts. Not bad.
5.56mm
Actually, it was on the key word list from the beginning.
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