108: Fabrizia Spirits - When Life Gives You Lemons, Make a Spritz

Courtney Sandora: Foreign. Hey, everyone.

Courtney Sandora: Welcome to E Drink Social. My name is Courtney Sandora, and throughout this podcast series, you'll be hearing from myself and the Go Social team. Go Social is a PR and social media marketing firm with offices in Denver, Colorado and Louisville, Kentucky. We'll be discussing social media trends and influencer best practices in the food and beverage social media landscape. If you have any questions and want to reach out, you can find us on, um, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram hegosocial. Or you can visit our website@goforth be social.com.

Courtney Sandora: all right, we are joined today with Phil, I hope I say it right, Mastroianni. And, um, he is the co founder of Fabrizia Spirits, who he owns it with his family. And we're super excited to hear about your journey, your Italian roots and, and what you're seeing out there in the industry today.

Phil Mastroianni: Awesome cordial. I'm happy to be here. And you nailed it. You said it better than I think most people in my family know how to say Mastroiani. So you did it. Thank you for welcoming. And I'm happy to be here.

Courtney Sandora: Great. Well, I noticed I did a little LinkedIn stalking, and I noticed that you actually started in the. The business consulting world. Is that right?

Phil Mastroianni: Um, yeah. Well, so I was a accountant at a, uh, public accounting company, kpmg. I worked there for four years, and the last two of which I started moonlighting making, uh, Lee Mancello, and started the company while I was working the last couple years.

Courtney Sandora: So what made you take the leap into spirits?

Phil Mastroianni: Well, my great aunt Rosina brought me down to Collaborate Italy while I was in college on a semester abroad, and I met a ton of family that lived in the old country, um, and that really awakened my passion for Italy as well as my heritage there, and led to a handful of further trips in my young 20s, uh, to get to know my extended family better. And one of them, I enjoyed a limoncello, uh, with my cousin Angelina. Got home from that trip in 2007 and decided to start making homemade limoncello. Um, and then there was one night, um, that my Uncle Joe was over. Um, he had some, ah, at the holidays, he looked up at me and said, phil, this is the best limoncello I've ever had. This is what you should be doing. Um, and I said to him, uncle Joe, that's crazy. I don't think that would work. And he goes, no, no, you're onto something. Um, even though all I was doing is making homemade limoncello, like a lot of Italian Americans, Do. And, um, that. But that night, I could remember it like yesterday, even though it was, like, 17 years ago. Um, thought about it all night long. Wouldn't that be amazing? And started thinking of all the different, maybe challenges we'd have and working my way through them. And somehow here I am, all these years later, making for Bertzi Leoncello.

Courtney Sandora: That's awesome. I have to admit to you, I've always called it lemon cello, and that is not correct, is it?

Phil Mastroianni: Yeah, but you know what? I'm not pretentious about it. And if a account or a customer calls it Limoncello, I'll run with it. Um, what matters more to me is how it's made. No, no fake coloring, no artificial flavoring. Um, we use lemons now from Sicily, so we can call it what you need to call it. And, um, as I'm traveling around, I'll sort of play it both ways, too, and correct people sort of, like, subtly, um, with the word limoncello. Um, but, you know, it's having a moment right now. I know a lot of the listeners are into mixology and cocktails. And, you know, when I started this, uh, back in 2008, Limoncello was definitely much more of a traditional item that was served cold at the end of a meal, usually at Italian restaurants. Um, but thanks to the aperol spritz and this whole spritz movement, limoncello spritzes are now becoming a thing. And you're able to find it, really, at any type of establishment. So it's been really fun to see.

Courtney Sandora: So I was going to ask you. I mean, I know probably like most people, after my trip to Italy, I came home with the bottle, and I was just wondering, is there an education component that you run into, or do you feel like most everybody knows what it is?

