Germack Pistachio Company

Germack Pistachio Company has roasted in Detroit's Eastern Market since 1924, when it became the first company in America to import and roast pistachio nuts — at a time when the nut was still largely unknown to American shoppers. The company also takes credit for inventing the red-colored pistachio, the dyed shell that later became a supermarket standard before naturally-colored nuts came back into fashion. Four generations of the same family have run the business since, roasting nuts and seeds in small batches with premium canola oil at a factory on Wilkins Street, a few blocks from the Russell Street retail shop and cafe where customers can buy directly off the roaster. Coffee joined the lineup in 2010, applying the same small-batch approach to beans as the company already used for pistachios, cashews, and sunflower seeds. The company has picked up QVC's vendor award eight times in nine years, a recognition earned through a home-shopping channel rather than a food-press write-up, which fits a business that has always sold more through direct relationships than through branding. A century after its first pistachio shipment, Germack still frames itself as a small, family-run roaster working out of the same historic market district where it started.