Exclusive on Capo’s: Tony's New Chicago Pizzeria and Whiskey Bar

By Meesha Halm

After killing it at his pan-regional pizza palace, pizzaiolo whiz Tony Gemignani (Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, Tony’s Coal-Fired Pizza and Slice House) is now poised to make inroads in the Chicago-style pizza wars when he opens Capo’s, a new Windy-City-inspired pizzeria and whiskey bar in North Beach slated to open in about six to eight weeks at 641 Vallejo St.

The neon sign and black awning are already up and look like they’ve been there forever, but it will be about six to eight weeks before the joint, which is located on other side of Columbus Ave as his mothership, will open. The look of the 60-seat space is 1920's speakeasy, with a long banquette of tufted red-leather booths, exposed red brick walls, black tin-ceiling tiles, chandeliers and a wooden bar that will specializes in premiums whiskey that runs down the length of the room with views of the brick oven pizza in the back. 

We caught up with Gemignani who told us a little about what to expect on the menu. 

As the name suggests - Capo’s - which means, “boss” in Italian”, the concept a Prohibition-era Chicago joint. The kitchen will have three ovens - one wood-fired for cooking pizza and baked pastas, and two brick ovens - each heated to different degrees, from which they’ll bake multiple types of Chicago-style pies - cracker-thin, stuffed, deep-dish. He’s most excited about a new specialty pizza called the Quattro Forni (four ovens), an 8x8-inch square pizza that’s cooked in four ovens, one of which is a deep fryer. It’s a riff on his Tre Forni, a pizza cooked in three ovens that recently won him first place as part of the USA team in the “Best of the Best” Pizza Challenge against Italy, Canada and Australia in the International Pizza competition in Las Vegas. It’s a labor-intensive pie so he’ll only be making twenty Quattro Forni a day. The kitchen will also serve old-school Italian-style dinners such as pasta mostaccioli, housemade sausages and chicken Vesuvius. 

Overall, they’ll be only three items at Capo’s carried over from Tony’s: the string beans, the meatballs, and the fried calamari. Three other things that will make Capo distinct? It will take reservations (via phone only), offer valet parking and accept cash only. When it opens, Capo’s will be open six days a week (closed Tuesdays), from 5-11 PM during the week, until 11:30 PM on Friday-Sunday.

Capo’s: coming soon to 641 Vallejo St