Lindsay Marie Morris

Set in Milwaukee's Bay View, a historic Italian enclave, Semolina MKE proudly carries on old-world pasta traditions while catering to an appetite for regional flavors and staples. 

Owner Petra Orlowski's maternal grandparents were Sicilians from Chiusa Sclafani and Vicari. She credits her grandmother with teaching her how to cook pasta, among other things. 

Today, Petra gives that knowledge back to her community, teaching pasta-making classes and showcasing high-quality Italian specialty items like olive oils, vinegar, honeys, salts, wine, and cheeses.

 

"I'm all about sharing," she says. "I want people to make food. I don't want to be a gatekeeper holding these recipes for myself. Everybody should be cooking."

Petra took time to chat with me about her journey to starting Semolina MKE, popular products and classes, and her hopes for her customers, many of whom she considers friends. 

 

 

Tell us about your background and what inspired Semolina MKE.

I worked as a dental technician for years, and then I got married, got pregnant with twins, and stayed home with them for four and a half years until they went to kindergarten. Then, I wanted to get out of the house again, so I started working at Sanford Restaurant as a host. I worked there for about 15 years and did everything but the kitchen. I did two years as a pastry chef for a different restaurant. Then, I was managing another restaurant prior to COVID, and that shut down. 

So, when I was sitting at home alone with no work to do, I started doing a really deep dive into pasta-making. I had always made pasta, but this was me making more intricate shapes and just kind of trying to keep myself busy. Then, I was making so much pasta that people started wanting to buy it.

I realized that pasta does not fall under the cottage food laws in Wisconsin. I had to actually find commercial kitchen space, and that's how Semolina was born.

 

You carry quite a few specialty items in addition to pasta. What are you particularly proud to showcase?

There's a brand, Bona Furtuna, in Corleone, Sicily. As far as I know, we're the only store that carries their products in Wisconsin. We actually just visited the farm, and the president of the company was there. We got to go out into the olive groves and pick wild fennel from the side of the road. Their olive oils are top-notch. They are a wonderful organic 1% for the Planet, B-Corp, the whole nine yards. So we're very proud to carry those products. 

I also carry olive oil from a company called Mandranova, which is another farm in Agrigento that we visited. 

Both farms are very modern. Everything is temperature-controlled, so the oil doesn't get too hot as it's being crushed and mixed. The polyphenols stay at their highest levels, and they are doing everything to make the highest-quality ingredients or products. 

We also carry some fantastic honeys from Sardinia. It's a mother-and-daughter team, Maria and Daniela. Maria is around 80 years old. She was a little spitfire and yelled at me for not knowing more Italian.

I love working with these small producers we get to visit and get to know. Also, while we were there, we went to a winery called Quignones in Licata. I can't carry Alfredo's wines, but I can carry some of his food products. So we are able to go there and have a wonderful afternoon with him. It's so great to be able to build these relationships with producers, and they're so happy to have their products in the U.S., too.

 

 

What are the most popular products you offer?

Probably the most popular is the culurgiones [Sardinia's answer to the ravioli]. I make them every Sunday, and people have gotten used to having those available. My favorite is probably pappardelle, the simple egg pasta. I like the wide noodles. 

 

How did you learn to make pasta?

My grandma used to make pasta. Not often, but it's one of those things that I took upon myself to learn. I didn't take any classes. I just started making it and just figuring it out on my own. 

My husband and I went to Rome about six years ago and took a cooking class. It was about pasta-making and a bunch of other things, which really bolstered my confidence that I could do this myself and show other people how to do it as well.

 

Tell us about your pasta-making classes.

The classes in the shop are limited to a maximum of six people. I offer three different classes: classic egg dough, hand-shaped pasta, and ravioli. 

Each class starts out with making the dough from scratch. While the dough rests, we go into the kitchen. I show everyone how to make a sauce, and then we cook up pasta I had made earlier in the day. Everybody sees how I cook, sauce, and serve it. Then, they get their bowl of pasta and a glass of wine or some Italian non-alcoholic beverage. When we're done with that, I answer all of their questions about olive oil and cheese and whatever. During that time, we go back to the pasta room and do all of the rolling out and shaping. They can see the salt I'm putting in the water to boil and how I'm not rinsing the pasta. They can see my method of cooking so that they can replicate that at home.

 

What do you hope participants take away?

I want people to actually learn and walk away feeling like they can do it at home. And I know a lot of them do because they come back and buy flour to make everything at home. So, I am confident that people leave with the knowledge they need.

I try to teach them about the ingredients we're using so that they know how to buy olive oil and how to use it. They don't let it sit in their pantry for a year because they want to save it for a special occasion. It's food; you use it. 

I also just want them to feel comfortable and have a really fun time while they're doing it and that they can call me and ask me things. When they come into the shop, I want them to know that we have carefully curated, we have tasted things, and we have talked to the people who grow these things, so you can trust us when we tell you this is a good product. 

 

 

 

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Sicilian olives, particularly those grown in the Mount Etna region, benefit from long, hot summers and mild winters—something the western Sacramento Valley's semi-arid climate delivers.

That's where Bondolio olive oil producers Karen and Malcolm Bond grow their Sicilian olives. The couple first purchased their farm in 1986. Back then, it was an almond farm. However, the trees were never big producers, so they pulled them out in 1999 with an interest in starting anew.

A chance encounter with a particularly good fresh olive oil inspired them to set their sights on olive growing. 

Getting started was far from easy, but through persistence and self-taught craftsmanship, the couple is not just growing certified organic Sicilian olives but producing award-winning olive oil. 

I spoke with Karen to learn more about Bondolio's start, why she chose Sicilian olives, and her favorite ways to use her olive oils. 

 

Tell us how you decided to grow olives.

We were in Naples for Christmas between 1999 and 2000. We stayed in a villa east of Naples. Just as we were leaving, the owner said, "We just made our fresh olive oil last night. Would you like to taste it?" And I said, "I've always cooked with olive oil, but I've never tasted fresh olive oil." 

Being a nice Italian girl from South Jersey, I was very anxious to taste it. She took us to their farm, where all the trees were over a thousand years old and had huge gnarly trunks. She took us to a little stone building with a wood-burning stove. She toasted some bread and poured this wonderful liquid on top with a little bit of sea salt, and I fell in love. I said, "This is what we're doing on our farm."

 

Why did you choose Sicilian olive cultivars?

