Happy Birthday, 21st Amendment!
- Vero Minute
- 9 hours ago
- 2 min read
Three years ago on 13th Avenue, Marine veteran Jeff Palleschi opened 21st Amendment Distillery. Today, it's the ultimate neighborhood sanctuary, a joint with good bourbon, serious soul, and an unwritten rule that local veterans never walk alone. And if Bourbon isn't your thing, they now serve beer and wine.
The Wall of Honor, the cigars shipped to Marines overseas, the "21 Salute" bourbon bankrolling the WWII Tribute on Veterans Memorial Island, Jeff hands over the keys to whatever cause needs them.
But perhaps the bigger story as we mark this milestone is what happened at last year's anniversary.
Palleschi and Tony Young, the retired Army officer and MOAA IRC chapter president, learned about Robert Thompson, a Vietnam veteran and double Purple Heart recipient who had lost his wife and three sons in the same year and ended up living in the woods while dependent on 8 liters of oxygen per day. The state veterans' home turned him away due to their 5-liter max. Veterans Service Officer Michelle Auton and Sheriff's Deputy Scott Burke had gotten him into a hotel short-term, but he needed a real solution.
Jeff turned the anniversary party into a rescue mission. The Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council found housing funds, MOAA and private donors piled on, and the fundraiser did the rest. Then the twist nobody could have written: a nail technician named Elise, mid-manicure, overheard MOAA board member Bethany Fortunato on the phone with Michelle and realized the veteran the whole town was scrambling to save was her own grandfather.
Robert walked into 21st Amendment that night to applause and a salute from more than a hundred guests, flanked by the family he didn't know had found him. "Service before self," Palleschi told the room.
Happy anniversary, 21AD. Cheers to the real deal.
