EAST LANSING, Mich. — East Lansing is welcoming a new restaurant downtown, but owners Scott Rolen and Harry Saites aren't new to the area.
“With each other we have 50 years combined food business,” Saites said.
“We currently own Lou and Harry’s as well," Rolen said. "So, we’ve been doing this, Harry’s going on 30 years. I've been doing it for about 20 years now.”
When the storefront opened up at 219 E. Grand River Ave., just two doors down from Lou and Harry's, Saites and Rolen decided to open a sister restaurant called Capo's Cheesesteak Hoagies and Grill.
“We’re trying to do a fast paced style restaurant where you come up to the register, order your food, sit down, we bring it out to you,” Rolen said. “The types of cheesesteaks we’re doing is kind of East Coast style where we have liquid cheeses and it’s going to be really greasy and really hardy but delicious at the same time.”
Rolen said he wanted to fill the void for late night food options.
“We kind of saw a void in late night food downtown East Lansing where there’s really only pizza available down here now so we’re looking to try to fill something else up and we thought cheesesteaks and smash burgers would be a perfect late night when all the restaurants are getting out you can come here and get a nice greasy cheesesteak," he said.
They took the signature sauces from Lou and Harry's like the Greek sauce, with the addition of new sauces and put it on cheesesteaks.
“The Godfather Hoagie which is an Italian style it has pepperonis on it and we make a special sauce that is homemade ranch that we make and we mix it with marinara sauce,” Rolen said.
The restaurant also has items like smash burgers and walking around fries loaded with different toppings. Saites said his favorite is the Godfather, but Rolen said his is a classic.
“I just like the Capo’s cheesesteak myself," Rolen said. "It’s just the basic cheesesteak it has white onion sauteed with the cheesesteak a lot of cheese mixed into it on the really good bread.”
While it took a little bit longer to get up and running than they'd originally hoped.
“It should’ve taken us a month, but with everything going on with our other stores it took three months,” Saites said.
They had their soft opening last Wednesday and the grills are hot and ready.
“We also are online with Door Dash, Grub Hub and Uber Eats so you can place delivery or safe curbside pickup or just stop in here and see us," Rolen said.
They're looking for workers.
“We’re actually hiring for all positions at this point," Rolen said. "We’ve been having a little bit of an issue finding people, but being the end of Michigan State’s semester a lot of people are going home or not looking until next semester so we kind of anticipated this.”
And looking for customers to come try some East Coast cheesesteak subs.
“I guarantee you when people eat it, it’s amazing,” Saites said.
Capos is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. Rolen said they plan to add late night hours when they have more employees.
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