KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A family tradition is being carried on for new generations -- and it means some sweet tasting success for a "mother and son" team.
The DiCapo’s are no strangers to the food business. John David DiCapo and his mother Anita -- better known as "Sugie" for her love of sweets -- started DiCapo foods eight years ago. However the family's roots go way back in Kansas City restaurant history. Sugie once owned a drive-in restaurant at 27th and Van Brunt.
“And then my dad was a member of the DiCapo, Bond, Berbiglia Italian Gardens family,” John David adds. “So I went to work at the Italian Gardens. I started out as a bus boy and worked my way up to general manager.”
After 25-years, John David left the restaurant in 2000 and he and his mom bought the rights to "Jim's Famous Hot Tamales." They also make Chili Shack chili. It was Sugie's Italian-Jewish heritage that took the company in a whole new direction in 2003 with her homemade Italian cookies. That Christmas she baked them at the plant for family and friends -- but customers wanted them too.
“So she started making cookies down here,” John David says. “And people started coming and and smelling the cookies. And that's how it started.”
DiCapo Foods now makes eight different cookies. They’re mostly all handmade and definitely all hand iced or rolled in powdered sugar. They added a Mandel Bread cookie this past fall, just in time for Hanukkah. It's a tradition Sugie learned by baking with her mother and aunts. A tradition she fears a lot of folks don't have time for any more.
“So they're happy that they're able to come down here to DiCapo foods and get cookies like their mom or their nonnie would make when they were young,” John David explains.
Their trays are the most popular among customers. They are shipped through their
Web site across the country -- But much of their product is sold wholesale.
“We sell a lot to the grocery stores,” John David says. “The Cosentino's and the Ball groups. The casinos... we have a couple of casinos that buy from us.”
Next, John David wants to expand to a larger production facility with room for more retail. In the meantime, he just wants the company to remain true to his and Sugie's roots.
“I mean a lot of guys I know don't even have moms,” he laughs. “And I've got one and she's healthy and feisty and she's a great cook and I love her and I get to see her every day!”