After deciding to do olives, we went on a two-year mission to find the right olive oil that met my needs. I always bought Italian olive oils because they tend to be fruity—especially southern Italian oils. And so we went all over Italy tasting oils at farms. If we saw a sign for olive oil, we would stop and buy some. We would go to grocery stores and farmers markets all over Italy to taste the oil. My husband would put olives in brown paper bags for me to taste, and I always picked the same three olives: Nocellara, Biancolilla, and Cerasuola. It's your typical Sicilian blend that most families have. 

We asked nurseries in California if they had these trees, and they said no. It would take two to three years before they could sell any to us; they would have to import them. So we got our own import license and imported the trees. 

 

Karen Bond holds her prized olives.

 

Tell us about that process.

We found a grower who said they had imported trees to the U.S. When the trees arrived, the FDA called us and said, "We have a problem; come down to the San Francisco airport."

So we had to go to the Department of Agriculture at the airport, and they took Malcolm through a series of clean rooms, opened the box, and showed that the little baby trees had soil on the roots. They then opened an incinerator and threw our trees away. So that was heartbreaking. 

We had to find a grower who could prove they had imported to the U.S. We finally found someone. In the meantime, the University of Florence helped us design our orchard, and they recommended that we bring in a fourth tree type, a Pendolino. Even though olives are self-pollinating, the Pendolino is a pollinating tree, and we'd have a higher production.

Our little baby trees arrived on Christmas Eve, 2006, six years into the process. I always tell people we were born during a time when delayed gratification was a good thing.

We took the baby trees home on Christmas Eve. They arrived on a Lufthansa flight at around one o'clock. We were just praying they would get through customs and then the Department of Agriculture because they were only packed in vermiculite. It was a three-day holiday, so everything would be closed, and we wouldn't be able to pick them up. They arrived at the Department of Agriculture at ten minutes to five o'clock, and they got cleared. So we were able to bring them home.

The next day, I cooked dinner, family and friends came over, and we planted 1,250 trees in two-inch pots. The problem was that they had to be quarantined, so we had to put them in a greenhouse.

 

The state and the feds would come and pull a tree out with its roots and take it with them to test for pests and diseases. 

Because the trees were growing, we had to transplant them to five-gallon pots. And finally, after two and a half years, they said we could plant them. 

So that's 2008. I think they went into the ground in the spring of 2009 because they were cleared in late summer, and you just can't plant at that time. It's too hot. 

In the first year, 2010, we actually had little olives on all the trees, so we picked them all. We only got about 300 pounds.

Malcolm made his own homemade mill, and we milled them, and it tasted good. So we said,
"Okay, let's move forward." 

The very next year, we got around 3,000 pounds. There was a mobile mill then, and the oil tasted great, so I said, "Let's enter the Yolo County Fair." Malcolm said, "No, we're going to New York and L.A." They're the two big international competitions where everyone from around the world enters their olive oil. We won gold in New York, gold in L.A., Best in Show in Yolo County, and Best in Show in Napa County in our very first year.

Our phone started ringing off the wall, and people wanted to buy our oil. The same thing has happened just about every year.

Malcolm and Karen Bond

 

What sets Bondolio apart from other California olive oils?

California olive oils are Spanish, French, northern Italian, or Greek, which have different flavor profiles. Arbequina tends to be a very mild oil, and so many people grow Arbequina. I wanted ours to be different from everyone else's.

Some people have brought in Biancolilla, and some people have brought in Nocellara, but no one has brought in Cerasuola. It's very difficult to propagate. They told us we would lose 80%, and we did not. We probably lost only 10%. Because we have such rich soil here, they were happy growing here. But I think that's what sets us aside. It's a totally different blend from everyone else in California. 

 

Karen Bond sips her liquid gold.

How do you use your olive oils?

I use olive oil every single day. For example, we normally have poached eggs and roasted potatoes for breakfast, so we roast the potatoes in olive oil and pour olive oil on the eggs. I use olive oil in just about everything I cook, including pasta, risotto, and fish.

 

We make mandarin oil with our Pendolino. We pick it on the very last day of milling and throw fresh whole mandarins in as we're milling. So it's a great orange oil. I put that over halibut and bake with it. Then, when it comes out of the oven, I pour a little bit of oil over it. 

When Nathan Norris was the head chef of Zuni Cafe, he told us that we had the most versatile olive oil. They always have an olio nuovo dinner in December; he did a whole dinner with our oil. He started with a persimmon salad with goat cheese and pomegranate seeds on the top and poured our oil with a little bit of salt on it. He then made a salad, then he made fish, and then he made a dark chocolate sorbet with our oil on top. And it was to die for. Our olive oils don't have a bitter flavor, so they can go with a lot of different foods.  

 

Bondolio olive oil served with crostini.

 

You give tours by appointment. Tell us about those.

On our tour, we serve food. If there are 10 or more people and they request it, we'll do pizza on the patio for them. Our biggest tours right now are from retirement communities. They'll come up with 40 people on a bus, and we'll do a tour, and then we'll do pizza for them.

They'll get to taste our oils and vinegar, but sometimes, I serve it with hummus. In the summer, when there are cherry tomatoes because we have a big garden, I will do what I call caprese shooters with our olive oil. I sometimes do crostini, where I'll take fresh tomatoes with garlic and basil with our olive oil and put that over toasted bread. I try to give people ideas on how to use the oil. 

 

We are open to the public one day a year, the second Sunday of December, when we introduce our new oil and have other vendors there. We have pizza, beer, wine, and sodas on the patio, rain or shine. 


Bondolio olive groves

What do you hope people take away from your olive oil?

How to use our oil and to use it quickly: Many people have the misconception that olive oil is like wine in that it ages well. It does not. The longer you keep it, the flavor profile goes down. Ours usually last two years, but it doesn't have the oomph it initially has.

 

I also try to make people understand how healthy olive oil is for them. There's so much evidence coming out now about how olive oil reduces breast cancer, reduces cholesterol, and helps prevent Alzheimer's disease. Both my husband and I are in our seventies. Neither one of us takes any medications. We're extremely healthy. We exercise every day, and we ride our bikes every day. We do Pilates and things, and we go to the doctor, and they say, "We can't believe that you don't take any medications." But I think it's partly because of the olive oil.

 

 

 

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Search for the phrase "Sicilian sea salt" online, and you'll stumble on Sicilian Sea Salt. When you learn that the company's co-owner, Joe Styler, works in tech, it's no wonder the brand has optimal search engine results.

