JOHNSTOWN — There are any number of markets in Fulton County where people can buy seafood, but John Schiavo’s place is different.

“Being a mom and pop business, we’ll always have one ingredient they lack. We do it for a living, not by hiring the minimum-wage worker,” he said.

Schiavo’s Port, located at the intersection of state Routes 30A and 67 in the city of Johnstown, has been operating year-round for more than five years now. Schiavo said business is good, and his place has continued to evolve over the past five years.

“My livelihood depends on what goes out the door here. Price Chopper can get away with a lot more mistakes than I can, so I’ve got to stay on my toes,” Schiavo said.

“I literally go to the coast every week for my fish. I go down to Connecticut. Everything is hand-picked and fresh off the boat.”

He started the place as a modest drive-in fish fry and market. He added an enclosed dining area and has expanded the menu over the years to include submarine and steak sandwiches, wraps and, most recently, Italian pasta entrees.

“It’s a fish market and it’s a New England fish fry with an Italian twist,” he said.

“We do a store, a restaurant and a delivery service all wrapped up into one. I think that’s what makes us unique,” he added. “A restaurant-slash-store that delivers.”

Schiavo also ran Schiavo’s Pizza and Seafood in Amsterdam but closed it last year to concentrate on the business in Johnstown.

That’s when he decided to add the Italian dishes to the menu at Schiavo’s Port. “I had a lot of great recipes, a lot of good-old grandma recipes, too,” he said. “I really expanded the menu.”

Family affair

Schiavo grew up in Schenectady, and food service runs in the family.

He said he learned to cook by helping his grandmother, Mary, in the kitchen.

He laughed as he recalled when a customer once asked where he went to school. The answer was “Nana University.”

Schiavo’s grandfather, Louis, opened a small delicatessen on Van Vranken Avenue in Schenectady many years ago. Schiavo said his grandfather started with a couple of salamis in the deli case and grew the business into a bustling superette.

A color photo of Schiavo’s Superette, which closed about 15 years ago, hangs in a prominent place on the wall in dining area near the spot where people place their orders.

And his father, Steve, ran the Village Butcher on Union Street in Schenectady.

The family had a summer place on Caroga Lake, so Schiavo was familiar with the area and liked it so much he decided to settle here.

He’s lived in Johnstown the past two years and for several more before that in Caroga Lake.

Schiavo said he didn’t initially intend to go into business for himself but his circumstances, and plans, changed.

“I tried college out. I didn’t like it. I grew up in the food business and was comfortable with it. I wanted to open up my own business and I saw a need for a fish store in the Fulton County area,” he said.

The entrepreneurial gamble has paid off in steady growth, he said, for which he credits his customers, whose loyalty he credits to product and service quality.

Seaside landscape

Schiavo has certainly gone to town with the nautical decor, making the ocean seem much closer than the 150 or so miles it actually is. The walls are adorned with ships’ wheels, wooden pilings, life preservers, anchors, nets, maps and artwork, an antique blue stone lobster trap from Nova Scotia and trap-marker buoys.

There was no master decoration plan.

“I just plastered the walls with everything I could find and I just put things where I could fit things,” he said with a laugh.

Schiavo has developed a following of loyal customers, including Andy Duffek of Johnstown.

“I love it. I eat there three to four times a week for lunch,” said Duffek, who works across the street at The Tire Center.

“I’ve eaten a lot of different seafood, and this is the best, for sure,” he said.

Duffek said he usually calls in his order and by the time he walks across the street it’s ready.

“The service is really good. Real good service. And you can’t beat the food,” he said.

Schiavo said he plans to continue to improve the business. He recently installed new windows in the dining area, which he said will allow people driving by to see inside and maybe stop in.

Schiavo also said that a lot of customers have asked him to carry beer and wine and so he plans to apply for a license to sell beer and wine, but not hard liquor, this year.