Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Capish!, Le Roy

My daughter and I had dinner the other night at Capish!, which opened earlier this year in Le Roy. It's in a handsome, century-old building on Main Street. (You can see some photos of the exterior and interior here.)
Capish (I'm going to drop the exclamation mark from here on) offers a full menu of Italian dishes, but pizza is the main focus. Interestingly, they do both thin crust pizza and sfincione. I got both. Let me take them one at a time.
The thin crust pies are baked in a combination wood/gas oven. On this visit, I didn't see any sign of a wood fire. But the temp was set at 725 degrees - pretty high - and the results were good.
I suppose you could call these Neapolitan, or maybe neo-Neapolitan pizzas. I got my usual Margherita, and my daughter ordered an a la carte equivalent of a meat lover's pizza, with pepperoni, chicken, ham and sausage.
Both pies had a thin crust with a puffy cornicione.
They were charred underneath. My pie had some "leopard spotting," with some air holes having burst, leaving a small hole in the bottom of the crust. The crust was chewy but not tough, and the charred bottom added some flavor complexity.
Speaking of which, my Margherita had good flavor. A bright tomato sauce, complemented by liquefied dollops of fresh mozzarella, and shredded fresh basil, which was wilted but still a vibrant green. Capish adds a bit of oregano to their Margherita, but not enough to overpower the subtle flavors of this pie.
I sampled my daughter's meat-laden pie, and although I typically avoid that style, it was tasty. The pepperoni was thick-cut, and the well-melted processed mozzarella provided a good base for the meat.
My 12-inch pie was more than adequate for a meal, but I couldn't resist trying a slice of Capish's sfincione. I'd been aware of this close cousin to (or maybe "ancestor of" would be more accurate) Sicilian-style pizza, but by coincidence I got a bit more of an education in the style just recently, as a result of a Facebook post. Google it and you'll find plenty of information and recipes, but here's as good a description as any.
Capish's version comes topped with tomato sauce, oregano, onions, bread crumbs, and Pecorino Romano. So pretty close to style, in that regard. In Sicily, sfincione often includes anchovies, which were left off here, probably in a concession to American palates, but they are available as a topping, if you want to stay traditional.
The pan-baked crust was medium brown underneath, with large air-hole craters. The interior had a spongy texture. Although I can't claim to be a connoisseur of sfincione, this seemed to come pretty close to hitting the mark.
I was too full for dessert, so with some regret I had to forgo trying Capish's tiramisu. Next time.
On my way out, though, I paused to take a look at the oven, and chatted for a moment with the pizzaiolo. If I'm not mistaken, he was the guy seen here, and according to his Facebook page he hails from Sicily, as does Capish's owner Giacomo (Jim) Frascati, so it should come as no surprise they know their stuff, particularly where sfincione's concerned.
I've reproduced here Capish's pizza menu, but their full menu is available on their Facebook page. They offer a variety of pizzas, pasta and meat dishes, almost entirely Italian, with a nod to local tastes (as in, they serve chicken French). Since seafood is so popular in Sicily, I'm a little surprised there isn't more of it on the menu, but then again, Sicily's a Mediterranean island with a lot of port cities, and Le Roy is in Western New York, hundreds of miles from the nearest coast (and no, Lake Ontario doesn't count).
At any rate, that's pretty much a moot point for me, as I think it would take many visits for me to get past the pizza. This is one of those places where I'd like to try every pizza on the list before I even think about branching out into the other parts of the menu. With any luck and a little effort, though, I think I can get there.
I know I've been on-again, off-again with the letter grade thing, but I was quite happy with the pizza here. Capish is well worth the drive west on 490. So I'm giving this an A.

Capish!
49 Main St., Le Roy
(585) 768-1000

Mon. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Fri. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Sat. 4 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Closed Sundays


7 comments:

  1. Looks fantastic! Thanks for getting back into this and including a grade!

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    1. Yeah, I'm really happy to see new posts again. I'm hoping this becomes a regular thing again. Also, always happy to see grades with them. In my experience the A-grade locations were always worthy of the grade.

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  2. I intend to do posts, on occasion. I'm just not going to force myself to do it on a weekly basis the way I used to. But thanks for the encouragement.

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    1. Hi I'm David, thank you so much for the great review;
      Hope I see you again and we can talk more about pizza, I probably can learn more from you.
      I'll give you more info about the dough, oven and ingredients that we use.
      Thank you again!

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    2. I'd love to stop by again. I'll give you a heads-up before I do.

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  3. Hey Pizza Guy, I stumbled across some old posts of yours concerning Ozzie's and Proietti's Pizza, and it was great fun to revisit those old memories. I started working for Oz on Park Ave. when I was just 15. 1969. I worked for him for several years, and then ended up at Proietti's on N. Goodman working for Pat Jr. And later wound up in Webster working for Whitey. Great memories all around. Seeing a reply by Whitey was especially fun as I had no idea he was still around. And seeing Oz'z granddaughter comment was really sweet to me. Oz was a real friend to a misfit of a kid like me. He placed a lot of trust in an untested teenager and I learned tons from him. Did you know he was a pro boxer at one time? I want to say 3rd in the world as a welter weight at one time - but the memory is certain about ranking. There is a 1932 or 34 newspaper article about him floating out there on the net someplace. Anyway - love the blog. Really great fun. Reid Ferguson

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    1. Reid, Thanks for sharing the info and memories. I'm glad you enjoy the blog.

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