Romolo’s Cannoli in San Mateo is an old-school Italian bakery serving handmade cannoli, ice cream, and a variety of coffee beverages. The family-owned business has spanned generations and uses old recipes passed down from owner Joe Capello’s grandparents. The star of the menu is the cannoli: the shells alone take three hours to make from scratch and need a day to “rest” after they are fried. The filling is made using a special ricotta cheese purchased from New York, which Capello claims makes his cannoli the best. The cannoli can be ordered with a variety of different fillings and toppings, including Tiramisu or Chocolate Amaretto with pistachios, chocolate chips, cherries, or toffee.

Capello has also continued making his grandparents’ homemade ice cream in flavors ranging from caramel sea salt and mint chip to spumoni, an Italian ice cream dessert with three flavors representing the colors of the Italian flag — pistachio, vanilla amaretto, and strawberry.