|
|
About Us
Food of the Vine - Specialty Foods, is a global company that prides itself on offering a wide variety of authentic Italian specialties as well as other unique and distinctive gourmet foods. Premium quality, exceptional taste, and outstanding value are the heart of our business and the keys to our success. In addition, we believe in creating satisfied customers. We strive to exceed our customers’ expectations to earn their loyalty and have them “sing our praises” to others. In all interactions, we will adhere to the highest level of integrity, honesty, and fairness.
Enrico Formella
Back in the early 1900s, Enrico Formella journeyed to America from his native Sicily. Like many others, he dreamed of a better life in America along with his new wife Rosina, whom he married on the ocean voyage to the land of freedom. Enrico and Rosina brought with them the rich traditions and tastes of Old World Sicily. After several successful business ventures, Enrico and Rosina began sharing their special family recipe of Giardiniera (“jar-di-nair-ah”) with their new friends and neighbors. Word soon spread around their south side Chicago neighborhood that E.Formella & Sons giardiniera was indeed special! Almost 100 years and three grandsons later, E. Formella & Sons still proudly use the same Old World recipes in all of our fine products. Since 1909, our family pride is sealed in every jar. Enrico and Rosina would be proud! We invite you to enjoy the taste of E. Formella and Sons family tradition.
Marquis
In 1909 my great grandfather Steven Gordon opened a small grocery store located on the south side of Chicago. With help from his wife, Fannie, the store thrived for many years as a neighborhood favorite.
In the 1930s my great grandparents changed their line of business from grocery to full service food distribution. They did very well, especially with a couple of items: Spanish olives and domestic maraschino cherries. In fact, they did so well with these 2 lines that by the 1940s that’s all they were manufacturing and distributing.
Sometime in the late 1940s my grandfather, Robert Gordon, took the keys to the business and went on a long and glorious drive… by the 1950s he had 3 large factories in the US as well as one in Spain, all focusing on either maraschino cherries or imported olives. By the 1960s my grandfather was selling olives and cherries to every Kraft distributor in the country. In the early 1970s he began having serious heart problems and was in need of open heart surgery. In 1975 he sold everything with the exception of a condo in Spain. By 1976 he was feeling well enough to work again. So he did. He bought a 20,000 square foot warehouse on Chicago’s south side and started all over. This time he was going to import olives as his main staple. Maraschino cherries, a much “stickier” line of work, would become the second best seller for his new company called Bob Gordon & Associates.
With everything set to go by late 1976 all that was needed was a brand name. He needed to come up with a name to put on his labels. He needed a name that would represent the high quality of the foods he was dealing in. He struggled for quite some time with this… until one day he was walking back to his office from picking up some lunch. As he was heading toward the entrance at his work he noticed a nice and shiny new car that was parked on the street in front of his building. He went inside and said something to his receptionist about the beautiful car parked outside. She replied that it was one of his employee’s new Grand Marquis. Thus, the name Marquis was born.
My grandfather never had a son to teach his business to. He had a daughter, my mother, who had her own career that she enjoyed and was quite successful with. In the early 1980s, as kids, my brother and I started working at the factory during summer breaks, holidays, etc. On days I forgot to bag a lunch, I would eat an entire meal of olives: stuffed queens, stuffed manzanillas, pitted queens, sliced green, even chopped olives, heck I didn’t care. They were delicious.
In 1992 my grandfather died. He was in the process of selling the business but had not “sealed the deal”. So, he left the business to my mother, Roberta. She decided to see the sale through but the problem was that the new buyers lowered the offer once she inherited the company. They actually lowered their offer a few times to her. She finally told them to go “eat an olive” and she decided to take over…
My brother started working full time for her when he finished college in 1992. I came on full time when I finished school in 1994. By then we were importing and packing Greek pepperoncini in a vinegar based brine. This immediately replaced olives as my “default” lunch.
Working with my mother and brother every single day was, well, very challenging. The three of us rarely saw eye to eye to eye. Yet, we all shared one common goal: carry on the tradition of excellence my great grandfather had started nearly 100 years ago.
In 2001 my brother left the business to pursue a career that he had always dreamed of. He was a tremendous help to our company and we went through quite a transition once he was gone. As you and I know, olives keep on growing regardless of the number of pickers…
For the next 5 years my mother and I continued growing and nurturing the business. In the early part of 2006 my mother told me that she wanted to retire in the near future. Running the business without her would be like biting into an olive and not tasting any salt.
Before she officially retired, we began holding discussions with one of our favorite customers: E. Formella and Sons, Inc. regarding a possible merger. We had been selling olives to the Formellas longer than my memory can stretch. The Formellas had always used our olives in their 100 year old family recipe for Chicago Style hot and mild giardiniera.
In the fall of 2006 it was official. We had merged with E. Formella and Sons, Inc. My mother retired, I continued with the new company. And this is where I now sit, here with Randy and Kathy Formella. Together we carry on the traditions of excellence set down by our families (Randy and Kathy are 3rd generation family owners). The Marquis label remains a staple in the food service industry.
The only real difference is that now my default lunches are hot giardiniera…
|
