Capriccio

WPRI.com - How does Capriccio, a 32-year-old restaurant, stay both busy and current with all the competition posed from the many newcomers to the Providence dining scene?

One key is serving classic dishes that have been on the menu for 15 or 20 years, said Vincenzo Iemma, co-owner with the restaurant’'s executive chef and dining room captain.

"But we are also constantly working on new items and new presentations," he added. "We have to stay ahead and be creative and cutting edge of what’s going on."

Not simply content to add Kobe Beef to the menu for steaks, you’ll find Kobe Carpaccio and Kobe meatballs there too, he said.

And the food is indeed what drew my attention back there to the landmark at Pine and Dyer streets.

When I looked through a pile of Chef's Secret requests recently and saw there were two requests from the same restaurant for very different things, I knew it was time to revisit the Capriccio phenomenon. What was most interesting about the dishes that were requested, a warm mushroom antipasto salad and a butternut squash, cabbage and cannellini bean soup, was one is new to the menu and the second was a special of the day.

It was 1976 when Iemma transformed the space occupied by the former Gladiator Lounge into a fine dining, white tablecloth restaurant with accomplished chef Nino D’Urso and dining-room captain Gino Castellano. The trio continues to be the face of Capriccio, as well as co-owners.

"A big part of our success is we just keep working together to improve the restaurant," said Iemma.

There is equal consistency among the clientele, which includes the city's lawyers, judges and other power elite. In fact, The Wall Street Journal spotlighted Capriccio in November for one of its regular features - "Power Tables: Where the business elite are eating." An accompanying diagram showed the tables where business is done quietly and, conversely, tables where VIPs don’t mind attracting attention.

"We have lots of people coming in from day one and a lot of young people who are new," Iemma said.

Christine Kirchner of Middletown is one of the new ones. She wrote: "On New Year's Eve Day, my husband and I dined at Capriccio’s. It was my first time ever there. Reading a new menu can be so enjoyable, perhaps it's that vicarious tasting of each enticing offering. I noticed the appetizer menu divided into "warm" and "cold," which was somewhat different. In the warm column, an antipasto was listed. I thought, now this intrigues me.

"Well, the Italian salad was delicious — a generous heap of warmed exotic mushrooms over a bed of arugula … I have already tried to mimic the Italian salad twice, and I fear I fall short! Do you think the chef would share the recipe, especially how he prepares the mushroom topping?"

Smithfield’s Dianne Giuliano has been going to Capriccio's for dinner about twice a year for what must be close to 30 years. She and her husband remember seeing Rick Pitino there recruiting a young player to Providence College more than 20 years ago.

Still it remains "my favorite restaurant in the state … from the service, to the food, atmosphere and in my opinion, the prices compared to other restaurants."

She wrote: "I had a wonderful soup at Capriccio. It was a cabbage/cannellini bean sensation. Think you could pry the recipe from the chef?"

D'Urso and Iemma have always been quick to share their recipes. This time, three hands are responsible for making the soup, and salad. The Antipasto Vincenzo is a hot appetizer selection from new luncheon and dinner menus. It is a co-creation of D'Urso and Iemma, thus the name. The soup is the recipe of sous chef John Kupis, who creates most of the seasonal soup specials for the restaurant.

Such teamwork makes it look easy but make no mistake, Iemma said, they work hard at keeping Capriccio relevant. In a business where newness and novelty are rewarded, "you can't let up."

With prices for food at record highs, Iemma said it means working with purveyors and suppliers to ensure the best value for his restaurant dollar. It also means understanding the ebb and flow of business, how much to buy for busy times and knowing when you aren't going to be so busy. Plus there is all the sourcing as Capriccio’s "buys from all over the world,” Iemma said.

“If you do let up, you are dead,” he said. “It’s a detail-oriented business.”

There will be extensive renovations to Capriccio’s this summer, he said. No doubt part of the restaurant’s success is the inviting space, which is so interesting, with its brick walls and fireplaces and below-ground location. But there will be cosmetic changes in the dining room and lounge, and Iemma will be creating space for a new private dining room, as there is a lot of demand for that today, he said. There will be new chairs, new furniture, new china and “an upgrade to everything.”

All of it geared to pleasing those patrons new and old, Iemma said.

“There is nothing better to me than when someone says to me, ‘I had a great dinner,’ ” he said.

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