Eric Dominijanni is a highly educated renaissance man who survived the likes of Fallujah, beat Bobby Flay and created a blend of Scotch whiskey, despite not being a big drinker much of his life. The Miami resident hopes to hit 10,000 cases in sales this year of his Fior Scotch brand. It has won double gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and New York World Spirits Competition, along with a 93 rating at The New York International Spirits Competition.
There’s another whole interesting backstory, though, before we get to his Fior Scotch brand.
Dominijanni was born to an Italian father and black mother and said he was a big nerd who liked cooking shows growing up in Queens. “When my friends were reading comic books, I was reading “The Iliad,” I was reading ‘The Odyssey.” … Hercules was my Superman; Achilles was my Batman when I was a kid because my mom had a classical education.”
His mom was a dance instructor, so he took ballet and tap dancing, but in his neighborhood doing that was a good way to get beaten up. Instead, he got into martial arts, which actually shares some techniques with dance. “It was my reason to be,” he says.
He was also captain of his high school track team and ran in college as well, capturing some school records along the way. “My buddies best described me as a nerd who can catch you and beat you up,” he says.
He became interested in the military just before college graduation and visited a Navy recruiter and talked about being a medic as an eventual pathway to medical school, but realized he didn’t like the idea of sitting around a hospital.
“I was like, no, I actually really do want to get dirty and have a gun and all that other great stuff,” he recalls.
As he walked out, another recruiter’s voice boomed out, “Do you think you have what it takes to be a Marine?” Dominijanni says he responded, “‘Do you know who I am? I’ve been training in kung fu since I was seven years old. I could beat you up right now.’ He completely read me as an alpha male and suckered me. So, I joined the Marine Corps.”
He was with the Corps on the push from Kuwait to Baghdad and was stationed in Camp Fallujah, which was the Wild West of Iraq, he says. Later, he lived off base in Fallujah and was a liaison, training the police in the region. He also spent a short time in Afghanistan.
While he was with the Marines, he entered some local cooking competitions in North Carolina, he says. “And probably the greatest thing that could ever happen to me in my life was I went up against Bobby Flay on ‘Throwdown with Bobby Flay,’ Season one, Episode five.”
The description for the episode says, “Eric Dominijanni, a.k.a. Captain D., is a proud Marine with a mission — to grill his award-winning steaks as a morale booster to his men. What nobody knows is that Bobby Flay will roll up and challenge him to a steak Throwdown.”
Dominijanni says, “Not only did I go up against a god, I won.”
The Food Network offered shows and Weber Grills wanted Dominijanni as a spokesman.
“But I can’t leave my Marines. I’m about to go to Iraq,” he recalls. “I’ve been training with these guys. Well, what kind of person would I be if I left? So, I wound up saying, ‘OK, I’m going to go to culinary school eventually.'”
After the Corps, he went to Johnson & Wales and wound up studying in Singapore and Thailand, his interest in Asian food inspired by his first girlfriend, who was Chinese. He planned to study in New Mexico, Cyprus and North Africa, but Covid hit and shattered his plans. After a prolonged wait, he decided to go to pursue a doctorate in education at the University of Miami.
But, there was this long-time interest in Scotch. It started when he went to a bar and asked for rum. The bartender told him it was a Scotch bar. “So, I was like, teach me. He said, ‘What?’ I pulled out my credit card, threw it on the table. I was like, ‘Teach me – just don’t rip me off. I don’t know anything about Scotch.’”
The bartender gave an introductory course on different types of Scotch. Dominijanni got the bug and jumped right into it, building his own collection.
For someone who makes his own ice cream, sausage, salami and beer, it was inevitable that he was going to make his own Scotch blend, he says. He did the mixing himself at first and it was a hit at his dinner parties.
He thought about how his uncle Luciano had someone make wine for him and how his former colonel in the Corps did the same with cigars. A bell went off in his head and Dominijanni turned to a longtime friend from college, James Landis, whose family has been in the wine and spirits business for four generations.
Dominijanni gave him a bottle of his favorite homemade blend, but nothing happened but talk for a few months. Then, Dominijanni received three tasting containers. The second one seemed like a duplicate of his blend, made in Scotland.
At first, Dominijanni just got small batches for himself and his friends, who then urged him to start selling it.
Landis said he liked the Scotch enough to buy it himself. They went into business together, but they needed a name.
At first, Domijanni didn’t like Landis’ suggestion of “fior.” The word means flower in Italian—he wasn’t selling wine, after all—but Fior means “true” in Scottish Gaelic, with a connotation of pure and clean that Dominijanni embraced.
Domijanni’s buddies and former Marines in general supported his efforts by buying multiple bottles and cases, many paying a bit extra to get their names engraved.
Fior is available in New York, New Jersey, South Carolina and online, plus through some Scotch of the Month clubs. He expects Fior Scotch to be available in Florida soon at Total Wines & More. An easy way to get it is to go to www.fiorscotch.com where it sells for $41.99. Some of the proceeds benefit veterans’ causes.
Fior Scotch has already sold 5,000 cases, and Domijanni wants to hit 10,000 this year.
Domijanni says drinking Scotch is like an event, akin to relaxing with friends and smoking cigars. There is some truth to the stereotype that it’s enjoyed by older professional men, he says.
He like his Scotch straight up, but says it’s really up to the imbiber as to whether you add some water, put in an ice cube for just a bit to chill it or mix it in a drink. The Fior website has recipes.
What’s his advice to a novice Scotch drinker? “I would say the first thing you need to do is forget that it’s a drink. Remember that it’s an event to get your mind, your body, your soul into drinking a scotch—be surrounded by good friends and family. That’s it.”
