Until recently the space had been home to Paisano’s Pizza, a chain out of NoVa. (Mike Platania photo)
After 17 years in Henrico’s West End, Frank Sgroi and Tina Divel are bringing their pizza to the city.
The married couple recently signed a lease to open a new location of their Capriccio’s Italian Restaurant at 801 W. Cary St. in the VCU area.
The new spot will join Sgroi and Divel’s original Capriccio’s at 9127 W. Broad St., which will remain open.
Born in Italy, Sgroi grew up in Brooklyn, New York, before heading to New Jersey in the 1990s, where he said he previously ran a restaurant. He and Divel, a New Jersey native, moved to the Richmond area not long before opening the first Capriccio’s in 2008.
Tina Divel and Frank Sgroi (Courtesy Capriccio’s)
Sgroi said after getting Capriccio’s well established and respected in Henrico, he wanted the challenge of expanding to the city, with his family and children’s future in mind.
“Financially, I really don’t need a second location, but I’ve got a son and a daughter. I’m hoping that one day, when my time comes, that they have something to fall back on and hopefully have the financial ability to sustain themselves with these two locations,” Sgroi said.
“I feel like I always wanted to be in the city, because I feel like I’m back in Brooklyn, somehow, some way. It has that atmosphere and feeling. So I had this opportunity, and I figured, what the heck? Why not? Let’s go for it,” he added.
The new location, which they’re calling Downtown Capriccio’s Pizzeria, is taking a roughly 2,000-square-foot space near the corner of West Cary and South Laurel Street. Until recently it had been home to Paisano’s Pizza out of Northern Virginia.
While the West End Capriccio’s menu includes entrees like chicken francese and shrimp scampi, Sgroi said the downtown location is going to be slightly stripped down, offering mostly pizzas, subs and pasta dishes. Capriccio’s has Sicilian, gluten-free and cauliflower crust pizzas, which Sgroi said will be available downtown.
Capriccio’s West End spot has been open for 17 years.
The interior will have a display case, about eight tables and operate with counter service.
“It’s all ‘get up and get it,’ kind of a New York way of doing it,” Sgroi said. “I want to make sure that customers have that experience of what a New York-style pizza shop is really like.”
Downtown Capriccio’s Pizzeria will offer delivery through third-party apps such as DoorDash and Uber Eats. It’ll be open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to midnight.
Sgroi said the aim is to open sometime in the first week of December. He said he’s “excited, anxious and nervous at the same time.”
“But I think at the end it’s going to be rewarding. I’m looking forward to giving that community area a nice taste of real, real New York-style pizza.”
Another New York-style pizzeria recently opened elsewhere in the city, as Pizzeria Mungo took over the former BigWife’s Mac n’ Cheese space on Arthur Ashe Boulevard.
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