Cappy’s Pizzeria

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TRIVIAL PURSUITS AT CAPPY’S

Cappy’s is an independent pizzeria on 1st Ave. N., St. Petersburg, Florida. Its Greek salad is my favorite in town. That’s not to diminish their deep dish pizza in any way. I’ll get to the main attraction soon, but their Greek salad with its homemade oregano dressing is, just by itself, worthy of a trip to Cappy’s. As you can see from the picture below, it’s a complete meal. I’ve had their Caesar salad, too; it’s good, but I favor their Greek. It has a token bit of potato salad, which is really more like interestingly seasoned mashed potatoes–just a bit, but just right.

The best plan–taught me by the friend who introduced me to Cappy’s–is to order and share a salad and a deep dish pizza. While you wait for the pizza, which takes a while because it’s prepared from scratch and deep dish pizzas take longer to cook, you eat your salad and play Trivial Pursuits from the decks of cards stashed with the salt and pepper in old cigar boxes on every table. Just about the time your humiliating total lack of trivial knowledge is obvious to your eating companions, your pizza arrives.

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SMALLEST GREEK SALAD

They have both New York style pizza (that’s the hand-tossed, thin crust variety) and Chicago Style (deep dish) pizza. I’ve only ever had their deep dish, simply because good deep dish pizza is harder to find in my experience, so when I go to Cappy’s I stick with that. The deep dish comes in cheese, single topping, vegetarian, and The Cappy (everything–my favorite). Like everything at Cappy’s TASTE is paramount. You’d think that would go without saying in a restaurant, but at some places it’s more true than at others. Everything at Cappy’s tastes great. My guess is it’s their original recipes, the care with which things are put together for that “homemade” quality, and the freshness of their ingredients. (The diced green peppers are always crisp, fresh ones, never mushy frozen ones.)

The edge crust on their deep dish is more like the flaky crust on your great-grandmother’s homemade pies rather than tough and chewy like some national brands. It’s a pastry dough rather than a bread dough. The crust on the bottom provides a soft, billowy thick bed for the toppings yet with a slightly crunchy outside to it. The topping’s main feature is its tomato sauce, with plenty of chunks of real stewed tomatoes. It’s a “tomato-y” pizza instead of a “cheesy” pizza. That region where the toppings meet the bottom bed is wonderfully juicy, the kind of juicy where it drips on your shirt. Once again, the portions are large. The 12″ deep dish serves two with leftovers. The 9″ deep dish really serves two perfectly, or one person taking half of it home.

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SMALLEST DEEP DISH CAPPY’S

Cappy’s takes all major credit cards and is open for lunch on Thursdays and Fridays from 11pm to 2:30pm, dinner 5pm-9pm Sundays through Thursdays and 5pm-10pm Fridays and Saturdays. There’s eat-in and take-out, outdoor dining in front and indoor dining at tables with high-backed wooden booths tucked in every available corner of the converted traditional Florida bungalow. There’s plenty of parking assigned to Cappy’s along the wall of (and also behind) the dance studio next door.

Definitely try Cappy’s Pizzeria, 2900 1st Ave. N. St. Petersburg, FL 33713; 727-321-3020, for Greek salad and deep dish Chicago Style pizza.

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CAPPY’S PIZZA

Tagged as: Florida, FOOD, pizza, St. Petersburg, Vegetarian