The senior marketing manager of GoDaddy's Domain Academy runs Sicilian Sea Salt with his wife, Leslie Styler, in Phoenix, only fitting for a product once harvested by the Phoenicians. 

Joe's grandmother was from Western Sicily, where he first encountered Sicilian sea salt production. After one taste of the product, he was hooked. As a trained chef, he's fully incorporated it into his food preparation. He's confident other people will have the same experience. 

Joe and I recently chatted about the Sicilian Sea Salt Company and sea salt from Sicily. He shared what sparked the development of the business and what sets his salt apart from that of other salt producers and purveyors. 

 

 

What inspired Sicilian Sea Salt's start?

It was kind of an accident. My son really liked science, and he loves geology. We were in Sicily with my parents and brought my mother-in-law. My dad wanted to take my son out to do what he wanted. He wanted to see rocks. Where are you going to see rocks? They went to the salt museum. They came back with salt, and it was unbelievable how good the salt was.

I've cooked my entire life, worked in many restaurants, and tried different salts. I know salt's importance in different seasonings, but this salt was just different. 

We got some from the museum, and when we went back home, I needed to figure out how to get more of this salt. We couldn't get it here. So, I started reaching out to people in Sicily, and I found a way to get the salt. Then, I started giving it out to people as gifts, and I'd have to get more and more and more salt because everyone wanted it. So, we started getting it in bulk and just giving it away. 

I was talking to one of my friends to whom I gave salt, and they said, "You should sell this because everybody who has it likes it, and there's not enough for you to give out. You should just try and figure out a way to sell it."
 

What makes Sicilian sea salt unique compared to other salts on the market?

There are a couple of things that are really cool about the salt. First, really, there's something that I think is indescribable about it. We call it "magic salt" because everything you put it on tastes better than it would with a different salt. 

What makes it special is that it's harvested in a protected space, a marine reserve in Sicily. So the water where they get the salt from is really pure, and they've been doing it there for thousands of years. We live in Phoenix now, and it's funny because the Phoenicians started it there. For thousands of years, Sicily was conquered by different people, and everybody used the salt. That was one of the main things of importance that they would take from there.

 

When you drive on the coast from Trapani to Marsala, you just see miles and miles of salt pans, and they've been there for thousands of years and have windmills. Those are not really in use; they're decorations now, but they had those windmills to pump the seawater in these flats. 

Sea salt is made from evaporated ocean water, which is solar evaporation. They put it out into big flat spaces called pans, and then the sun and the breeze from the ocean evaporate the water. Then, what's left is the salt. So it's really pure; there's nothing added to it.

It would be organic. The FDA regulates salt, but the USDA does not because it considers it a rock—and this was another challenge when we started to figure out the regulatory issues of running a food business. The FDA regulates anything you put in your mouth. The USDA designates things as organic, and since they don't recognize salt as something that comes under their purview, you can't get an organic designation. But it is really very pure the salt that we get. 

I think that that's different than what most people get. The stuff that you get off the shelf is made by giant chemical companies, and it's really processed to be the same no matter what. They need to do chemical processes to make it like that. Then, they add different chemicals for anti-caking and make sure that it can pour out if it's humid. They also make sure that it's white. They do a lot of processing to it, which makes the bland, almost metallic flavor of normal salt compared to a salt like ours, which is special.  

 
Even the kosher salt is processed in most cases. It has a more bland taste to it. They also strip out a lot of natural minerals, which are trace elements. 

Since each batch that you pull comes from the ocean, it will vary. But there are different amounts of trace elements in there. Some people say it's beneficial for your diet, and there are studies on that, but I think that it just gives a different flavor profile.

What makes Sicilian salt special is its long history. The ancient Greeks, the Phoenicians, and the Romans all used salt pans and the grain they grew there as key ingredients in their empires. It's just been a natural way of life for thousands of years. 

It's also environmentally friendly to use salt from the ocean. It has been there for thousands of years and doesn't hurt the land. There's no erosion. 

If you buy Himalayan salt, it's fine; the pink salt is good and helps people, typically in poorer communities, make money. But they do a lot of deep mining and destroy much of the earth. 

Ours is sustainable, which is another thing we like about it.  

 

How have you incorporated sustainability into your packaging?

We try to use paper as much as possible instead of bubble wrap or other things like that so it can be recycled. Then we have these jars that we bought, which can be reused. We just did some packaging with paper envelopes so that you can refill those jars and reuse the jars over and over. We actually recently upgraded to a different jar from France, and it's a little sturdier. You can use our jars for canning or holding other spices, and there's really not much waste.  

 

You source your salt from Trapani. Tell us about its production.

We have a supplier there whose family has been harvesting salt for 50 or 60 years. They do everything by hand. You see them out there with rakes. 

 

There are different types of salt: fleur de sel, which is the French word, and fiore del sale, which is Italian.

 

It forms when the water's still there, and the salt separates and floats up to the top. That has to be really carefully skimmed because if you bump it, it will sink. And that is really crunchy, almost like Maldon, but Maldon's different. It's thin; it's very expensive and labor-intensive to pull it out, but that's all done by hand. I don't know if there's any machine that can do that. So, across the world, that part is done by hand, but as it evaporates, it just gets into these big clumps that have to be broken up.

 

Your core salt comes from what's broken up, and then you have to grind it down further. So all that stuff is done by hand in the same way it's been done for thousands of years with the company we work with. So they're out there with rakes, raking or shoveling the salt into wheelbarrows, and they make it the same way that it's been made for thousands of years. 

For us, that's important too because you can get a lot of salt from Sicily. Many different types are for sale. There are many bigger conglomerates, and they make it in a large-scale manufacturing process. They're not doing it the same way that it's been done. It's not artisanal, and you can taste the difference. You can actually see the difference. The salt's good, but it's not great. It's not that next level. You can look at the two salts by side and just know, just by seeing them, that they're different. When you try them, you can taste the different flavor profiles that they provide. So, it's important for us to have something that's really at the highest level.  

 

How do you enjoy your salt?

I like it in a lot of different ways. I use coarse salt as a finishing salt. We made roast vegetables yesterday, and we used it on top.

We have the coarse salt that we use for a margarita; we put it on the rim. Then, we use the fine salt if we're going to do something like a sauce or if we're baking.

 

I also use it if I'm going to make rubs for barbecue, age steaks, or try to tenderize things like lamb. I use the coarse salt, put it over that, and let it sit.

