Jon and Pam Kirkwood sent the following today:
We just received a phone call that Allen Miluso BHS '63 passed away last night (Sept. 30, 2019) as a result of complications from a recent surgery.
Allen was originally from the Bronx, NY...After graduating from Burbank High, he attended L.A. Valley College and graduated from Cal State University Northridge in 1970...
Allen was very active in Burbank High Activities. He played Varsity Football, he belonged to the Lettermen's Club, he was a member of Acapella, Dance Performance, he portrayed Marcellus in the Operetta Music Man, he was in the Senior Play and served on Legislative Council, as well as several committees during his years at BHS...Allen played an active part in his Class Reunions.
Allen and Maxine are the owners of "Napa Nuts"...
Allen was a "Larger than Life" kind of guy and he will be missed by so many of us...
Please keep Allen's Wife (Maxine) and Family in your prayers.
If anyone wants to send a card of condolence:
Maxine Miluso and Family
3371 Linda Mesa Way
Napa, California 94558
Found this great news article from 2007:
Going Nuts in Napa
Local mom-and-pop company has a worldwide reach
By MICHAEL WATERSON
EAGLE EDITOR Dec 27, 2007
Going Nuts in Napa
Napa Nuts owner Allen Miluso packs a gift assortment of dried fruit, nuts and candy. The north Napa company imports exotic products from around the world to sell to chefs and restaurants nationwide.
Here’s a piece of trivia: Where do Brazil nuts come from? No, this isn’t a “Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?” question.
In fact, according to Allen Miluso, most Brazil nuts come from Bolivia or Peru.
Miluso ought to know. His Napa Nuts operation imports nuts and dried fruit from all over the world to supply chefs and restaurants both locally and throughout the country.
In 1990 Miluso and his wife Maxine bought ought Rosenthal’s, a company run from a north Napa barn that mainly supplied eggs, many of which were used in wine making. It’s a little known fact that egg whites are used to fine wine, that is remove solid debris after the fermentation process along with some of the harsher tannins. The process requires several eggs per barrel.
Rosenthal’s also sold a little bit of dried fruit and nuts, mainly as side business. When he took over the business, Rosenthal’s had a catalog of 40 items. Today Napa Nuts sells 300 items, including 43 different types of almonds. Products are sold to customers in 14 states, including New York, Florida and Texas.
Locally the company supplies gourmet eateries like The French Laundry as well as non-three-star-places like Rutherford Grill and all 17 Mary’s Pizza Shacks.
Some of the company’s products are grown in California, places as close as Suisun Valley and Gilroy. But a surprising number come from all parts of the nation and the globe. Napa Nuts brings in cherries from Michigan, blueberries and huckleberries from New York, Maine, and New Hampshire, cashews from Sri Lanka and Vietnam, blanched hazelnuts from Turkey, macadamia nuts from Australia, South Africa and Kenya, dried fruit from the Philippines and pine nuts from China.
Among some of the more exotic products Milusos carry are wasabi wrapped peanuts, hazelnut flour, and cranberry pomice, the remains of the fruit after the juice is squeezed out.
Far from being a little mom-and-pop business struggling to get by, the Milusos’ specialty enterprise has been seeing double-digit growth the past dozen years, a healthy growth for any company. Product goes out at the rate of 12-15 thousand pounds a week.
But what’s most surprising about the growth is the advertising and sales effort behind it.
Maxine handles the financial side of the business. When she took their books to a tax accountant a while back he had a question.
“He wanted to know where I put the advertising expense; the entry for advertising was zero,” Maxine chuckled.
She explained to him that it wasn’t an error, that the company spent nothing on advertising.
So there must be a phalanx of high-powered sales reps crisscrossing the country calling on chefs, restaurants, food producers, etc. Wrong. Napa Nuts doesn’t employ one sales person.
The Milusos rely on the best kind of advertising, word-of-mouth. Part of that grassroots buzz is the Napa brand name.
“People want to duplicate the quality of the Napa lifestyle,” Miluso said.
In today’s corporate restaurant environment, quality and consistency are the key goals.
“Executive chefs determine what goes into recipes,” said Miluso, “they want the same kind of quality required (by restaurants) here in Napa.”
Once the chefs find an ingredient they like, the put the word out where to get it.
For example, the Chinese pine nuts are naturally rich in malic acid which gives them a buttery finish, Miluso said. They are used in pesto sauce and other recipes.
Naturally, many of their products are used in salads.
Napa Nuts also carries 60 confections to help create assortment gift boxes for the Holidays and other occasions. Word of mouth plays a big role there as well. It’s common that the recipient of a Napa Nuts assortment one year will order some to give the following year.
And retail customers pay the same wholesale price as the fancy restaurants. Maxine explained that having two price sheets was just too much bother.
As Allen Miluso explained, he and his wife have found a rich business vein in the food industry. He summed up their special niche in one sentence.
“Our products don’t make the dish, they help make it better.”
Source:
https://napavalleyregister.com/community/eagle/lifestyles/going-nuts-in-napa/article_2172f5ca-c88a-5a87-a115-540731feba9d.html
RIP Al.
