Domenico’s Legacy

Story by Sean Smith

Domenico Spadaro began his apprenticeship as a mechanic at twelve years old. Initially, his father wanted his son to be a cabinet maker. However, after spending only one day in a woodworking factory, he decided that he’d become a mechanic. The very next day, he strolled into the only garage in town and asked to be made an apprentice.

He went on to open his own shop in his father’s barn in 1936 at the tender age of sixteen. At the time, the only vehicles seen on the rugged roads of pre-war Sicily were motor bikes and the occasional Fiat. If you were wealthy, the car to have was a Lancia or an Alfa Romeo. These affluent landowners came to learn of Domenico’s talents and hired him to come and repair their autos at their estates. One interesting client owned an Alfa Romeo 8C that was occasionally used as an ambulance to ferry rich patients to hospital. Domenico worked hard at mastering how components of an engine worked with one another to make an engine sing. The war came and he served in the Italian army, returning to formally open his own garage on the “small” main street of Roccalumera, Sicily.

In 1948, Domenico met the girl of his dreams, Tindara — unfortunately, her family’s plan was to migrate to America. They were engaged; for five years, they wrote letters waiting for visa papers. In 1953, Tindara returned home and married Domenico. But he would have to wait another year before he followed his new wife to America.

Domenico left his homeland to chase the American dream. He landed a position at International Motors in White Plains, NY. There, his boss tested him many times with new foreign marques that he had never seen or worked on. With each new challenge, Domenico used his knowledge and “feel” for the engine to the satisfaction of each of the happy owners. There wasn’t an engine that he could not dissect, study and repair.

In 1961, Domenico found the perfect spot to open “Dominick European Cars;” he so wanted to assimilate that he made sure that the name reflected his American translation.

A few years later, his family included two sons and a daughter. Sons Francesco (Frank) and Santo were to understand how to work on cars, but he did not want them to follow him in his greasy pursuits. This was not to be their life. Weekends, holidays— whenever school was not in session, they could pursue a hobby by learning at the foot of their father, so they could care for their own machines. The shop was Domenico’s American dream, but it was not meant to be the American dream of his two sons. They were going to go to school and secure positions where they would wear pressed shirts, with nice suits and ties and not get their hands and fingernails dirty.

They could have fancy cars, and understand how to work on them, but it would be for fun.

Frank, while studying Mechanical Engineering at college, was always running errands for the shop or helping a stranded customer. So Dominick’s continued to be a big part of his life. After graduation, his father’s garage was his first job. He has never worked anywhere else but Dominick’s.

Santo studied Finance at Pace University… After graduation he worked as an assistant comptroller in an advertising agency for ten years. It was interesting work, but just barely. So, just like his father, he decided that this line of work was not for him and began wiggling himself into Dominick’s. Domenico was angered by this; but after time, lots of time – actually years – he began to see the passion and bond that the brothers had. He started to accept what was to be and discard his vision of seeing his sons in some tall skyscraper, in corner offices. Now the focus was to be the legacy that would drive the business forward.

Domenico was tough and he didn’t give his sons any slack. It was an atmosphere of learning, respect for clients and for the daily drivers of the time. During the early years, Domenico was also a Lancia dealer. The late 60’s through the 80’s brought more and more customers… advertising in the old Yellow Pages, of course, but his strongest marketing tool was word of mouth. Clients became friends. Friends became family.

This continued into the ’90s and early 2000s. Domenico’s passion was so strong in 1996 he rallied back from a stroke (where his family was told he might never walk or dress himself again) and got the best therapy possible: working in his shop, rebuilding transmissions. He continued to work alongside his family in the shop until a few days before his death in 2009 at the age of 89.

Venera had been an Associate Director in the Investment Banking division of Bear Stearns. She came in 2007, at a time when an extra hand was badly needed to run the shop. Once in, seeing that her father seemed to bless this new addition, she stayed on to become part of the legacy. Venera says, “He wanted us to find our own paths in life—and yet we were all drawn to his.”

Domenico was all business. In the early years before Frank and Santo were part of the business, if you came to his shop, you were on the clock. He began a conversation with every new client with “Tell me what you need, then go!” Domenico was the parts man, the clean-up man, the paperwork-at-the-end-of-the-day man… and he was the mechanic… he famously once reduced a female customer to tears with his refusal to fix her rusty Mercedes. She came back the next day with a fruit cake. She understood, it was his way of telling her he would not take advantage of her by trying to repair a car that was too far gone. He was a good, just, and very gruff man.

The Dominick’s of today is still all business, but it is a kinder, gentler Dominick’s.
A lot more time is budgeted for client support and hand-holding.

The Italians are not the only cars allowed into the garage at 148 Ferris Avenue in White Plains, NY. Porsches and Jaguars have been nurtured there as well, along with Peugeots, Citroens and Rovers. At other shops, the proprietor might shut off the lights and lock the doors if some of the cars that arrive at Frank and Santo’s doorstep appeared. Not so with the brothers; these cars interest them and they want to make them work for their clients/friends. They’re the veterinarians of the car world—they take care of all species. Frank feels if he had to work on the same type of car day in and day out it would drive him out of his mind. They love the variety and the challenges it brings them.

You won’t find a laptop sitting in a surgically sterile environment ready to be plugged in to diagnose an ailing car—what you find at Dominick’s is a very organic garage with a truly knowledgeable crew, drawing from years of experience to make your cherished machine run smooth. They understand how these things work!

They’re fully aware that every type of car they work on has idiosyncrasies specific to the marque, but they also know they have personalities that make them truly unique. This is what draws the brothers and their crew to them. The love the individuality of the cars they care for, compared to the modern cookie cutter rides of today.

Working on cars like this, you don’t just call up the local parts shop to place an order.
There are no phone conversations like. “Hi I need a front spindle for a ’56 Lancia, I can have it in a half hour? Great!” That doesn’t happen. But in the Catacombs below the shop, there’s treasure! At first glance it may look like a post-apocalyptic island of misfit toys, but in reality it’s Aladdin’s cave. Among the oil, rust and automotive effluvia, there always seems to be that certain something that will save a classic car from extinction. It may look like hoarding, but the disease is not terminal. It has purpose.

The “Dominick European Car” community has grown out of a shared love of unique cars.
People constantly stop by just to say hello or use the shop as a meeting point to start a mini-rally with other car folk. The shop is a destination for the true believers in classic autos.

Many would not have taken the leap of faith in exotic car ownership if it weren’t for the fratelli
Spadaro. Most garages don’t prompt the idea: “Hey! Think I feel like visiting my mechanic!”

Roll up the doors on the garage at Dominick’s, and it’s a time capsule of the golden age of sports cars. You look back at a time when master craftsmen took pride in their work and treated each car with the same respect, regardless if the owner was a struggling enthusiast or a major car collector.

Francesco, Santo and Venera take what they learned from their father, add to it their own passion, and create and continue the legacy that is Dominick’s.

I’m sure Domenico is looking down on them with pride – and is being very good about not telling them how he would do something.

The Catacombs