 

It really makes a difference in almost anything you eat. In fact, my mother has this little salt shaker in which she grinds her own salt, which she brings around now. After trying it from Sicily, she won't use any other salt.
 

What experience do you hope customers will take away?

I hope they have some connection to the Sicilian people, even if they're not Sicilian.

 

One important thing is that there's still high unemployment in Sicily. So, I think it would be good if people were more aware of Sicily as a part of Italy that they could visit. It definitely doesn't get the same amount of attention. It gets quite a bit of Italian tourists, but outside Italy, not many tourists come. I think the more recognition it can get, the more it can help their economy.

If we can make the connection to Sicily and the unique food culture there, I think that's important. Sicily has a really different food culture from the rest of Italy. The one thing I like about Italians is that they're really strict about what qualifies if you make something. If you don't make the exact right ratio of ingredients, then it isn't right. You made it wrong. They have protections over their food. Those things are good because they keep traditions alive. As a chef, I like experimenting with things and changing things up. So, for example, I make pizzas. If I'm not using the right flour, the right tomatoes, and the right cheese, then it doesn't count as a true Neapolitan pizza. 

 

Because so many cultures have ruled over Sicily, there's a lot more flexibility in the type of food that's there, and it's a much more diverse food culture. I like that about Sicily, too. And I think that that's something that people don't really realize. They think of Italian food as spaghetti, meatballs, pizza, or things like that. And there's such a wide variety in Sicily. If you look around at different restaurants or marketplaces, they'll say, "This is Sicilian style," or "These came from Sicily." Italians hold Sicily, in some ways, in high respect as far as their food goes.

I think we can bring more awareness to Sicily as a whole and have more investment there by having people say that they want to go. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was in Partanna, Sicily, and he started olive oil and coffee. That didn't go well, but it was good because he said, "This is what I discovered when I was in Sicily," and it brought more attention to the island. 

I think it's really important for people to do more to help the economy overall and continue the culture. So that's the one thing I hope people take away when they try our salt. I also hope that they start to think more widely about their ingredient choices, how that impacts their health, and how it impacts the flavor of their food. 

 

 

 

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One of Maria Gallo's fondest memories is of her grandmother asking her to fetch a handful of mint so they could make iced tea to serve with supper. Today, Maria, an entrepreneur from Albany, New York, is happy to share Nani's Iced Tea, which is sold in a mason jar bearing a photo of her kissing Nani, who came to the U.S. from Castiglione di Sicilia.

 

"It's thrilling to me to be doing this in her name and her honor," Maria says. "And I feel like she's been with me the entire time before it even started. Obviously, she gave me this, right? She always took care of me, and I feel like this is her way of still taking care of me."

Nani must have been watching over Maria as, after a challenging start, the brand has become a favorite in Upstate New York stores where it is sold. Expanding that reach is part of the plan, which Maria shared with me, along with how she got started and how she chooses to stand out in the crowded beverage market. 

Tell us about Nani and how she inspired you.

We were always very close. When I was in my early 20s, I lived with her, and later, I lived next door to her. And so, just as I had been in my childhood, I was always in her kitchen.

The iced tea was something that I loved to do with her because she had a routine. My grandmother's house was immaculate. She would get up in the morning and have breakfast, and then she would begin her housework. After her housework was done, she would shower, and then in the afternoon, she would read, say her rosary, and then start to prepare for dinner.

Before she started cooking dinner, she would steep the tea in a pan on the stove. As we got closer to prepping dinner and setting the table, she would ask me to run outside and grab mint. Then, I watched her make it.

Those smells and those memories just always stayed with me. And also it was delicious, which doesn't hurt. She made one pitcher every night when it was warm in the summer months.

I started making it when my kids were little. I would have friends who would say, "I'm coming tomorrow to visit. Make the iced tea." So luckily—I mean, it's not luck by any stretch; it's her hand—I was able to recreate the taste of her tea.

It was something that I loved to do, and I was thrilled to be able to replicate it and make it for my friends and people that I was close to. That led eventually to me bottling the tea.

We have five flavors now. When I first began this, I just had her original iced tea, which was just sugar, lemons, mint, tea, and water. But then, when I was out, people requested it unsweetened, so I added a few more flavors.

On the side of every jar, I always tell the story of my Sicilian grandmother. The tea was part of everything that she was, and that's now ingrained in me.

 

Share your start and the challenges you faced.

I was teaching at the time. I would bring it to school. In the summer and on weekends up in Saratoga, I would waitress and bring it in for staff. I would bring it in a five-gallon drum, and everybody loved it, which made me feel great. It was fun. It was a good couple of summers.

The restaurant owner and I had been friends for some time, and he came to me and said, "Let's get this going. I know a bottler, and let's talk about bottling it. The guy I want you to talk to is bottling some things for me. I spoke to him this morning, and we were talking about doing the tea in a plastic pinky jug."

 

I kind of paused and didn't say anything. And he said, "What?"

 

I said, "Well, I don't want to do plastic. I just always pictured a glass mason jar with her picture on the front, maybe black and white."

Instantaneously, I was thinking, "Oh my God, Maria! Here's somebody you love and respect who is calling you and saying, 'I'm going to get this going for you.'"

He said, "This is your story, and don't compromise for anybody."

I began working with the bottler, and when we met and sat down, he just said, "This is amazing, and you'll be bought out in five years. There's nothing like it on the market packaging-wise or taste-wise."

I asked him whether his R&D team could replicate the tea without chemicals or artificial preservatives. He said, "Oh, yeah."

But they just couldn't nail it. We tried everything, and chef friends of mine tried to help. We tried cheesecloth and simple syrup. The problem was that every time we heated it up, it tasted like Sleepy Time tea. We couldn't get it to be where it needed to be to be shelf-life stable in stores without affecting the integrity of the taste, so we parted ways. 

I have a lot of friends in the restaurant business in Albany, and someone had given me the name of a second bottler. I went up to see her. She was about two hours away, and she was amazing. Within three weeks, she nailed it.

You know how when you make sauce or sausage and peppers, it's always better the next day? It's the same thing with my grandmother's iced tea. So I put a pitcher in the refrigerator, and then the next day, I took that tea to her and said, "This is what I want it to taste like."

She was wonderful. She found an extract company, and everything was all-natural. It was amazing. We started bottling together.

 

I was teaching then and got a notification on my Facebook page: "Hi. We were just in the shop in Delmar. My name is blah, blah, blah. I work for Whole Foods. We're coming to Albany. Would you like to meet at Whole Foods?"

