Our Vision
A Lifetime in the Making...
When Cindy and Pat met in 2012 through mutual friends, the two hit it off. Right off the bat, they shared a love for good food, great wine, and occasional adventures.
While getting to know each other, Pat told Cindy stories of his time spent in Florence, Italy in the '70s. While studying architecture, he developed a zest for Italian food and spirits. Particularly, he was drawn to amaro and the festive atmosphere in which it's enjoyed. Over the next forty years, Pat made it a point to try every amaro he could find.
During one of their trips to a small town in Italy, they encountered an amaro that eclipsed everything they had ever encountered. Back home in Chicago, they searched for anything close to the digestif delight and came up dry.
Their shared love for the amaro from Puglia, Italy started a journey. They began experimenting and concocted six batches using recipes, herb research and their tuned cooking senses to test different ingredients. The first batches were a bust. Before they dumped them, Cindy and Pat decided on a whim to combine a tablespoon of each of the batches – and it was good! Once they figured out how to replicate that, it became the base for Amaro Cinpatrazzo.
(In the meantime, they tracked down the shop in Puglia and convinced them to make their first shipment to the US!)
After a year of trial and error, they hit upon a combination of 19 ingredients that sparked rave reviews from friends and critics alike. The breakthrough came during an impromptu tasting session with a group of Italian wine makers visiting the Windy City. They savored the concoction and even saluted Cindy and Pat, urging them to expand production. Spurred on by that expert validation, their journey began to take shape.
Now donning the company name Beppe & the Architect, Cindy and Pat launched local production of Amaro Cinpatrazzo. The amaro is a heartfelt culmination of Pat's four decades as an enthusiast and the duo's yearlong adventure into liqueur production.
The amaro’s namesake combines Cindy, Pat, and ‘razzo’ – Italian for arugula. Arugula carries a special meaning in this digestif. Not only is it the major ingredient, it also represents the quality of locally sourced produce.
Beppe & the Architect now share their journey of whimsy through distributors in Illinois, California, Colorado, New York, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
Cindy and Pat fell in love with a local amaro produced in Puglia, Italy, by Trullo Antichi Sapori. The amari in Chicago didn't live up to the memory of the Italian amaro, so the duo set out to create their own. Their creation, Amaro Cinpatrazzo, pays homage to a rich Italian tradition and fuses it with flavors delectable to a tuned palate.
Pat first visited Italy while studying architecture in Florence nearly 40 years ago where he developed a taste and passion for amaro. His creative drive led him from a career in architecure to a passion for liqueur production. Amaro Cinpatrazzo is a culmination of Pat and Cindy's shared love for cooking and entertaining.
Cindy, a daughter to European immigrants, was raised to value heritage and tradition. While she maintains strong roots, Cindy constantly pursues new experiences. Her knack for finding the best in life is present in every carefully curated ingredient of Amaro Cinpatrazzo.
