Guercio & Sons
Guercio & Sons is run by five brothers—Sam, Tom, John, Louis and Charles—the sons of the market’s first owners, Vincent and Nancy Guercio, who moved to Buffalo with their children from Cefalu, Sicily in 1956. In 1961, Vincent and Nancy bought what was then the Grant Street Market, and they ran the retail store, selling imported oils, cheeses, meats and other Italian goods. At that time, the Grant Street District was largely Italian, and in the absence of large supermarkets, Guercio’s was the grocery of choice for families in the area. But the emergence of big markets, and in the face of Buffalo’s demographic and population changes, Guercio’s, too, found that if had to reinvent itself.
So began their expansion into the wholesale market. For many years now Guercio’s has been the produce and provision’s wholesaler of choice for some of the finer restaurants in the area: Left Bank, Mother’s, Hutch’s, The Buffalo Chophouse and Bacchus, to name just a few near the Elmwood strip. This relationship between Guercio’s and Buffalo’s growing culinary scene gave Sam and his brothers the incentive to buy the adjacent property to their retail store and develop a 10,000 square foot warehouse to maintain their commitment to serving local area restaurants and the city of Buffalo.
Sam’s commitment to Buffalo can also be seen on the shelves in the front of the store. Luigi’s bread, Anchor Bar sauce, and items from the region sit alongside a variety of imported goods. The olive oil section would satisfy any recipe imaginable. Fresh imported and domestic cheeses, pastas, sauces, and herbs are only a few of the staples of Guercio’s. They also carry international and domestic foods to meet the needs of their diverse neighborhood.
At the back of the store, aproned men and women spend the day serving steady line of customers with fresh-cut cheeses, mortadella, soprasetta, salami, ham, custom made deli platters. And for lunch, try one of their freshly made overstuffed deli sandwiches. , the most expensive of which is only $3.25. So when you pack the picnic basket for Shakespeare in Delaware Park, stop by. The store might seem small by today’s standards, but the variety and quality rival anything you’ll find elsewhere. And what you most certainly won’t find anywhere else is that rare blend of service, quality and warmth that define gems like Guercio’s.
Open Monday through Saturday 7am-6pm
25 Grant Street (near Lafayette)
716.882.7935
Excerpt from an article by Kevin Costa in last summer's issue of BR.