QUICK BITE: Where Can You Find A Great Calzone in Tampa?

While out running a few errands, my wife and I decided to stop for lunch at one of our favorite pizza places in Tampa.  This one happens to be in the plaza across the street from our house.

Cappy's Pizza is a local chain in the St Pete/Tampa area with five locations   Lunch was at their Tampa Palms location.  We have had their pizza here many times, but never the calzones.  Today was the day since they have a lunch special with a calzone and a drink for 5.99 as of the writing of this blog.  The calzone comes with mozzarella and up to two other fillings.

I went with meatball and mushroom!  It was the width of the plate and came with a savory marina for dipping.  The calzone came to the table piping hot and had been brushed with garlic butter.  The aroma of that hot garlic butter was mesmerizing!!

Unlike many calzones I have had before, this had a very thin crust although the dough was sturdy enough to hold the filling.  Too often calzones are a lot of dough with very little filling - or at least the ratio of bread to filling is way off.  They solved that at Cappy's!!  You can see there was ample cheese inside.  The mushrooms appeared to have been sauteed in even more butter and you could really get that umani!!  I wish the meatball had been more pronounced in texture and flavor.  I knew it was there, but it added nothing to the calzone.  I think next time I would get Italian sausage to add some kick.

One of my favorite items at Cappy's is the amazing Greek salad.  They also have caesar and a green salad which I also imagine are very good.  But I also get the Greek since it is so good!!  They serve it with two scoops of potato salad which I never knew was a Greek tradition until I had my first Greek salad in Tampa fifteen years ago.  When mixed together, the potato salad adds a creaminess to the slightly sweet dressing.  Combined with the very crunchy iceberg, kalamata olives, thin sliced sweet onion, shaved green pepper and roma tomatoes creates a flavor pop in your mouth!!   There are also some pepperoncini which are served whole.  That makes it easy for anyone who wants to make it a little more spicy without needing to be throughout the whole salad.  I also love that the salad and bowl are cold.  Too often a restaurant will serve you a salad in a dish freshly warm from the dishwasher.  If the salad was meant to be cold, that is quickly taken care of by the heated plate.  I appreciate that Cappy's make an extra effort to keep the salad a good temperature!!