All my little local guys who had been with me from the beginning were like, "Girl, this is it. This is so great!"

Five minutes later, my bottler shut down. New owners came in. They decided they didn't want a co-packing plant's liability, so they took the production facility in a different direction. So, I was back to square one.

In the interim, the restaurateur I'd mentioned got me a sit-down with a distributor, the biggest distributor in our area at the time. So, in about 2015, I met with this guy, and he just said, "Look, I love the product. I love the story. I love your tenacity. I'll put the money up. When you find a bottler, let's do this. This is going to be great. It's going to be such a great story."

It took me a year to find a bottler. I went to a bottler downstate in New York, and the bottler botched the whole run that we did: 1,200 cases.

My distributor took off and was not happy. That was a brutal summer. We were renting a house that I thought I was about to buy. We lost the house, and my car got repossessed. It was a pretty ugly time.

In the interim (after the bottler debacle downstate), I had reached out to a few bottlers, but besides being very costly, I would have been at their mercy as far as a production schedule goes. Eventually, I decided it was time, so I took my last few thousand dollars and secured the space for Nani's.

So many people loved the story, but no one wanted to cut a check. Every time they would tell me no but that they loved my story, etc., I would say, "No worries; thanks so much." Then, I would tell them that someday I was going to have a ribbon cutting at that space, and I'd wear a lemon dress. I felt like they were probably thinking, "Okay, crazy girl. You have no money, no credit, no house, no job, and no machinery."

Eventually, I found capital. This group around here works with entrepreneurs, and I got capital for the machinery in the summer of 2022. I started bottling shortly after my ribbon cutting last winter. And I wore that lemon dress!
 

Maria Gallo wore her lemon dress to her ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Tell us why avoiding plastic is so important to you.

When I first started, all the numbers guys I met with said, "You can't use glass if you want to do a mason jar. You have to use plastic."

I never compromised on that. As soon as I was out doing demos at Whole Foods and even smaller places, everybody loved and appreciated the glass. And now, over the last five or six or seven years, everybody's back to realizing how bad plastic is and how good glass is.

The thing for me about glass is that, like so many people, I drank Snapple when I was at work or out to lunch, and I did not like the transition to plastic. It didn't taste the same. I wanted a tea that, if you left it in your car overnight, whether it was 10 degrees out or 95 degrees out, it would never change the integrity of the tea. That glass jar and not adding chemicals were just two things that I wouldn't compromise on.

 

What else sets you apart from other teas on the market?

I haven't found anything comparable since I started this tea company in 2011. I don't taste every iced tea out there, but it's still basically the staples: PepsiCo makes Pure Leaf iced tea, and Coke makes Gold Peak. I don't find either comparable.

It's because of the ingredients in the tea, the extracts that we source, and also the way I make the tea. At some point, I may have to move to a concentrate, but right now, I make the tea on a grander scale, the same way my grandmother made it. That's how my scheduled process was made through my first bottler.

I still soak tea bags in drums overnight in the refrigerator, pull everything out that morning, pull the tea bags out, strain it over and over and over, and throw it into the kettle of hot water. The kettle takes about two hours and 15 minutes to get up to temp. And I bottle at 190 or 191, so it's a shelf-stable product. When I bring it to places, I can say, "It can sit in your back room for a couple of weeks because it's safe to be out of the refrigerator."
 

What are your plans for the future?

I'm hoping we can eventually get the tea on a national scale. I'm about 40 minutes from Saratoga Springs. A lot of people come here in the summer for the track and the baths; it's a beautiful area.

Every summer, people tell me, "I had your tea this summer in Saratoga." Or, "I had your tea this summer in Albany." They ask, "Do you ship? When are you going to be here?" When I was in Whole Foods, I had someone who worked at that store who then moved to the Boston store say, "Oh my God, I miss your tea so much. Can you get it here?"

National distribution obviously is quite a challenge both financially and logistically, but it can be done. We're talking about getting into some places in New York City with my distributor. And for me, that's as thrilling as having Nani's available on a national level. We're talking about meeting with Italian wholesale grocers down there and getting into the Italian delis in the Bronx and Brooklyn. My dad was from the Bronx. Nani had cousins in Brooklyn. So, for me, that would be so thrilling. I would be so honored because I know that those people are paying homage every day to their aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  

 

What do you hope your customers take away?

When I get out, dressed up and in front of people, and talk about the teas and my grandmother, that rejuvenates me.

It goes a long way; it validates everything for me. Whenever I do a demo, people tell me, "This is the best iced tea I've ever had. I love this story so much." They hold the jar, and they look at my grandmother. And I love it, and they love it. It validates for me that there's a reason why I wanted the jar and her face on it and not just another iced tea in plastic.

Besides physically making the tea, my favorite part of doing this is hearing people respond to it. I mean, people will message me and text me, and they'll tag me on Instagram and say, "Oh my God, I love this tea so much," but really, being out and pouring tea for two or three hours at an event and hearing the feedback is wonderful. That really goes a long way for me.

 

 

 

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Railways have long been a part of Sicilian entrepreneur Giovanni De Lisi's life. The 39-year-old started at a young age, working for his family's maintenance company, De Lisi Costruzioni Ferroviarie. There, he observed problems associated with traditional railroad ties, called sleepers, which are made of concrete and subject to high wear and environmental impact. Giovanni investigated the potential of using recycled materials, such as plastic and rubber from used tires. That led him to found Greenrail Group in 2012, with offices in Milan and Rome.

"The goal was to create a more innovative, sustainable, and high-performance railway sleeper," says Giovani, who divides his time between Palermo and Milan.

We recently corresponded via email, during which he shared Greenrail's innovations and benefits, current and upcoming projects, and his optimism for the future of smart technology in the railway industry.

 

 

Can you explain how Greenrail's smart sleeper technology works?

The Greenrail railway sleeper is an innovative sleeper designed to combine sustainability, efficiency, and durability. This railway sleeper is a combination of traditional and recycled materials, aimed at enhancing performance and reducing environmental impact.

Key technical features:

• Hybrid structure: The inner part is made of reinforced concrete, ensuring the structural strength and stability of the sleeper. The outer coating consists of a mixture of recycled rubber and plastic obtained from used tires and other plastic waste, thereby reducing the need for virgin raw materials and contributing to recycling.
  
