Childhood friends launch gourmet snack board company

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, childhood friends Lauryn Colatuno and Erin Riddick found themselves in the unique position to launch their own business.

Posted 12:30 p.m. Oct 15, 2020 — Updated 12:37 p.m. Oct 15, 2020

Kathy Hanrahan, Out

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RALEIGH, N.C. — When the coronavirus pandemic hit, childhood friends Lauryn Colatuno and Erin Riddick found themselves in the unique position to launch their own business.

"She was my first friend when I moved to North Carolina and so she owns a hair salon in Apex called Peak City Hair. And I own the Raleigh Night Market and both of our businesses were devastated once COVID hit," Colatuno said on this week's Out & About Podcast. "As entrepreneurs, I think we were both really looking for an outlet and we had been talking over the last few years really about just ideas and things that we could possibly partner to do."

While indulging her Pinterest addiction, Colatuno said she found massive snack food boards that people were creating. Reluctant at first, Riddick urged Colatuno to give it a try.

"We started building these boards together and people started buying them," Colatuno said. "It started with a simple Instagram post and then we launched the website and honestly, hasn't really stopped building since that day."

Grazin' Gals launched over the summer with its first themed board for July 4th. "We posted it and it took off," Riddick said. "From there we started doing individual boxes, different sizes, and now we can do pretty much custom anything."

Grazin' Gals offers a variety of boxes and boards including meats, cheeses and sweet treats. It all depends on what the customer wants.

In October they are selling Halloween (featuring lots of candy) and State Fair-themed (pie, candy apples, cotton candy, nuts, kettle corn, chips, etc.) boards.

Boards can be delivered within a 30 mile radius of downtown Raleigh (for an additional fee), and are also available for pickup in Cary and Raleigh.

Grazin' Gals launched a partnership with The Wine Feed last week. Their boards can be pre-orderd and picked up at both Raleigh and Durham Wine Feed locations. Plus you can get the boards delivered with your wine orders.

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