Regardless of your experience or pre-conceived notions about the sweet, sticky liqueur that is amaretto, Anthony Scalabrino aims to change your mind.
Scalabrino, a Navy veteran, has parlayed his Italian grandmother’s homemade amaretto recipe into Oak City Amaretto, which is produced in Milwaukee by Central Standard using that recipe.
“I feel like it could – and is going to – have a renaissance,” he says. “Anywhere you are going to use simple syrup in a cocktail, almond extract or vanilla extract in baking, so pound cake, cheesecake, biscotti, chocolate chip cookies. Or in your Old Fashioned, your Tom Collins.
Anthony Scalabrino is all-in on amaretto.
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“I think there’s still a stigma that it’s a niche thing, but I’ve found a lot of success giving people recipe suggestions. When I do samplings, I don’t know if it’s the grandma story or being a veteran, but I know our stuff’s really damn good. So the more I can get what they call sips on lips, I’m selling out.”
Oak City Amaretto, distributed by Badger Liquor, is making big inroads and has been added to the shelves at places like Sendik’s, Groppi’s, Woodman’s, Festival Foods and other grocery stores; Otto’s, Discount, Ray’s, Siegel’s and Total Wine, among other liquor stores; and at bars and restaurants like Lucky Joe’s, Esterev, Milwaukee Steakhouse, Amilinda, Hilton Garden Inn and more.
Scalabrino says he grew up with his paternal Sicilian-American grandmother Giacoma (aka Jenny) Scalbrino’s homemade amaretto, which had just four basic ingredients: alcohol, almond extract, sugar and what Scalabrino calls, with a chuckle, “secret love.”
The ingredients are all natural and he says he’s only changed one thing about his nonna’s recipe.
“She used table sugar,” he confides. “I use raw sugar, so it gives a little bit more molasses, brown sugar taste.”
Though Scalabrino’s father didn’t drink much, he did continue the tradition of making and drinking his mother’s liqueur, and in college, Anthony became the third generation to do it.
“Friends and everybody wanted the recipe,” he says. “Never gave it out.”
It took a while, however, for it to be more than something he made at home and gifted to friends and family.
Joining the Navy, Scalabrino learned to fly at the Naval Academy, Scalabrino became an instructor.
“I was apart from my wife Miranda for three and a half years in Hawaii while she was in Florida getting her doctorate,” he recalls. “It was challenging. And then I kind of, pun intended, submarined my career – I hunted submarines – to go teach ROTC at NC State where she was getting her postdoc at UNC, and then Duke. So we lived in the same place for the first time in like four years.”
An Old Fashioned with Oak City Amaretto.
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While in Raleigh, they took a tour of a local distillery called Raleigh Rum Co. and he decided to pitch them on making his amaretto.
They gave him some space, for a fee and a percentage of sales, and Scalabrino did all the work himself on their premises, under their license, for five years.
When Miranda landed a faculty position at the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Scalabrinos relocated, but Oak City (named for Raleigh’s moniker) remained in North Carolina, for a time with a different producer and then again at Raleigh Rum, but with them producing it.
Now, however, production has moved to Milwaukee, where it has been produced by Central Standard Craft Distilling since early in 2025.
The bottled liqueur is still available in North Carolina and now in Wisconsin, too.
It’s sweet and silky smooth and made from all natural ingredients. Unlike more well-known brands, Oak City does not use artificial colors or apricots, only real bitter almond extract, raw sugar, neutral grain spirit and that “secret love.”
While some people still sip amaretto neat – like my friend Gino Fazzari at Calderone Club – Scalabrino is spreading the gospel of it as an ingredient in baking and as a mixer in cocktails. To that end, he’s shared these two recipes with us:
Cherry Old Fashioned
2 oz. bourbon
.5 oz Oak City Amaretto
.25 oz cherry syrup
3 dashes bitters
Orange peel, for garnish … if you’re fancy
French 75
1 oz gin
.5 oz Oak City Amaretto
3-4 oz sparkling wine/champagne (dry)
.5 oz fresh lemon juice
At the moment, alongside his part-time tech consulting gig, Scalabrino is working hard to get the word out about the low-ABV Oak City (it’s only 54 proof) via on-site tastings at retail and bars and restaurants and he’s been finding success.
“I think the market is there for it,” he says. “We’re selling out of Woodman’s, selling out of Sendik’s. We’re getting repeat orders from these larger grocers. And we see repeat customers.”
He’s meeting with the likes of Kwik Trip and hopes to get into Costco soon, too.
“My vision now,” he says with a smile, “is Kirkland Amaretto!”
Dining and Cooking