"A Treasure in the Desert" 

Capri Italian Restaurant & Steakhouse located in Desert Hot Springs has served the Coachella Valley for more than 25 years. Capri Italian Restaurant is family owned and operated by brothers John and Joe Santucci. Located on Palm Drive in the heart of Desert Hot Springs, Capri is an unassuming restaurant which lets its food speak for itself. Capri Italian and Steak Restaurant serves the very best Italian food and steaks around. Whether you are looking for traditional Italian dishes like their mouth watering eggplant parmesan or a thick juice Porterhouse steak, you can’t go wrong. Lisa and I often order two different entrees and share so that we can enjoy unique and interesting combinations. This is so easy to do at Carpi for their have a full menu of delightful appetizers, entrees and side dishes. If you are a steak lover like me, than you will definitely appreciate the dry-aged cut to order steaks. The prize offering is the 24-26 ounce porterhouse steak which Huell Howser called the “best he’d ever had” ....cooked to order.

Run by three generations of Santuccis, The restaurant was initially owned and operated by John and “Mom” Julia Santucci but today their sons chef Joseph and Maitre de and bar tender John and grandsons John Paul and Anthony are the force that keeps Capri the alive and serving the best Italian food anywhere in the Valley.

When asked what the family motto is, “Mom” Julia Santucci told us “ We never serve food if we wouldn’t eat it ourselves.” “We work together as a family and we love it!” “Mom” Santucci loves to tell the story of a patron who came in and ordered a steak. The man asked her if the steaks were good and she told him if it wasn’t to his liking he didn’t have to pay for it. As it turned out he loved the steak and became a Capri regular. When asked what her favorite dish is “Mom” Julia’s told Lisa that personal favorite is the very dish Lisa had just ordered, Scampi Marinara. Delicious and defiantly freshly made we concur that the Scampi Marinara is extraordinary. “Mom” Julia told us that when she and “Papa” John bought the restaurant John turned to her and asked “How do we cook?” Her answer was, “the only way I know how is the way my mother taught me...everything from scratch and freshly made.” And to this day that is how all food is made and served at Capri.

The Santuccis came to Desert Hot Springs in 1957 from Rochester NY. John had a serious medical problem and his doctors told him he needed to move the desert. Upon arriving they decide to make Desert Hot Springs their home. Their children went to school there. John worked in a meat market on Palm Drive until just before they purchased Capri Restaurant. His butchering skills really made a noticeable difference in the quality of the meats they offered on the menu. Shortly after opening word spread regarding quality of their foods. Soon their reputation spread far and wide across the valley. Frank Sinatra’s mother, Dolly, used to special order John’s Italian sausage every week and hundreds of notables from Hollywood and surrounding areas did and still do stop in regularly.

This last week end when we came by to we found a group of bikers who come Palm Springs yearly for Biker Week eating dinner. When asked how they liked the food they told us they “We love Capri, it is the best Italian food in the Coachella Valley. We come here every year to eat.” We even encountered Diana Wickler, the President of the Morongo Valley Chamber of Commerce. She and her friend Meg Foley were enjoying a sumptuous Italian feast.

Besides steaks and pastas there is broad selection chicken and veal dishes, even Osso Buco when available. Portions are ample and leftovers make a great next day lunch or dinner. To please the “little” ones they offer a great diverse children’s menu to compliment the adult selections. Capri sports a full bar and offers several Italian, California, Argentinean, Australian and North West wines, domestic and foreign beers as well as some taste bud tingling mixed drinks. When we asked John if they specialized in any particular drink, his answer was straight forward “we make the best Martini’s anywhere!” It is essential to leave room for dessert, the tiramisu and lip smacking chocolate rum cake which is to “live for!”

The atmosphere is quite and the surrounding are calm and cozy. Whether you chose to eat at a table in the bar patio area or in a booth in the main dining, or with a large party in the banquet room the service is excellent and the wait staff charming and helpful.

Going to eat at Capri patrons will experience a very friendly, home style restaurant with great quality food at terrific prices.” Make sure to take home a copy of their Complimentary Collector’s Menu. Capri is a true “Treasure in the Desert.Capri is closed Monday. Open 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM Sunday, Tuesday through Thursday, 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM Friday and Saturday.

Reservations are recommended, call (760) 329-6833 or (800) 754-6418