Donald and his brother, the late Michael Romano, ran Romano Brothers Beverage Co., and played a key role in introducing E&J Gallo wines to the Chicago market.
“Looking back on the Gallo-Romano relationship, it’s almost a time capsule of a bygone era in the liquor business,” Michael Binstein, of Binny’s Beverage Depot, told the Chicago Tribune. “It was all about living rooms and not boardrooms. Business back then was done on a handshake.
“It kind of makes you nostalgic for the handshake, because those bonds, those agreements, were solid.”
Romano was 88 when he died of natural causes March 18. The company was sold in 2002, when it was selling 3 million cases of Gallo product in Chicagoland.
“In all my years, I’ve never met a business leader with the drive and passion that Buddy possessed,” Don Quigley, who was sales manager for Romano Brothers, told the Tribune. “He was in constant motion, nonstop energy. Nobody could keep up with Buddy.”
Quigley said Romano had a strong competitive nature, no doubt developed in the years he played football for Fenwick and later for Notre Dame.
“He became relentless as a competitor and as somebody who wanted to win, but wanted to win in the right way,” Quigley said.
For more details on the Romano-Gallo relationship, read the Chicago Tribune’s excellent obituary here.