1895 Naples, Italy – 1991 (Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic) Story has it that Dominic Capone was born just outside of Naples, Italy in 1895. By that time, most of the Capone family had already left Italy for America, but Dominic´s parents were the stubborn kind ones and stayed behind.
By 1914 The Great War begins and Dominic was drafted into the Italian Army with the shy age of 19 and miraculously managed to survive the entire duration of the war, but now with Europe in ruins, there were little opportunities for Dominic to make a decent living.
One day, Dominic received a letter from his cousins in America inviting him to go there now that the family was growing and they needed people who could be trusted to help, but Dominic had heard a couple of times before, which was the “family business in America” and just wasn’t that thrilled to revive some of his violent memories from war.
Dominic knew he had to get out of Italy and had heard that a small Italian community was growing in the former Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, known today as the Dominican Republic. His first thought was: “Hey! this country is named like me” and he felt it as a good fortune sign and quickly made up his mind, jumped on the first ship and said “Arrivederci” to his beloved Naples.
After almost two months of sailing, Dominic arrived to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic but even though Dominic came from a seaside area, the heat and humidity was just too much for him, so he kept going inland across the mountains to the south, arriving into Santiago de Los Caballeros. His first view astonished him, a vast valley that was sun drenched year-round with enough rainfall for any crop, cooler temperatures and a view of green as far as the eye could see.
He purchased some land and then started deciding what to cultivate, but something that caught his attention was that almost every man working on any crop smoked something called Andullo which is part of the Dominican Republic tobacco culture and it is known to give a kick of energy to the men working the fields. So he made up his mind and decided to grow and cultivate tobacco and his vision was to craft fine cigars for people to enjoy after a long day at the fields.
Dominic gave a sample of his cigars to the wealthiest men in Santiago aiming to capture attention, approval and support to expand his business. The result, a Dominican specialty with an Italian good taste. Rapidly these wealthiest men raced to Dominic land to be firsts in partnering up with Dominic, but when they arrived Dominic, his possessions and his crops were gone. Nobody heard anything, nobody knew nothing, It was almost like Dominic never existed. Several theories started to spread, some relating to the Capone family in America, some regarding the war but the only true thing was that Dominic was gone and nobody knew how to replicate his cigars. Soon, it was all forgotten.
In 2017 or a 100 years later, the “LJ Barbados SRL” company was looking for a property, specifically in the tobacco area of Dominican Republic, high in the mountains, overlooking the Cibao valley. The company wanted to open a small B&B that would cater cigar aficionados from around the world. When renovations started, some documents and notebooks where found hidden in between plank boards with the initials D.C. It turned out that the property purchased was Dominic Capone´s state and the notebook contained his blends and formula for the Cigars that were forgotten a 100 years ago.
Needless to say, “LJ Barbados SRL” changed his mission statement from catering cigar aficionados from around the world, to developing the Dominic Capone blends and formula for cigar aficionados from around the world and today we honor and thank Dominic for his masterpiece and start writing a new chapter in his story.
