J.P. Graziano Grocery Co., Inc.In an essay I posted recently focussing on the
Masi's Italian Superior Bakery on Western Avenue in the Tri-Taylor district of the city, I discuss to some degree the demise of the Chicago's old Italian neighbourhoods. As noted there, many of the Italian residents of those neighbourhoods moved out toward the western and northwestern fringe of the city, along Harlem Avenue from around Grand Avenue and on north, or else to the western and northwestern suburbs. It is therefore not surprising that that general and fairly large area boasts a considerable number of fine Italian groceries, bakeries and delicatessens, that is,
salumerie, of which there is something of a reasonable concentration around Harlem Avenue on the stretch from around Diversey northward to Belmont and a bit beyond.
For those of us who live in the city and not especially near to that area, this stretch of Harlem Avenue's 'Corso Italia' seems to have been placed with maximum inconvenience in mind, as it stands roughly halfway between the Kennedy and Eisenhower Expressways and inevitably entails a fairly long drive or else an even longer and multi-staged journey via public transportation. Of course, such a trip can be made as part of a weekend outing, as it were, and that seems especially worth doing now and again if one has specific items on the grocery list, such as the house-made pork products at Riviera or otherwise impossible to find greens such as
cime di cicoria at Caputo's. But for those of us who cook and eat Italian food habitually or at least on a very regular basis, the passage to the great Northwest renders the stores of Harlem Avenue and beyond impractical for basic shopping.
Luckily, in the inner part of the city, especially in the remnants of the old Italian neighbourhoods, a few excellent
salumerie such as Bari Foods on Grand Avenue and Conte di Savoia on Taylor Street still exist, which in addition to offering Italian delicatessen services also sell a nice range of Italian grocery items. Also offering various fine Italian packaged goods and fresh items (i.e.,
salume cheeses) are such upscale stores –– and typically then with especially high prices –– as L'Appetito (locations on Michigan and Huron) and the Whole Food and Treasure Island grocery chains. Indeed, for those of us who live in the city and more toward the Lake or the Southside, good to excellent Italian food products are available at a number of places, but unfortunately at relatively higher retail prices then one encounters on the northwest-side's 'Corso Italia' –– that is, unless one shops at one of the best kept secrets of Chicago's Italian community,
J.P. Graziano Grocery Co., Inc. on Randolph Street.
*****
The Grazianos' grocery business dates back approximately to the same year the Italian Superior Bakery opened on Western Avenue, about 1933, but was part of the Italian community of Grand Avenue; the original location was at 1376 Grand near Noble. The business was founded by Jim Graziano, who immigrated to the States in 1905 from Bagheria, a town on the northern coast of Sicily just a short way to the east of Palermo. The first Jim Graziano left the business to his sons, Fred and Paul, and now Fred's son and grandson, both named Jim, are keeping the business alive and well.
J.P. Graziano Grocery Co. has for some time been first and foremost a wholesaler and importer specialising in Italian foods and as such is well known in local food industry circles. But what is not so well known is that the store is also open to the general public. Given the location of the business, on Randolph Street amidst so many other large-scale food wholesalers and distributors, casual walk-in traffic is probably not common and one could easily drive past the store without noticing the signs that beckon the home cook to enter.
Now, while the general public is welcome, the basic nature of the business as a wholesaler has some noteworthy implications for the non-commercial buyer. For the most part –– though the Grazianos are in the process of changing this –– items to be sold by weight such as olives and cheese and large sausages and baccalà, are sold in rounded off and large quantities; when I started going to Graziano's, a pound was generally the smallest basic quantity for such items (though, as mentioned above, they are now happy to sell at least some if not all such items by the half pound and are more generally looking to better serve the individual customer). For packaged items, be they cans of tomatoes or olive oil or bags of pasta or small, individually wrapped sausages, obviously no such limitation exists and one can simply buy the quantity of packages desired.
Now for some people, the limitation of needing to buy, say, a pound of
parmigiano reggiano or even half a pound may seem daunting, but of course there comes with limitation a great advantage, namely, much lower prices than one encounters in any of the Italian specialty shops or upscale groceries in the city and prices also significantly lower than one encounters in the high-volume retail stores of the northwest. Of essential importance in this regard, however, is the fact that the lower prices at Graziano's are not special sale prices or attempts to move older or inferior merchandise: these prices reflect the basic wholesale nature of the Grazianos' business and the quality of all the items I've purchased there is as good and typically better than I find in retail shops.
Here is just a short list of some of the items I've purchased at Graziano's that I've really loved, both for quality and price (typically a few dollars lower than elsewhere per pound):
• imported provolone, extra sharp
•
'ncanestratu, a sharp sheep's milk grating cheese from Sicily
•
pecorino romano•
parmigiano•
baccalà• oil cured olives
• small cacciatore sausages
• Divella brand pasta ($1 per bag)
In the following pictures, one can see many of these items as well as many others. Herebelow is the main counter with massive chunks of
'ncanestratu and the really delicious extra sharp provolone:
More cheeses to be seen through the window of the cooler, including some table pecorinos, Argentine
grana,
ricotta salata,
mascarpone and more:
The shelves of the west wall of the store hold many common tinned and bottled goods, such as
capanata, roasted peppers and Nutella, but also some less common ones, such as large cans of
scungillë. The plastic barrels in the foreground and to the right contain various bulk dry goods, including a wide variety of dried legumes (split peas, various kinds of beans, chick peas, lentils) and dried spices and herbs:
In the shelves of the east wall are more canned goods, as well as a nice assortment of shapes of Divella and Granoro pasta. On the bottom shelves there are tinned fish of various kinds, including cans of salted anchovies. In the two boxes with paper inside reside beautiful slabs of our beloved
baccalà, with or without bones:
One of the pleasures of shopping at Graziano's is talking to Jim Sr. and Jim Jr., be it about the products themselves or about recipes in which to use them:
As mentioned above, this stretch of Randolph doesn't have the trendy look of a place where you might find a gourmet boutique, but what you find at Graziano's is excellent Italian food items at great prices.
If you like Italian food and don't shop here at least once in a while, you're a
cucuzzë.
Antonius
J.P. Graziano Grocery Co., Inc.Wholesalers, Importers, Distributors of Domestic Food Products
901-905 Randolph Street
Chicago, Illinois 60607
312-666-4587
312-666-4604
Monday-friday: 7:30 - 3:30
Saturday: 8:00 - 12:00
Parking available for customers in the loading zone in front of the building.
Typos corrected and minor stylistic improvements made; post-site-move character problems fixed.
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