Romolo’s carries on traditions

Since taking over for his grandfather in 2008, Joey Cappello has proudly kept up with old traditions and finding new and fun ways to make things interesting.

The 2,000-year-old cannoli recipe has been guarded by his grandparents, and took six months before they handed off the recipe to their grandson. He said originally, cannoli was a bawdy fertility dessert.

With the help of employees Erin and her son Aidan Coady, Romolo’s continues to make their Italian delicacies homemade.

“We make everything from scratch, it’s nuts,’’ said Cappello.

Coady, 20, is at the helm of the cannoli fryer. Starting with balls of dough he rolls out, cuts and shapes the cannoli shells. After which they are refrigerated and filled to order.

Cappello explained the steps to make tiramisu, one of the more difficult desserts to make. Ladyfingers, mascarpone, espresso to soak the ladyfingers and the whipped tops of the cake. The process from start to finish takes two days.

“I seriously think my grandparents just asked themselves, what’s the hardest Italian dessert to make? And, let’s just do that,” said Cappello who chuckled while churning homemade spumoni.

While much of Romolo’s has stayed the same over the years, Cappello has found ways to balance old traditions with new and exciting twists.

One of the more popular ice creams, Unicorn Food, is a colorful cookie crumble mixed ice cream, which was an accident, Cappello said.

He added broken rainbow-colored Venetian cookies that he dropped and stuffed the salvageable cookies left from the accident into chocolate chip ice cream. The ice cream was a hit that is popular among the younger crowd that comes in for ice cream scoops, he said.

“It was a happy accident, I used to eat the edges because they are so good but now I just stuff them in the ice cream,” said Cappello.

Like many storefronts in San Mateo County, the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on some of their corporate accounts and for a while halted business all together. Luckily, the business was able to stay afloat and they are now seeing familiar faces return for treats.

Two of those regular guests, Bob and Judy Dahl, frequent the shop as a monthly treat.

“They have first-class cannoli, it’s clean, the people are so nice,” said Dahl, who added they lived in Belmont when they first started to visit the shop but now travel from Los Altos.

The friendly ambiance that Cappello’s grandparents embedded in his personality has one flaw. He said that guests tend to leave their desserts behind after a friendly conversation. Leaving him with a parting message as they exit. “Don’t forget the cannoli.”

nick@smdailyjournal.com

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