Strolling a grocery snack aisle in 1961 in Miami, candymaker Vincent Grimaldi started brainstorming for new ideas to take back to his job at a nearby French confectionery.
Then he spotted a bag of potato chips.
“So he goes back and he says, ‘Well, I’m going to try something. I’m going to try doing some potato chips in the chocolate.’ And everybody goes, ‘Oh no, no way. You’re crazy. No way,’ " said his son, Vinnie Grimaldi.
“They ran the chips, and they were supposed to save some for his boss. One person tried it and said, ‘Oh my God! These are so good’ — and everyone had to try it. And before you knew it, they were gone,” he said.
Nicknamed Melbourne’s “Candy Man,” Vincent Grimaldi died Saturday of a heart attack at age 87. He was a 10th-generation Italian confectioner and longtime downtown merchant credited with inventing and popularizing chocolate-covered potato chips.
He sold his namesake business in 1999, retiring at age 67.
Today, Grimaldi Candy Co. is one of the largest specialty chocolate manufacturers in the southeastern United States, staffing a production plant-retail store on U.S. 1 in Rockledge and a retail store at The Avenue Viera.
"My heart and prayers go out to the Grimaldi family for the passing of Vincent. We have always believed in carrying on the Grimaldi tradition, both in the recipes and the history," said Jim Frazier, who bought the business in 2014 as its fourth owner.
"We have national accounts now. We ship all over the United States. We've signed a number of different contracts across the U.S., from coast to coast," he said.
In 2015, Frazier struck a deal with Publix to start selling bags of chocolate-covered potato chips on store shelves. During his previous chocolate-company career, he said he had never heard of the unusual snack until he and his wife moved to the Space Coast nine years ago.
"We actually have 97 different products we produce here at Grimaldi now. By far, the milk-chocolate-covered potato chips are our No. 1 seller," Frazier said.
"We sell more milk-chocolate potato chips than probably 10-to-1 of anything else," he said.
Vincent Grimaldi emigrated from Italy to Miami in 1959 and became chief candymaker at François Jacquemoux in Miami. In 1970, he and his wife, Anella, moved to Brevard County and launched Grimaldi Candies inside a small plaza storefront on beachside Eau Gallie Boulevard.
They soon outgrew the space and moved in 1972 into a former Dictaphone office on Strawbridge Avenue, across the street from Melbourne City Hall. For many years, the couple — and their young children — would rise before dawn, making hand-dipped, handcrafted candies.
“My family has been making candy for centuries. They even supplied the royal family in the old days," Grimaldi said during a 1973 TODAY interview.
"My great-great-great grandfather won first prize in Italy in 1812 for his candy," he said.
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Caroline Grimaldi, his daughter, said chocolate-covered potato chips didn't catch on with the public during the 1970s. Rather, the family shop chiefly supplied tropical-flavored treats that were included in citrus baskets sold by Victory Groves, Harvey’s Groves, Crisafulli Groves and other Space Coast growers.
Favorites included coconut patties, fruit candies, pecan clouds, pralines and “orange bark,” an orange-colored chocolate with crystalized orange pieces.
Chocolate-covered potato chips started becoming popular locally during the 1980s, Vinnie Grimaldi said. He and his wife, LuAnn, opened VinnieLu’s Beachside Chocolates in 2004 in Indialantic.
Grimaldi Candies shipped sweets to the White House for President George H.W. Bush, who acquired a taste for the shop's Chips 'N Chocolate at Hilton Melbourne Rialto Place during a 1988 campaign stop. The store wall displayed an autographed photograph and personal note from the president and First Lady Barbara Bush.
Mayor Kathy Meehan printed a copy of Grimaldi's obituary Wednesday morning in her office at Meehan's Office & Art Products, one block from the old chocolate factory.
"Oh, he was a wonderful man. Anytime they had to have something offloaded off their truck, he would use our forklift. So (my husband) Dennis would ride down there and help them out — and then we'd get this big, huge box of chocolates. Which was wonderful," she said.
Meehan recalled that she used to buy chocolate-covered potato chips for her children's teachers while they were in school.
Anella Grimaldi died in 2013 at age 90. During his retirement years, Vincent Grimaldi enjoyed growing vegetables in his Indialantic backyard, cooking his own bread and pasta, and traveling to Italy to visit relatives.
Viewing is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Davis-Seawinds Funeral Home, 560 Montreal Ave., Melbourne. A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, 3050 N. Highway A1A, Indialantic.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1. To subscribe: https://ift.tt/2GpIgJW
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