What do you get when you mix one former Navy pilot, a Milwaukee distillery and a Sicilian grandmother’s amaretto recipe? A possible award-winning liqueur. Anthony Scalabrino’s company Oak City Amaretto is a finalist for the Good Food awards — a national prize that recognizes sustainability and excellence in food and drink.
At his sampling station at Liquor Guys in Wauwatosa. Anthony Scalabrino draped a large gold and black banner in front of his table that says the name of his business. On top of the table is a row of bottles with a caramel-hued liquid inside.
“Sir, would you like to join us for some amaretto?” he politely queries of passing customers. “It's my grandmother's recipe out of Milwaukee. Do you like sweeter, almondy? It's smooth, not too sweet.”
Scalabrino’s pitch is enough to nab Nick Maglio, who's swinging by the store for some beer.
“All right, I’ll give it a shot,” Maglio says.
“Yeah, please, literally and figuratively,” jokes Scalabrino.
After Maglio takes a swig of the sample, there’s a moment of suspense.
“That's very smooth. Lots of almond,” concludes Maglio, who confirms he likes the fruit profile. “Yeah, the cherry, caramel up front and then the apricot and almondy on the back end,” Scalabrino chimes in.
A versatile liqueur with an interstate trek
People often drink amaretto straight-up or in mixed drinks. “You can put it in your Mai Tais, you can put in your Old Fashioneds, you can put it in your Manhattans, you can put it in your Tom Collinses. It goes with everything, almost everything,” says Scalabrino.
Scalabrino’s amaretto company is a finalist in the spirits category of the Good Food awards. There are more than 230 finalists nationwide. He’s one of four from Wisconsin.
Scalabrino founded Oak City Amaretto in 2017, in Raleigh, N.C. It’s known as the “Oak City,” so that’s where the name comes from. Three years ago, he kept the name when he moved with his wife to Milwaukee’s Washington Heights neighborhood.
One part grandmother's recipe
But the amaretto came from his grandmother. “She made this at Christmas time. You can actually see her face on the side of the bottle there,” Scalabrino tells a customer. Grandma Scalabrino had moved from coastal cliffs of Sicily to the Midwestern metropolis of Grand Rapids, Mich. And she had a lot of quirks, including an affinity for polka.
“Music was a huge part of upbringing in our family. And besides the classic rock and the oldies, we'd go to grandma's house, and she'd throw on polka records and we would dance the polka in her living room," Scalabrino says.
The origins of her amaretto recipe are a little hazy. “I don't know if she got it from somebody else a friend a family or something, but she would just make it at Christmas time,” he says. “My dad never drank anything and (I) maybe saw him drink two beers in his life, and he would drink the amaretto after dinner or with friends.”
Scalabrino has stayed pretty true to his grandma’s recipe, with one minor change: he uses raw sugar instead of table sugar. But the proportions are the same. The amaretto is not aged, like a brandy or bourbon. He uses a grain-neutral spirit, so a corn-based vodka base, where the coloring comes from the sugar, not caramel coloring.
Another part local distillery
He gets the liqueur mixed locally at Central Standard Distillery. There’s a mixing tank with a heater that makes what’s essentially a simple syrup. Once it cools down, they add the extracts and alcohol.
The distillery produces about 12,000 75-ml glass bottles a year, which ends up at around 2,000 cases. Currently he’s selling at grocery and liquor stores in North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Scalabrino never really imagined that this would be his life. Most immediately, he left the tech industry, and before that, the military.
“So I was a pilot in the Navy for nine and a half years,” he says. “I wanted to fly since I was seven years old. I went to an air show in Muskegon when I was a young kid and I knew a lot about the aircraft and stuff and that's kind of what I latched onto.”
A midshipman learns lessons from grandma
But even when Scalabrino went off to the Naval Academy for college, and didn’t really have much time for anything, he made the point to call his grandma every Sunday.
“And I'd talk to her for about 30 minutes and we'd talk about the Lions. I know, boo, whatever — we can both hate the Bears,” he jests. “Yeah, we were best friends, I think.” Grandma Scalabrino lived until age 90 and passed away in 2010, Scalabrino's senior year at the Naval Academy.
Her advice on aging was more of just general life advice: treat others how you want to be treated.
Does Scalabrino ever feel like when he pours himself a glass of amaretto that he’s kind of communing with her in a way?
“I think there are moments that I think it's easy to get lost in life and just like grinding to do the next thing and I’m the worst offender of not slowing down and appreciating the wins or the things,” he admits, but says he will talk to and pray to his grandmother.
Back at Liquor Guys, Scalabrino says he’s had to do a little bit of reeducating people about what they can use amaretto in. He’s got recipe cards for poundcake and other baked goods and says you can substitute amaretto anywhere you use vanilla or almond extract.
Customer Nick Maglio is game for another shot, this time a mix of amaretto and bourbon. He takes a sip. “That was very good. Well done. Cheers to grandma,” he smiles.
