A series of small posted signs with red arrows pointed the way from Lake Avenue in Yonkers through a warren of factories, warehouses and industrial shops to Building C at 201 Saw Mill River Road. There the red arrows end at a mom-and-pop business with a French name and a bottled brand that has begun to make a name for itself among purveyors and connoisseurs of craft spirits.
On a raw and rainy November afternoon, Dorit and David Nahmias had a space heater going in the sparsely furnished office area near the unmarked entrance to their Nahmias & Fils Distillery. After a ribbon-cutting ceremony the previous day that brought Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano and City Council members to their tucked-away location, the married couple was back at the quiet work and long hours of building a business from scratch.
David Nahmias, a former software developer at corporations that include Chase Bank and the Bank of Tokyo, pointed out a tall, onion-domed copper pot of seeming antique vintage that stood above new wooden casks near the entrance to the distillery. The shiny pot or alembic was connected by copper pipe to a tall copper can, the receptacle for a fermented beverage distilled from the heated alembic.
In his native Morocco, Nahmias”™ Jewish grandparents and parents used just such a pot in their small family distillery business. “In Morocco, they make mahia,” David said. “The word mahia means ”˜water of life.”™ The mahia in Morocco, 90 percent of the time it was made by the Jews.” The alcoholic drink is made there from dried figs and dates.
Now mahia bearing the Nahmias & Fils label on 750-milliliter bottles is being made in Yonkers by this Riverdale couple with figs shipped in bulk from California. Directly marketed to New York retailers by Dorit and sold as well through out-of-state distributors, it is stocked by a growing number of liquor stores and restaurants in metropolitan New York and beyond.
In September, Nahmias & Fils placed their 80-proof product with a New England distributor, having already secured a distributor in Connecticut. Dorit said their mahia brand also will launch soon in New Jersey.
Her husband learned the family craft from his mother. Working and raising a family in New York, “I had this thing in my head,” he said. “Distilling was a hobby for me because my parents did it. I used to make small batches at home.” But the IT professional wanted to make his family craft more than a hobby and produce mahia on a larger scale.
“I am a little bit crazy,” David said. “I have a dream that I would like to accomplish.”
For years his pursuit of that dream was deferred. But economic misfortune in the form of unemployment led to the couple”™s decision to take on the risks and debt of a startup distillery.
A banker, Dorit four years ago lost her job at OCBC Bank of Singapore ”“ the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Ltd. ”“ where she managed the bank”™s relationships with financial institutions in Latin America and facilitated trade between Latin America and China and other Asian countries. “I couldn”™t find another job with that kind of niche. There was nothing,” she said.
“David was always talking about opening up a distillery. I said, let”™s try.”
Dorit enrolled in a New York City-sponsored FastTrac program, a four-week boot camp for entrepreneurs. “It really gave me the tools for building a proper business plan,” she said.
She also studied at Cornell University”™s New York State Experimental Station in Geneva in the Finger Lakes wine-producing region. “It brings back a lot of high school chemistry in your head,” she said. Her husband traveled to Kentucky and Chicago for classes in craft distilling.
“At the time we started, the craft distilling industry was just starting to take off,” Dorit said. “But starting a distillery from scratch is no easy undertaking.”
The startup entrepreneurs solicited potential investors in their business but found no interest. “We don”™t have a lot of money,” David said. His wife borrowed from her mother. Working with the New York City Department of Small Business Services in the Bronx, she obtained U.S. Small Business Administration financing through an SBA loan with Chase Bank.
To obtain a federal distilling license, applicants must first have a physical space for their business and show at least a purchase order for their equipment. “That was the first step about 2½ years ago,” Dorit said.
They first looked to lease commercial space in the Bronx. “At Hunts Point it was very difficult to find space that was affordable,” she said. “And at the same time there were lots of distilleries opening up in Brooklyn. We looked at that for about a minute” before deciding to widen their search for more affordable space. “I was getting frustrated.”
Dorit said Yonkers city officials steered them to their 1,800-square-foot warehouse space at 201 Saw Mill River Road. For the owners commuting from Riverdale, “This is a great location,” she said.
Already, however, “We”™re busting out of here,” she said. “Our demand is increasing. We are getting squashed here.”
The centerpiece of their operation is a $100,000, 1,000-liter copper pot still purchased from Germany. Its four copper plates allow for greater distillation. It is capable of producing 5,000 to 6,000 bottles of mahia in a single distilling, David said.
The distillers also bought a mash reaction tank, in which flour is mixed with hot water and agitated to convert starch to sugar before the mash is pumped into a fermentation tank.
“We make it 100 percent from figs,” David said. About 5 pounds of figs are needed for each bottle of their certified kosher mahia. Though anise is added, there are no sugar additives.
“People have told me it”™s like grappa,” Dorit said. “It”™s very smooth. The amount of anise we put in is minimal,” unlike the mahia made in Morocco.
Nahmias & Fils also have a state distiller”™s license which allows them to produce up to 35,000 gallons a year and a wholesale license “which allows us to self-distribute in New York,” she said. The owners also will apply to the state for a farm distillery license as they prepare to market an apple brandy made with the fruit of New York orchards. They have also produced an 80-proof rye whiskey, Legs Diamond, named after the bootlegging gangster who operated in an earlier American era of craft distilling, Prohibition.
“Once we started producing, we went out and started peddling,” Dorit said. With no money for marketing, Nahmias & Fils began to build a following in the craft industry through social media. In Manhattan and the metropolitan area, “Our marketing was tasting, tasting, tasting,” she said, “standing in liquor stores for three hours every evening.” The distillers also developed a list of mahia cocktail recipes “to get restaurants interested.”
The Tasting Panel magazine gave Nahmias & Fils mahia an outstanding 93-point rating. Their product was awarded a silver medal at the 2012 New York International Sprits Competition Magazine.
“So now we”™re establishing ourselves,” Dorit said. “Slowly, slowly, people started paying attention to us.”
An article that appeared in early November in The New York Times, “Road to Morocco Stops in Yonkers,” has brought more attention and orders to the mom-and-pop distillery.
“That article from The New York Times changed everything,” Dorit said. “We have a very good product but you need people to be aware of it. After the article came out, the phone didn”™t stop ringing.” She directed out-of-state sales to the distillery”™s New York clients that sell online.
The couple”™s investment to date in their startup business? “At least half a million dollars,” Dorit said.
“Honestly, to go into this business, you need at least 1 million,” said her husband.