  
• Durability: Thanks to the outer coating made of recycled materials, Greenrail is less prone to wear compared to traditional concrete sleepers. This outer layer protects the internal structure from weather, erosion, and chemical action, extending the lifespan of the sleeper. The estimated lifespan of a Greenrail sleeper is over 50 years, making it a long-lasting solution compared to conventional options.
  
  
• Mechanical and vibrational resistance: The mechanical properties of reinforced concrete ensure high resistance to compression and dynamic loads typical of railway lines. The rubber coating acts as a natural shock absorber, reducing vibrations transmitted to the ground and improving the comfort and stability of train passage.
  
  
• Electrical insulation: Greenrail provides better electrical insulation compared to conventional sleepers, reducing the risk of electrical leaks and ensuring better operation of electrified railway lines.
  
  
• Environmental sustainability: Each individual Greenrail sleeper recovers approximately 35 kilograms of recycled rubber and plastic, reducing waste accumulation. During its lifecycle, it helps reduce CO₂ emissions through the use of recycled materials and increased durability compared to traditional solutions.
  
  
• Compatibility: The Greenrail sleeper is designed to be compatible with standard railway technologies and can be installed on existing railway lines without significant modifications to the infrastructure.
  
  
• Advanced versions: In addition to the basic version, Greenrail also offers variants such as Greenrail Solar, which integrates photovoltaic modules into the design, allowing for solar energy generation, and Greenrail Linkbox, which integrates sensors to monitor the state of the railway lines.

These features make the Greenrail sleeper a cutting-edge solution in the railway sector. Its strong focus on sustainability and technological innovation revolutionizes its ability to improve safety and reduce operational costs.

 

 

What are the key benefits of integrating sensors and solar panels into railway sleepers?

The integrated sensors allow for constant monitoring of the network's status, improving safety and reducing maintenance costs through predictive interventions. Solar panels, on the other hand, generate up to 44 megawatt-hours of energy per kilometer per year, transforming railway infrastructure into sources of renewable energy. This has a significant impact on environmental sustainability and energy efficiency.

 

How does Greenrail's use of recycled materials contribute to sustainability?

By using recycled plastic and rubber, Greenrail significantly reduces its environmental footprint. Our sleepers reduce CO₂ emissions by 40% and decrease noise, energy consumption, and water usage compared to concrete sleepers. This circular economy not only limits waste but also extends the operational lifespan of the sleepers.

 

What impact do Greenrail sleepers have on the passenger experience compared to traditional sleepers?

Greenrail sleepers contribute to a reduction in vibrations of up to 40%, ensuring greater comfort for both urban residents and passengers. Additionally, the smart technology will help prevent failures and service interruptions, ensuring greater reliability and safety.

 

What has the response been?

The response has been extremely positive, both from railway operators and environmentalists. Our pilot projects in Europe have confirmed the effectiveness and sustainability of our solutions. Greenrail Solar, in particular, has attracted a lot of attention for its ability to generate renewable energy, in addition to all the other advantages of Greenrail technology for railway infrastructure.

 

What are the next steps for Greenrail in terms of market expansion?

We are aiming to expand into international markets, especially in Europe and North America. We have already patented our technology in over 80 countries and plan to build industrial plants to meet demand. Our strategy also includes licensing our technology to local manufacturers, who will use local recycled materials.

 

How do you see the role of smart technology evolving in the railway industry?

Smart technology will be the future of the railway sector. Predictive maintenance and real-time monitoring will become the norm, improving safety and operational efficiency. I foresee an increasing integration of artificial intelligence and IoT technologies to further optimize infrastructure management and minimize human errors. Our smart sleeper technology is just the beginning.

 

Are there any projects or collaborations that you are particularly proud of?

One of the most significant projects is the pilot installation of Greenrail Solar in Emilia-Romagna. It was the first concrete example of our solar technology applied in the real world, with very promising results in terms of energy production and durability. We are also proud of the collaborations that are being concretely activated in the short term with some operators of European subway lines to modernize their outdated systems.

 

What kind of experience do you hope to provide for your clients and partners?

We want to provide an innovative, reliable, and sustainable solution that brings long-term benefits to both our customers and the environment. We guarantee our partners a smooth collaboration process, from design to implementation, with the shared goal of modernizing railway infrastructure. We focus on trust, transparency, and a constant commitment to improvement.

 

 

 

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Ksenia Molostvova lives between two churches, where she sees plenty of weddings each month. However, the founder of Sicilian Wedding Lab doesn't typically plan Sicilian weddings for Sicilians. Instead, she caters to those individuals who might have a connection with Sicily, whether it's through heritage or simply because the island is a favorite destination.

 

"The world is discovering Sicily," she says. "People always want to search for authentic destinations. And Sicily can offer a lot."

Ksenia shared more about her Palermo-based business and background, the differences between Sicilian weddings and Sicilian destination weddings, the most popular wedding destination, her favorite wedding sites, and her wedding planning goal.  

 

What's your background?

I'm from Moscow, and I've been living in Italy since I started coming here in 2006 because I was responsible for Italy as a journalist. I met my future husband, and we started dating, flying back and forth for six years. And then, I moved to Sicily in 2012. In a couple of years, I left my news department and stopped working for Russian TV channels. But I still create documentaries for different European YouTube channels. So I've continued this work as a producer, but I also started doing weddings in 2015, so now I can say I've become a "wedding producer!"  

 

How did you get started?

First, I had friends say, "Organize our wedding in Sicily." I said, "I'm not a wedding planner. I'm a producer." They said, "Well, if you are a producer, you can do anything."

So I did one wedding, a second, and a third. I was focused more on small weddings, up to 50 people. And then, at some point in 2021, there was a royal wedding in Sicily, and it came to me in a strange way. I knew the man who was organizing this wedding. The bride was the daughter of an earl from Scotland, and the groom was the Spanish prince, the direct descendant of the last Bourbon King of Sicily. And this man I knew asked me to be an interpreter here. So, we started doing this wedding together. I was just his local assistant. But then, he had to quit the planning at some point due to health issues, and I was left alone with this wedding. And it wasn't just a normal wedding, it was a Royal Wedding!  I had a chance to say no to that. But then, after some reflection, I said, "Well, if it came to me for some reason, I have to go forward."

I formed my team. We did bring it to life. It was extremely challenging, but it worked. At that point, I understood that I may have to fully dedicate my time to weddings. 

 

 

Describe the differences between your weddings and typical Sicilian weddings.

