Domenico Ghirardelli is born in Rapallo, Italy, to an exotic foods importer and his wife. At a young age, Domenico is introduced to the chocolate and confectionary trade when he apprentices with a local candy maker. Ghirardelli sails to America and opens a general store in Stockton, California, offering supplies and confections to miners. Ghirardelli opens a second store on the corner of Broadway and Battery in San Francisco, which becomes his first establishment in the city. At Kearny and Washington streets in San Francisco, Ghirardelli opens a confectionary shop, Ghirardely & Girard, which eventually becomes the modern-day Ghirardelli Chocolate Company.