Phil Mastroianni: Well, so I think that. No, no. There's still an educational component, however, and I think that none of the suppliers that are in the Limoncello sphere, the biggest one is Caravella, is owned by Sazerac. So they obviously definitely have the means, have they wanted to do a lot of advertising for it, but you just don't see a ton of. Of advertising. And really, the other brands, as you go down the ladder, are owned by really what you would consider in, you know, the liquor industry, like, small companies, for the most part, um, with myself in that same, for all perspective, being a tiny company. And really no one has taken the leap of, like, advertising enough to really mass change the view of Lee Mancello from that perspective. However, on the positive, it's happening organically because limoncello spritz as a cocktail organically in Italy has become a thing really only the last three or four years. I mean, I said at the beginning of this interview, I've been going to Italy since I was in college. Um, and I've been going there quite regularly ever since. Now we buy our lemons from Sicily, we buy pistachios from a different family in Sicily for our pistachio liqueur. Um, so I'm really lucky that I get to go there at least once a year. And I would say up until three years ago, I had never seen a Limoncello spritz. They're still harder to find if you go outside the major cities, but if you're in Rome, if you're in Milan, there's limoncello spritzes everywhere. And then tourists are bringing that home, really internationally. It's becoming a thing in Europe and then has came to America. So just by people like yourself visiting, uh, you know, vacationing in Italy, are trying Limoncello through the Lee Marcello sprints, not just after dinner. And that's why it's becoming more relevant here. Uh, that's how the education piece is happening.

Courtney Sandora: Definitely. Yeah. And I agree. I see it all the time now in PR hits and mentioned on social, for sure. Do you find that there's a seasonality or do you, do people still embrace it during the holidays?

Phil Mastroianni: Yeah, you know, you'll get a little hit for limoncello spritzes and limoncello in general at the holidays. But the high season, without a question, is whatever part of the country you know, we sell. We're a northeast brand is where we're founded, but we're now distributed down in Florida, out in California and, uh, wherever the people sort of deem it. Now it's spring, you're always going to see an uptick in limoncello and citrus based cocktails. And that runs until that season ends. Um, so obviously in the Northeast, the window's a little tighter than other places. I, uh, would say as part of this sort of, um, blossoming of the Limoncello spritz cocktail, I am seeing it not fall off as much as it does it used to in the off season.

Courtney Sandora: Yeah, definitely. I think spritzes are much more becoming more creative and more year round, for sure. Um, so you mentioned, you know, another big trend is obviously clean labels, great ingredients. You know, people are demanding that more. And you mentioned, um, sourcing your lemons in Italy. So is there, is there Are there good lemons, bad lemons? What, what makes them different from where you source?

Phil Mastroianni: So if we get into the weeds of like the, you know, this lemon versus that lemon, you're just going to get a lot of people with conflicting views. Like, so if you were to talk to people from Amalfi, they're going to say their lemons are better than the Sorrento lemon that's only, you know, 10 miles away. And then the Calabrians, the Sicilians, they all are going to say, oh, we have more oils or we have less pith or more pith. And you know, like, good luck fighting that, you know, uh, slugging that one out. The most important thing and something that everyone would agree with is that not using treated lemons, um, so in Italian that would be sensa tratamento, without them being treated is with, which also means not being waxed. Just sort of say in our, you know, English language, you know, would just be like, is it a waxed lemon or not? That is of paramount importance because the zest is the only thing used in making limoncello. And if there is a wax on the lemon, whether it's a beeswax or a petroleum based wax, that will end up becoming a significant part of the limoncello. So most of the Italian fruit is made without waxes, which is really important. California, for the most part, does wax their fruit. And more and more consistently, those waxes are becoming petroleum based waxes, not beeswaxes. And that is, uh, that's probably like the biggest thing regarding clean label. Um, the one last part of that though is, you know, there is a lot of obscurity about what goes into a product. And, you know, there's. The TTB obviously regulates, you know, the, the labels. And you don't have to disclose all the items that necessarily go in, including flavorings, um, other than saying natural flavors. And you'll even see a lot of Italian brands that are adding natural flavors to their limoncello, where it's not just the lemons being produced. So there's a, there's a few nuances to it.

Courtney Sandora: Interesting saying. And you also, I believe you repurpose some of the lemons for baking and food. Is that, uh, correct?

Phil Mastroianni: Yeah, so. So what we do is. So. So we went to Italy in 2017. We met with four different lemon growers. Sorrento, Amalfi, Calabria. There's this one town called Rocca Imperiale. It's like this amazing town right on the, uh, border of, um, Calabria and Puglia. And then down in Sicily, we ended up going with the Sicilians. They had the best pricing, they had the most transparency. Um, in this year we actually even started using IGP Sicilian lemons. So we even have a higher level of transparency. We buy about a million lemons a year. But when you're making Leon shell, you only use the zest. So what we started to do is in is. But we started doing this like six, six or seven years ago. We juice all of those lemons in house, freeze it in a walk in freezer we have, and then use that as the base to our entire line of ready to drink cocktails. Our Fabrizio Italian lemonade or Fabrizio Italian Margarita. And most recently we came out with our own line of spritzes where the limoncello spritz has a little bit of lemon juice in it.

