Graziano Foodservice was founded in 1986, but the family's roots in Portland produce go back another seventy-five years.
Chris's grandfather, Agostino John Graziano, arrived in Portland from Italy in 1911. He started selling produce house-to-house — the kind of long, cold morning route that built reputations one block at a time. The business passed to his son, Agostino “Joe” Graziano. Then to Chris.
In 1986, Chris was working for a local produce company when he had the opportunity to start delivering to a few restaurant accounts they weren't interested in servicing. He and Laurie bought their first truck — a 1974 GMC 12-foot step-van — and started their own route. Around the same time, Chris met a produce vendor named Mike, an established hand who ran routes between McMinnville and Newport. On Friday evenings Chris would wait for Mike's call, put the order together, and help him load the truck. When Mike retired, he gave Chris and Laurie the route.
The early years were brutal. Load the in-town truck and the coastal truck starting at 6:00 PM. Drive to the coast around midnight. Deliver until 11:00 AM the next morning. Up at 5:30 PM to do it again. Laurie took every call and priced every invoice during the day.
“There are more important things in life than a box of lettuce” is something Chris and Laurie say. They started hiring drivers when family time started disappearing — first one driver, one day a week. That hire was the start of Graziano Foodservice as a real company.
Three generations of the Graziano family have been in Portland produce since 1911. Today, Graziano Foodservice delivers six days a week to restaurants, food carts, hotels, and institutions across Oregon and Southwest Washington. The mission hasn't changed: answer the phone, deliver on time, treat people like family.