After nearly 7 months, Capo Deli in Annapolis opens but permit woes remain
Capo Italian Deli, on Main Street, in Annapolis, recently held their soft opening, with their grand opening celebration slated for early July.
The restaurant, Capo’s seventh, draws its inspiration from traditional Italian delis in Brooklyn, New York. The first one opened in 2017 in Washington, with others following in Maryland and Virginia.
“We’ve done zero marketing, and that’s intentional,” said owner Brian Vasile. “Annapolis is a very close-knit town, and we want to make sure that we put out a great product and every sandwich is as close to perfect as we can make it.”
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“It takes time to go over drawings and make sure everything’s to scale perfectly,” Vasile said of dealing with the zoning office. “So, it’s a lot of back and forth. Back and forth takes time.”
Even if Capo Deli ultimately ended up satisfied with the permitting process, for Ward 1’s Alderman Harry Huntley, delays like the ones Capo experienced are frustrating.
“The challenge is that it’s too hard for people who love Annapolis to invest in Annapolis, right? And the biggest part of that is that it takes too damn long. It’s such a cliche to say, but time is money and uncertainty is money,” Huntley said. “And look, nobody wants increased tax rates. We want decreased tax rates. The way to do that is by growing and strengthening our tax base, and the way to do that is by making it easier to invest here.”
Huntley said the delays were likely caused by a number of things. Some of them had to do with City Code, he said, some involved the city’s customer service, and some related to permitting software, which sometimes will not notify the applicant of new requirements. The solution, he said, is to sort out any inefficiencies with a fine-tooth comb, using a data-driven approach to look at applications in every step of the process.
He put the delays in perspective by noting the recent opening of Blowfish Poke, which he said took eight months from permit to opening, though another location of the same restaurant in Rockville opened in less than half that time.
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Vasile said the Annapolis location is a sort of tester for Capo Deli in Anne Arundel County, and if it is successful, he’d like to expand to places like Edgewater, Severna Park, and Arnold.
One of Vasile’s foundational memories was bringing a sub to City Dock at 5 a.m. to eat as the sun rose. Now, with his own sub shop walking distance away, he can help create those memories for other people, too.