I have to bring to life some ideas that are not real. A normal Sicilian wedding doesn't look like a Sicilian wedding for American or Australian clients. It could have more traditional elements than the modern Sicilian wedding; for example, the modern Sicilian wedding wouldn't have a folk band, some really Sicilian elements, or Sicilian food.

Food is extremely important for Sicilian weddings, but it must be something particular, not just simple traditional recipes. For example, you wouldn't serve the simple caponata at a Sicilian wedding. Whereas Americans look for traditional Sicilian recipes and venues like Tonnara di Scopello, an old tuna fishery. It's just like a shed where you keep boats and fishing nets. But the place itself is spectacular. And it has become really popular and expensive just because of foreign weddings.

Local Sicilians would never, ever, ever go to a place like that for a wedding. They need a palace, something chic, some really fancy-looking venue. They don't see the beauty in some rustic place.

 

What goes into one of your weddings?

We work with many local artisans who make handmade ceramics for guest favors and local bands that perform and feel that people seek them out. There is plenty of stuff that you can give to your guests, like local honey, jams, or other typical local products or objects. 

 

What services do you offer to wedding couples?

Each couple is different, so I'm against packages. I offer a full planning service because it's important to me. A destination wedding is about the destination. So it's not just about the couple and the family.

 

Normally, it's at least a two- or a three-day wedding because most couples and their parents come here for a long period. We organize a lot of experiences before and after the wedding. It can be a beach day, a wine tasting, or a pizza party. It can be a tour of some beautiful place like an archeological site. It's always about an experience because showing a destination is important. So, everything that Sicily can offer, including beaches, wine, and nice food. It's a holiday, and it's also a holiday that will never ever be repeated in their life because all their friends come here. This is something I like to focus on all the time. It's not just the wedding, it's the experience.

 

What are the most popular Sicilian wedding destinations?

Taormina is probably one of the most popular destinations because it has been a tourist destination for a long time. When tourism began to develop in Sicily in the 19th century, Taormina had hotels and infrastructure, and it was easy to reach.

 

Maybe the couples Google "Weddings in Sicily," and Taormina is what they see at the top of the search. Personally, I do think Taormina is a beautiful place, but logistically, it's quite complicated to have an event there.

 

On top of the town, the mountain is all pedestrian. It's really complicated with the delivery of all the stuff, the transportation—well, everything. And Taormina is not really a beach destination. Many people get confused because they see that Taormina is on the coastline. You do have beaches there, but, at the same time, if you are staying on the beach, you are not staying in the town. So, you have to take a taxi, which takes time and is expensive. And the other way around, if you're staying in the town, you are not staying at the beach. Also, Taormina is close to Mount Etna, so the beaches have gray sands or pebbles, and the sun hides behind the mountains, so you cannot enjoy long sunsets on the beach.

 

What is your favorite Sicilian wedding destination?

Scopello is really picturesque. And the coastline from Castellammare del Golfo to San Vito lo Capo and until Trapani is probably the most beautiful.

 

The Province of Trapani boasts white, sandy beaches and beautiful rocks. The color of the water there is turquoise, and the sunsets are really stunning! This part of Sicily is still quite authentic, as mass tourism has never reached it, which is why I love it so much.

 

What is your goal for weddings you plan in Sicily?

The goal, obviously, is to satisfy, to find out what each couple wants and their values, why they chose a destination wedding, and why they chose Sicily. So, what would they like to find in Sicily, and what would they want to share with their guests about Sicily?

 

In September, I had a wedding for a Canadian couple with Italian origins, not Sicilian. They spent two weeks here, traveling all over the island with all their friends. I was so pleased to get their review and see how much they enjoyed the time they spent here. They had so many activities in these two weeks. So, I think that the goal was reached. It wasn't about the wedding, but it was about the experience. 

 

 

 

  

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Round-shaped ricotta-cream pastries topped with a nipple-like cherry, the minne di Sant'Agata take the cake among Sicily's most sensuous sweets. But within these so-called breasts of Saint Agatha, you'll find not only chocolate and candied orange peel but also a tragic story.

 

The cakes are named after Agatha of Sicily, who lived and died as a martyr in third-century Catania. At 15, Agatha took a vow of chastity. When she rejected the advances of Roman prefect Quintianus, he had her reported as a Christian, for which she was tortured. Men stretched her on a rack and tore her flesh with iron hooks, burned her with torches, and whipped her. As if that weren't enough, her breasts were torn off with tongs. She survived because, as tradition tells us, St. Peter the Apostle appeared to heal her wounds. Eventually, Quintianus ordered his men to burn her over hot coals. Today, Agatha is honored as the patron saint of rape victims, wet nurses, and breast cancer patients with a February 5 feast day. 

"When people see these cakes and how they look like breasts, or they see breasts in the name, they laugh," says South Carolina baker Patrizia Boscia. "When I explain the story, they stop smiling or laughing, and they become curious and listen. I want to show them that it's not just a funny, pornographic pastry that Italians created; it's a celebration of martyrdom."

Patrizia came to the U.S. from Castellammare del Golfo about 40 years ago and got her Ph.D. in sociology. She taught in New York, Florida, and South Carolina, where she eventually retired from teaching and reinvented herself as a baker. In 2018, she launched Sweet Bites of Italy, taking orders online, catering, and selling at farmers markets.

The minne di Sant'Agata is one of Patrizia's more popular sweet treats. It has special significance to her, which we discussed along with the pastry's origins.

 

 

Describe these cakes and their historical significance.

The cakes are dome pastries, and there are two versions. One is made with pastry dough, and the other with Italian sponge cake. Inside is a very nice filling made with ricotta, candied orange peel, and chocolate chips. Then, they are covered with a thick icing layer—all white. Inside, they are very soft. They're very tasty.

 

They are related to St. Agatha. There is a mixture of history and traditions (or fantasy, in a way). St. Agatha came from a rich family, and it was around 200 years after Christ, a period of very ferocious Christian persecution.

 

A prefect had come to force the population to return to the pagan state and forget their Christianity. He saw this young girl who wanted to become a nun, and he fell in love with her. He tried to convince her to marry him or have a relationship with him. She refused. So, the situation escalated. He became increasingly violent, and he asked his men to take her, and she was put in prison, and then she was tortured.

 

The minne di Sant'Agata are not the original anatomical sweet typical of Italy or Spain. The Greeks created this kind of anatomical breast in honor of a goddess for a particular feast, and they made it with sesame seed and honey.

