Parker: Warehouse for lease in Highfield has connection to Calgary's business history
The rendering of a freestanding warehouse in the Highfield Industrial area shows a very smart refurbished building that is now available for lease, with many things going for it. But it ought not to hide its fascinating history as the former home to one of Calgary's most exciting stories in the city's business history.
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The building at 3615 – 9th Street S.E. was the plant that produced the El Molino products — its famous El Molino Tortilla Chips becoming top-selling chips in Canada.
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The 23,500-square-foot building still belongs to Mike Ciccaglione, a proud Calgarian who came to this city in 1962 and began work as a waiter with Hy's, to perfect his English and learn about the Canadian hospitality industry. Born and raised in Italy, he moved to Switzerland to study business administration along with restaurant and hotel management. Six years later he decided on a permanent move to Calgary and by 1967 was confident enough to make his first investment here in the purchase of the Prairie Dog Inn on 17th Avenue S.W. — a popular restaurant remembered for its specialty Mexican food.
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In the 1960s, Ciccaglione had to purchase products from the U.S. He made a deal to become the exclusive Canadian distributor for Denver-based El Molino and then after making another business agreement with El Molino, he decided to start making his own chips. He opened his first plant here to supply his two Prairie Dog Inns, 15 Mexican Village food kiosks in shopping malls throughout the province, and other food service outlets that wanted the product.
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The success of Ciccaglione's El Molino manufacturing venture not only saved importing around 320,000 pounds of chips every week from Denver, but also enabled him to boost his sales across the country. At its peak, the building on 9th Street employed 70 people and operated 24 hours a day, six and sometimes seven days a week.
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He continued to buy new equipment and was able to make 1,500 pounds of chips per hour and they were very good — no additives or preservatives and blanched in canola oil rather than deep fried. They were good enough, in fact, to not only be named best in Canada but to win an award in Las Vegas over American and Mexican competitors.
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Soon, Ciccaglione was expanding distribution and product lines from nachos and salsa to a full range of authentic Mexican and Italian dishes, which included offerings such as burritos, tortillas, enchiladas and lasagna, cannelloni, and fettuccine.
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