Courtney Sandora: Interesting. So, uh, is there like an industrial grade zester? I just have my little handheld one at home.

Phil Mastroianni: Oh, yeah, yeah. No, when we've actually nicknamed it Giuseppe after our uncle Joe who sort of pressed me into, hey, why aren't you making limoncellos a living? Um, I don't know if I should thank him or hold it against him all these years later. Um, but I'm just kidding. I love what I do. Um, uh, and, um, so along the way of this journey, about a year before we went to Italy to search for Italian fruit, we bought a lemon peeling machine which we've nicknamed Giuseppe from a company based out of Naples. Um, imported that machine in 2016. Um, and it can peel, get ready for this. 5, 000 lemons in, um, like, I think like three hours. If it has a human being that can keep up with it. Um, which we have not found. The best we have is this guy named Robbie who's amazing, used to play for the New York Yankees. He is our, the fastest Fabrizia person using Giuseppe. Um, and you can actually go on our website, Fabrizzispirits.com and I'm pretty much positive there's a link to. You can actually watch it in motion. Um, there. And by the way, there's a link to a live webcam overlooking the grove where our lemons come from. Like, yeah, yeah, like, and you know, it costs $250 a month to have it. I think it's up to like 100,000 views. There's a QR code on every bottle and on every can. And like, that's how crazy we are about Lee Munchello. Like, we should not exist. We're making limoncello in Salem, New Hampshire, the Granite State. But through a, A, uh, persistence of having the finest quality ingredients imported from Sicily and then adhering to the same time tested techniques that the Italians have used for generations, we're able to recreate limoncellos that tastes like what you would expect from Italy without adding the fake coloring, the preservatives, the artificial flavorings. Um, and so that's why we exist. But we want our customers to be able to see where it comes from, to have that transparency that is just not being offered by some of these national brands that if you turn around the back label says yellow number five, which is one of, by the way of the few ingredients that the ttb, which does not require a full listing of ingredients, says, well, you know what? For yellow number five, we're going to have to put it on there because it's just that bad for some people. Some people have an allergic reaction to it. Um, anyway, sorry, I'm like definitely up on a high horse right now. Please forgive me for how excited I am about this.

Courtney Sandora: That's so cool. Um, so I know you have a variety of products. Can you kind of walk us through, like, what did you start with? What is the newest? How did that portfolio grow?

Phil Mastroianni: Yeah, no, thanks. So, yeah, for the first four or five years, all we did was make Lee Mancello. And listen, like, we have, um, gone through every growing pain possible, from financial growing pains to production growing pains to scaling growing pains. I mean, you name it. Um, those waxes I talked about when they started using more petroleum ones, well, all our limoncello went brown. I thought we were going to go out of business. And that was what led us to go to Italy to like source unwaxed lemons. Um, but in about five years into the journey, we're hanging in there. We're, you know, trying to get more distributors. Like, we're really grateful. Now we work with a bunch of amazing distributors, work with Southern Glazers and most parts of the country, and just other great distributors in specific markets where they're not. Um, but, you know, we didn't have that going for us. And I was walking through the Little Italy of, um, the Nor of the North End, which is the Boston historic district of where all the Italians are. Which if you're from Boston, where you. Please forgive me, I'm doing this in case someone's listening. Not in Massachusetts. No one calls it, um, the Little Italy in, in Boston, you only call it the North End. You know where that is. So I was walking through the North End and one of my customers came out. It was like, Phil, he's like, I'm buying your limoncello, but I have to buy this blood orange from this other brand. Why are you making it? So then I called my brother. I'm like, hey, Nick, I think we need to start making blood orange, and maybe that will solve all of our financial problems. Um, and we basically made a blood orange. And then one thing led to the next with the cellos. I think we eventually came up with a crema lemon cello. Um, and then the biggest breakthrough for the cellos, outside of our limoncello just being great and it growing on its own every year, um, was we came out with the pistachio liqueur. It's really not a cello, but it's part of the lineup. And we did that in 2021 because some of our customers were getting out of stocks on a brand that had pistachio. And that is our fastest growing one. That one's been so exciting making, um, that one. So really, no big business plan here. We're just sort of winging it. We're listening to customers. I mean, I think it's always so important to listen to your customers, what they have to say. Um, and that's really how everything evolved.