It is unclear when this anatomical sweet got translated into the religious feast of Saint Agatha. But it is not really so strange because, in Italian—especially Sicilian—pastries, there is often this strange mixture of sensuality—pornography in a way—and religion. If we think of the cannoli, they were a symbol of man's virility.

The strange thing is that these pastries were made by nuns in the convent. Nuns were the ones who really developed Sicilian pastry cuisine. They sold pastries to support themselves and their orphans.

 

But the breast in Italy is not a symbol of sexuality as much as we consider it today. Breasts are a symbol of fertility, motherhood, and nutrition. 

 

What does this cake mean to you personally?

I had never seen them in the part of Sicily where I lived, but when I started to research them and what they represented, I associated them more with the victimization of women. Even though the martyrdom of St. Agatha was not expressed in terms of gender violence, they are associated with the victimization of women and the courage of this lady who, despite everything, refused to bend to the advances of this guy because she wanted to maintain her dignity and she wanted to become a nun. So, in a way, for me, it's a symbol of women's resistance and courage. And that's what I emphasize every time I serve them.

 

What do you hope people take away from these pastries?

I want them to realize that there is a story behind Italian cuisine, especially traditional cuisine.

When we talk about traditional Italian pastries, sometimes it's confusing. Traditional doesn't mean that I need this amount of flour, for instance, or that I must strictly follow a recipe. It's not so much related to the menu as to what Italian cuisine is still attached: a ritualistic nature, a different nature, and a diversity of different regions. This is what traditional is to me.

I want them to understand what makes Italian cuisine different, the fact that it's still attached to events, the history of Italy, and the religion of Italy. 

 

 

 

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Antonio Bertone arrives at our interview wearing a sweatshirt that reads, "Boxed Wine Is Not a Crime." He hopes this slogan will stick and help people choose more sustainable boxed beverages like his Alileo Wines. 

Cofounded by Antonio and his wife, Alexandra Drane, the Boston-based boxed natural wine company produces award-winning West Coast Sicilian varietals in partnership with Bertone's family in Sicily and imports them to the United States, where they are distributed in Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Texas. 

Antonio shared what inspired Alileo's creation, what makes his wines unique, and why boxed wine.

 

 

What is your background?

My father emigrated from Molise, and my mom emigrated from Partanna, Sicily. When I was in the second grade, my parents decided to move us back. My sister and I were born here in the United States. 

My mom was very homesick. She was the only one from her family that left and came to America. My dad's entire family ultimately ended up in the States. 

So, we moved back, and I did my second to fourth grades of elementary school in Sicily and all my summers. Then, after my dad passed, my mom kind of moved back for half the year, so she would do June to December in Sicily and then December to June back in the U.S. That went on for 30 years until she passed. 

 

What inspired Alileo's creation?

We were in COVID lockdown, and my mom was battling cancer. I think she felt this fear or sadness that once she passed, the connection to Sicily would start to degrade or disappear because I'm the last one left in America, representing the Sicilian side. 

So, my wife and I started talking about starting a wine company with our cousin Rosario, a winemaker in Sicily. 

Over the years, we have always joked about it at the dinner table and about how nice it would be. We all enjoyed those conversations in the kitchen. My kids got into it; they were like, "That could be so cool."

We came up with the name and the product's USP. We started it, kicked into making-things mode, and worked with some designer friends in London to design the packaging. We started getting ready for the first shipment, and then my mom passed. The first shipment, our first 40-foot container, actually arrived on her birthday the following year. So it was pretty magical that the wine has this eternal connection to her. 

 

What's been your goal with Alileo Wines?

For our wine, we wanted to make a low-intervention, natural wine. We wanted to make something that didn't have junk in it and sugar and all the crap that gives you headaches. And we wanted to bring a younger audience into wine.

 

Wine is as old as time. The simpler the wine-making, the better, in my opinion.  

 

Your wine is low-sulfite. Why is that important?

You're dealing with a low-intervention wine, which has a greatly reduced amount of sulfites in the wine. The grapes themselves produce a certain amount of sulfites, and for you to get some sort of shelf life, you have to work with some form of SO2. So we keep ours at the bare minimum, which is around 55 parts per million. The standard natural wine is 150 parts per million. Commercial wines are in the four hundreds and five hundreds, which sometimes causes people headaches and some of the negative side effects of wine. 

 

Why did you choose to box your wines?

I come from a consumer products background. As a marketeer, I'm better against the grain than I am with the grain. Sustainability is a key discussion to get a younger audience interested. 

Sicily's on fire right now; it's still 40 degrees Celsius daily. So it's important to put your money where your mouth is and act in a more sustainable or responsible manner. 

In my previous careers, I always drove toward a more sustainable point of view. In our product creation, our ambition is to be a B Corp, and the box in and of itself is way more functional. Once you open a box, the wine's still good for 30 to 45 days. Transport costs are a fraction. Think about the overall energy it takes to make a glass bottle rather than just a cardboard box and a bladder. 

People are like, "Boxed wine?" The rest of the world is fine with the format. It's just in America and weird days at college, slamming Franzia that has forever created this stigma. So we're here to change it.

 

How does your wine compare to other Sicilian wines?

I think my cousin has a special gift. When you hear about natural wines, people start to think funky and weird. And no knock to the really experimental winemakers, but we're making a commercial product. We're using grapes that are synonymous with our side of the island. 

Our most popular wine is zibibbo macerato, a skin-contact wine made out of a grape that's usually used to make dessert wine. Our zibibbo is very dry tasting and drinks super lovely, all because of Rosario and his skills. 

I come from farmers. My mom's side of the family were all grape and olive farmers. My dad was a farmer before he came to America. He had livestock. He had sheep, horses, and cows. So we ate incredibly well. Even though we had no money, we never knew that we didn't have any money. Because we basically produced all the things that we consumed. So to make something that's as simple but delicious and has its own profile and point of view, I think suits us. 

 

What are your future plans?

We launched boxed water as well. We were doing a lot of popups, and it was interesting to find the format. Single-use plastic, under a certain measurement, is being banned in a lot of communities around the oceans.

Right now, we're in five states. Funny enough, we don't sell in Italy. Next year, we will start selling in six European countries. 

We're trying to grow and occupy a place in the wine retail channel that serves good food. We really want to have a good connection to good cuisine.  

 

What experience do you hope people have with your wines?

I hope they're enjoying themselves, eating something nice, and having a nice conversation. That's the overall goal: bringing people together. 

 

 

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