In a world of big box stores, it’s refreshing to see family-owned businesses booming. It seems fairly often we hear another one has sold out or closed down. What does this mean for the family and future generations that once dreamed of taking over or becoming part of the family business? Are they simply out of luck and forced to do something else? In Memphis, one family has proven this not to be the case. First cousins, Chris Canale Jr. and Alex Canale, reopened their family business after it had been closed down.
Photo from Old Dominick
In 1859, a sixteen-year-old Italian immigrant named Domenico Canale landed in New Orleans and made his way up to Memphis, Tennessee. He had family that had left Italy for Memphis fifteen years earlier. His plan was to join them and work in the family’s wholesale grocery business, and he did just that for seven years. During that time, he worked for his Uncle, Abraham Vaccaro, running a fruit cart on the streets. However, in 1866, Domenico branched out and opened his own wholesale food company and branded it as D. Canale & Co. He acquired space and ran his business out of a warehouse at 8 Madison St. One of the many products that he offered was his own label of whiskey, Old Dominick. Over the coming years Domenico decided to take this even further, and in 1880 he introduced the world to the first Dominick Toddy. This concoction consisted of his own whiskey blended with underlying hints of various fruits.
Fun Fact: The label for the Dominick Toddy introduced the same rooster that is now an integral part of the Old Dominick brand.
Photo from Old Dominick
Domenico Canale died in Memphis in 1919, just 3 days before prohibition was ratified. During prohibition, his son, John Dominick Canale, focused the business on food operations and D. Canale & Co. became one of the largest grocery distributors in the region. When prohibition was repealed in 1933, the business owned the largest refrigerated warehouse in the area, making them a prime candidate for beer distribution. Anheuser-Busch selected D. Canale & Co. to be their exclusive distributor in the Memphis area.
Fast forwarding to 1965, John D. Canale Jr took the reins and became the third generation to run the company. In 1982, he strategically decided to separate the food operations from the beverage operations, and he formed D. Canale Food Services, Inc. and D. Canale Beverages, Inc. The two businesses ran separately for several years. The family decided to sell the food services side of the business in 1999. Eleven years later in 2010, the family sold the beverage side of the business.
It was only a few short years later in 2013 that cousins, Chris and Alex, ran across an unopened bottle of Old Dominick Toddy and decided to reopen the family distillery. They began planning right away. Without a recipe, they were forced to re-engineer the drink from the bottle they had. They also knew they wanted to open up in the heart of downtown just like their great great grandfather had 147 years earlier, and they did. In 2016, Chris and Alex opened shop, and Old Dominick Distillery became the first to legally distill whiskey in Memphis since prohibition.
Photo from Old Dominick
What a story! As it proudly boasts on its website, this family business survived two world wars, multiple Yellow Fever epidemics and the Great Depression. And it saw five generations of the Canale family.
Today, 139 years after Domenico Canale created it, Memphians can still find their Dominick Toddy on Front Street.