Prepare to embark on a traditional Italian experience. We invite you to relax and savor the delicious aromas and flavors of our homeland, Calabria, in the south of Italy.
Welcome to one of the most visited restaurants in Cabo San Lucas, a southern Italian style restaurant & bar with a beautiful dining room packed with guests in an unassuming downtown location. A quiet romantic outdoor patio beckons to you to dine al fresco - it seems to transport you from Cabo to a lovely Italian country villa.
Cabo San Giovanni, a rock that indicates the southern point of the Italian peninsula, in the interior part of the famous boot, in the region of Calabria, facing the Ionio sea and the isle of Sicily, an area of a thousand stories of civilization, culture, great battles. This volcanic land produces the most exquisite flavors in all the Mediterranean area.
Gianfranco Zappalá , executive chef and owner of the restaurant began his love for the food of south Italy by the preparation and the secrets in the kitchens of his grandmothers. He learned the recipes conserved in his family by hundreds years. Fisherman and hunter by heart and by heritage, with a great passion for the sea, the mountain, and their fruits. He participated in his youth in the fishing, hunting and the elaboration of dishes of the earth & sea in the family restaurant and hotel Girasole, which still exists, to the delight of its multiple clients from the north of Europe. Gianfranco later operated a restaurant and disco at the Papagallo mount,in Bova Marina, a gorgeous place, surrounded by olive trees, owned by his family.
In 1993, with anxieties to fly, he accepted the invitation from the corporative of the clothing designer and compatriot Giorgio Armani, to become Executive Chef in two of is restaurants ( Armani’s Beverly Hills and Costa Mesa, California ), immediately Gianfranco’s “grandmother’s recipes became famous”. His success extended to the consultancy of five Star restaurants in Phoenix, Sedona, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada. The consulting firm offers a society to the first San Giovanni Restaurant, located in Anaheim Hills.
In November 1997, attracted by the many stories from clients who shared his passion of fishing, they told him of a place, on the south of the Peninsula of Baja California, where the most exquisite tunas, mahi-mahi and marlins could be obtained from the Pacific, decided to visit this beautiful region, and fell in love with the rustic beauty, very similar to his Calabria. As a result of that visit, the Restaurant Capo San Giovanni opened its doors for the first time in March of 1998.
The Restaurant Capo San Giovanni has been awarded on two occasions (2001 and 2002) the Gold International and Silver Award for Quality and Service by Galardon International, crediting to the place by its leadership, excellence and superiority in quality in its category as an Italian restaurant.
Every year, the Institute Albeghiero Ferdinando Martini, in Florence, Italy, invites Gianfranco to participate as a guest instructor and to interchange his secrets with chefs from all the regions of Italy. He has received a special recognition to preserve the culinary traditions as to innovate the dishes with modern ideas and the combination of ingredients of the old and new world.
Gianfranco and his wife Hilda invite you to relax in their cosy patio, at the most authentic style Italian Restaurant of this side of world, accompanied by live music. So , let take yourself by the flavors of the Mediterranean land… and remember, a glass of red wine with your dinner promotes a healty life, so… Buen Appetito !!!
Address: V. Guerrero, e Cardenas y Madero, 23450 Cabo San Lucas, Baja, Mexico