CALGARY: Birthday dinner

Jason gives me the same birthday present every year which I love. He takes me to dinner at the restaurant of my choice and this year, I picked Capo.

I’ve been dying to go back since my first visit for lunch. But no camera this time. I owe Jason at least one meal a year where I don’t take at least three shots of his plate before he can dig in. These beautiful photos are from Capo’s site; I wish I could find a photographer’s name to credit.

Unlike the bright crispness during the day, there’s an easy coolness to the dining room at night. The globe lights are dimmed to a winter blue and it’s cozy in our corner booth. I feel like a princess — who needs to be fed.

We start with the calamari ($14) I’ve been craving for six months. Lightly battered and sprinkled with smoky Spanish paprika, each crispy circle disappears faster than the last. (OK, the disappearing is mostly courtesy of me.)

Then we graduate to the pasta course where Capo demonstrates how less is so much more. This is not a place to gorge on all-you-can-eat fettucine alfredo or whatever. Here, pasta is a perfectly portioned salute to how flour, eggs and a pinch of salt can be transformed into bliss.

Jason’s gnocchi ($16) are tiny pillows lovingly made of ricotta, snuggled in a duck and shiitake ragout drizzled with cheese fondue.

My tortelloni ($16) smells so luxurious lying on caramelized onions and sweet onion broth that I almost don’t want to dig into it. Almost.

I’ve read and heard all about truffles, even allegedly been served tiny shavings of it. But I really didn’t understand the fuss until I bit into my tortelloni stuffed with cheese and truffle essence. Words cannot describe the wonder of it. It took a lot of internal dialogue to restrain myself from literally licking my dish.

There’s a nice break between all the courses. We can see Chef Giuseppe Di Gennaro and his hard-working team in the pass-through tasting and assembling all the dishes. I love that they nothing to hide and everything to show off. That’s why it’s designed that way, the super friendly chef tells us later with great pleasure.

Our mains arrive and once again I’ve ordered the meat and Jason the “lighter” dish. My veal chop ($42) is impressively thick, pan-roasted with a saltimbocca reduction tasting faintly of sage.

But for once, it’s the veg that blows me away. The velvety smooth celery root purée tastes like BUTTER. Topped with shiitake mushrooms sautéed with a bit of maple syrup and bacon, the whole shebang tastes like BUTTER. With bacon. But they’re vegetables so they’re good for me.

Jason’s roasted breast of pheasant ($39) is lean but still moist, served with a muscat wine and rosemary reduction with morel mushrooms, parsnip purée and beet emulsion. The beets taste like they’ve been strained a thousand times, lump-free and concentrated with pure beet flavour.

Two mini-cast-iron pots of root vegetables are served as another side.

We finish it all of by sharing the chocolate hot cake ($10), baked in a little cup with banana-caramel ice cream and gianduja mousse.

Capo is expensive, no doubt about it. But it’s worth every single penny. Service is impeccable and the food is entirely divine. It was a birthday dinner I’ll be talking about til next year. Thanks, honey.

Capo, 1420-9th Ave. SE, Calgary, Alberta, (403) 264-2276. More info here.
Open for lunch Wed-Fri 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., dinner Mon-Sat from 5:30 p.m. Closed Sundays and most holidays.