Courtney Sandora: And they're ready. You also have ready to drink, right?

Phil Mastroianni: Yeah, well, the same thing. I mean, that was 2000 and, uh, what, 17. Um, we were, you know, going on that was, what, nine years ago. Uh, still weren't in some key markets. Like, we still weren't in Florida, we still weren't in New York. And we're like, how can we make some more money to keep the lights on meanwhile? You know, at that time, I sort of felt like we were plateauing a little bit. And at home, you know, I was in my. Probably at this point, I was probably in my mid-30s. My brother was probably just turning 30. And we would all be hanging out and my parents still the pool in the backyard. And my brother's friends would come over and, um, my sister would make these things called generitas. My sister's name, Jenna. And to make a generita, you would mix Fabrizio limoncello with tequila and then lemonade. I mean, she was using, like, crystal light. And, you know, lo and behold, at the end of one of those, like, Saturday hangouts with our friends, two or three bottles of limoncello would be gone because of all the generitas that were being made, and a light bulb went off. I'm like, nick, like, we're trying to find More ways to like use Limoncello. Because this was before this whole Lee Mancello Spritz renaissance. And more people knew about limoncello. I'm like, why don't we use all these lemons we're throwing away? At that time it was like 100,000 lemons a year and we'll start making them. Well, we decided to call the generitas the Italian Margarita. And that really kicked us into making ready to drinks. It was very popular. We had it in jugs at the time. They've actually gone away and we're more into the canned version. But the big thing from a business perspective, once we started making the fabric Italian Margarita, not only do we have people reaching out like, hey, we wanted to get these. I mean, this was even before High Noon was a thing. It really, from a psychological standpoint for all of our customers, whether it was a retailer or a distributor, we'd always been the Limoncello guys. And now we successfully had transitioned into making a ready to drink cocktail. And it really made us feel like we could do other things. Um, that's sort of how it worked inside my brain, um, stopped us from holding back going forward.

Courtney Sandora: And now look, I mean, it's the kind of one big bright spot in spirits. So you guys are ahead of the party.

Phil Mastroianni: Yeah, we did. Yeah. You know, and look, over the years, like we, we had a really fast start in the Northeast. A bunch of people with a bunch of money got into the category. We've held our own. And right now our new lehmancello Spritz, um, innovation, which we have a blueberry as well as a blood orange to make up his eight pack. I mean it's, it's been getting picked up by some chains, it's doing well and some of some well known national retailers. So, um, the key to the game, to digress just a little bit on this, you know, the ready to drink is it seems it has to be all about innovation. Like if you're not constantly coming out with something new, seems like whether you're High Noon or your surfside or your sun cruiser, you're truly, I mean, you're only going to hold the crown for so long if you're not willing to innovate with new flavors and new bases for, you know, whether it's tequila or, you know, things that just keep changing. It's tea, it's this that, um, so that's what we're trying to do this year with our, with our Spritz Innovation.

Courtney Sandora: That's awesome. So moving a little Just into the marketing realm. You mentioned you're up against some pretty big players in the space. What's been most successful for you in terms of getting the word out about your brand?

Phil Mastroianni: I mean the number one way is what I love doing. I'm flying out to Chicago tomorrow to do it. I drive around and I go to customers, I figure out who, who uses Lee Moncello. We have our ways and um, which by the way are pretty straightforward. It's like called Google and asking around, um, and you know, just going door to door and telling people why Fabrizia is a better option. It's going to be all natural, it's going to taste great and it's going to save you money. Uh, which is essentially our entire um, our entire concept. And we, I mean honestly we very rarely lose customers. I mean like I cold called Italy Pavilion at Epcot with that exact message and I had to do it for like six months but they finally let me in and they, they're our biggest customer and they're going on three full years. You can have a Fabrizio flight with our limoncello, our Crema limoncello and our pistachio at um, Epcot. Um, if you're going around the world at the uh, any, any of the concepts there actually. Um, and so really that is the way we get it. We don't have the marketing budget to advertise in any of the traditional ways. Uh, but we have a product that we really stand behind. We have uh, five full time sales representatives across the country and they sort of do what I do and um, that's what's worked for us. Um, I mean I wish we could do more but that's what we've done. If you're willing to put in the time and the product's good, that strategy works. If you don't want to put in the time and the product's not good enough, that strategy um, unfortunately doesn't work.

