It's still kind of like this.Photo: courtesy J.P. Graziano Grocery Co.
One of our favorite places is the Italian grocer and sandwich shop J.P. Graziano Grocery Co. at 901 W. Randolph, and the more the neighborhood gets filled up with fancy restaurants, the more we like this old (established 1937) importer and wholesale deli for being its old school self. But we just got word from fourth-generation owner Jim Graziano that it has made the tiniest concession to modernity.
A couple of years ago, Jim added sub sandwiches to the offerings as a way to draw in more customers to try the fine meats and cheeses they sell. It must have worked; as of next Monday they're shifting their hours from the wholesale-oriented 7:30 to 3:30 Monday through Friday to a retail-oriented 9:00 to 5:00. (Saturday's 9:00 to 4:00 hours stay the same.) As Graziano puts it, "My goal is to add more time to the end of the day, since the 3:30 current closing time is really a hold over from when we were heavy into wholesale. I am trying to just be more convenient for retail shoppers." If you want to know more about why you want to know J.P. Graziano, check out this old but very evocative LTHForum thread or this post at Serious Eats Chicago.
