Daniel Ferrelli, is a 100% second generation Italian, originally from Kenosha, WI. Daniel's parents Joseph Ferrelli and Jenny Maccarone were born in Calabria, Italy.
Both families migrated to the U.S. after the War. Jenny's parents passed away early in life, leaving nine children, ages 5-20, to raise each other. The five girls left their native Walla Walla, WA onion farm to be with other family in Kenosha, WI.
Joseph Ferrelli's family lived in the heart of Chicago during the Great Depression, prohibition, and the rise of the mafia. Big Papa had many stories about the struggle of living in Chicago during that difficult time. Just getting by included his family selling Italian Zinfandel jug wine out of the basement his parents Russell & Mary Ferrelli's brownstone.
Joseph & Jenny's courtship began at the 1938 World's Fair in Chicago. The young Ferrelli family moved to Seattle, WA with their sons Russell and Daniel in 1947. They resided on Queen Anne for 30 years. Dan and Russ attended both St. Anne's and Queen Anne High School. Daniel married his high school sweetheart Helen Stylianopoulos in 1967. They had their first daughter Angela in 1971 their second daughter Tina in 1973, and son Tony in 1975.
When the oldest started school in 1977, they decided on Redmond, WA to raise their family. As Daniel moved up the ranks and Western Optical he realized his dream was to work for himself. He and Helen looked at various businesses and decided on Dry Cleaning.
The couple opened Daniel's Cleaners in February of 1983. It quickly grew busy and famous for its quality. The operation at its height had six locations: Issaquah, Madison Park, Coal Creek, Redmond, Queen Anne and Renton. They retired from the business after a fire destroyed the main plant 2004. They began their new life, able to spend more time with their 7 grandchildren: Daniel (4/97), Paul (11/17), Adrienne (5/01), Joseph (10/02), William (8/03), Luke (11/15) and Lola (8/07). Even with Daniel's busy life of running a business and children in sports, he always maintained the yearly tradition of making wine with his grandfather's old wine press.
He did this with various winemaking partners including his father, brother, high school buddies, neighbors, and finally in 1989, with his future son-in-law (and Efestē partner) Kevin Taylor.
Dan and Kevin started a new tradition of bottling and labeling their garage wine in 2001. In 2003, Daniel introduced Kevin to friend and business associate Patrick Smith over dinner. Patrick, a wine connoisseur at heart, heard about Dan and Kevin's hobby and offered to put them in contact with his friends in the Woodinville Wine community. With state of the art wine making equipment, "we could just make a couple of barrels". "Making a couple of barrels" spiraled into Efestē winery.