Courtney Sandora: I think that's so important because I've worked with some people who they're like oh we got this distributor so we're good. And I'm like oh absolutely not. They're not going to be selling it the same way that you would be. So I think that's just so.

Phil Mastroianni: Absolutely, yeah.

Courtney Sandora: Uh, well I did see you all were on social media so you are using social, right?

Phil Mastroianni: Oh absolutely, yeah. And you know, um, so we do have someone in our marketing team that they do that and you know we all try to get content. What I like to get the most of What I try to get. And on our. On our sales team, we get. Everyone has to get one piece of content each week and send it to our marketing person that we call Fabrizia in action. Like, this is Fabrizia being served as a cocktail at a. At a. You know, on the. On premise, at a bar or restaurant. Um, really, uh, that's my favorite way. You know, if it's at a liquor store, can we get something that's a little interactive? Maybe like a really innovative display? Those are a little harder to do. But we really try to get reels where people are. Make a bartender is making a cocktail, um, at the restaurant, tag them so people. So, like, what's in it for the consumer? Right. Like, we want the person watching that to be like, hey, that's a really cool limoncello cocktail or pistachio cocktail. A Dubai chocolate martini, um, cocktail made with Fabrizio. I want to go try to do that. That's what we strive to do through our social media.

Courtney Sandora: That's great. So, um, what is on the horizon for you? You mentioned you're going to Chicago, but in general, you're going to continue to release new products or what's the end goal?

Phil Mastroianni: Oh, yeah, look, absolutely. We're like, like, you know, we may or may not have a melon cello up our sleeves for later this year. We're just sort of fine tuning it. We're really getting behind this whole. The whole Lehmancello spritz. Ready to drink and ready to serve. We have bottled versions of it that are ready to serve. We have canned versions of it. Um, as I talked about. Um, and so we're going to continue to come up with things, but we really always do it with things that are intentional for the Fabrizio brand, which means that it has to be real ingredients. It has to have a tie in to Sicily or lemons or citrus. Um, or the pistachio, because they also come from Sicily. Um, but they'd be crazy not to come out with something new when it strikes us. Um, but sort of keeping with the tempo of how things go, we're going to wait for that right idea to come when it's. When it gets here.

Courtney Sandora: Yeah. And I have to say this sounds way more exciting than accounting, so I think he made the right move. Or I will.

Phil Mastroianni: Thank you. No, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. After. I can admit, finally, after I haven't lost my hair. I should have by now. Um, but after a lot of trials and tribulations, um, we definitely have gotten to a place that, like, I'm really proud of, um, my brother and I are proud of. We're thankful for our, everyone on our team. And you know, it does feel like now it's exciting to see, you know, where can we go that we were able to stick around this long and actually turn Fabrizi into a brand. Um, and so, yes, now I can enjoy it. Not that running a business doesn't mean we don't have our plenty our share of headaches. Um, but I agree. I'm finally happy I made this decision not, um, looking back.

Courtney Sandora: That's awesome. Well, I really appreciate you joining us today. Where can people find more or can they order your product online too?

Phil Mastroianni: Yeah, hey, we, you totally can go to Fabrizispirits.com you can buy it online. But I'd way rather prefer check out our where to find locator. It ties right to real distributor, uh, uh, placements and you know, support like a local independent store in your market if it's available there. Um, so. And it's also cheaper too. Right? So, um, you can get both places at our website for ritzxpirits.com you can enter your zip code or you could, uh, click a button and it brings you to a third party website that does ship to most places in the country.

Courtney Sandora: Awesome. Uh, well, I really appreciate you sharing your story with us today and thanks for the time.

Phil Mastroianni: All right, Courtney, thank you so much for having me. I had a great time. Thanks for having me.

Courtney Sandora: All right, everybody, that wraps up today's episode of Eat, Drink Social. Thanks for listening. If you have a story to share or know somebody that does, feel free to reach out to us. Sa.