AR Teal's Produce

The inspiration for this company dates all the way back to Chris’ childhood. His grandfather was an Electrician by trade, but also a hobby farmer, who grew many fruits and vegetables on his property. In a lot of ways, Chris’ grandfather inspired the start of this business. Alfred Robert, A.R. , had a beautiful little piece of property right on the border of College Place and Walla Walla, you might call it “Country living in the City.” Chris remembers fondly his many visits to his grandpa’s farm, seeing all the plants, and seeing his grandpa always hard at work.

Chris got his start in the food industry as a cook at Whitehouse Crawford where he quickly rose to the position of Sous-Chef. During his time at the Whitehouse Crawford, Chris remembers having an amazing produce vendor. He experienced some of the best customer service and highest quality produce from this company. Unfortunately, said company went out of business. Since then, Chris made it his goal to one day bring that same level of quality and service to restaurants in The Valley.

After his time at Whitehouse Crawford came to an end, Chris moved on to be the Chef at Public House 124, where he would work for the next nine years. Chris never forgot his goal of starting his own business and bringing quality produce and service to Walla Walla, but as a young Dad his focus had to be 100% set on providing for his family. 

During the year 2017, Chris pitched his idea for a produce company to his brother-in-law. Thanks to his belief in the company and his willingness to invest, Chris was able to finally start working on starting his business. 2018 rolled around and Chris decided to grow some crops to sell. This was the very beginning of A.R. Teal’s Wholesale Operation. With the help of some family, Chris started his small scale row crops and sold to just a few restaurants - Public House, where he was still the Chef, Whitehouse Crawford, Saffron, Wingman, and the Walla Walla Bread Co. To this day, these original clients (except Whitehouse Crawford, who went out of business) still remain loyal to Chris and A.R. Teal’s Produce. In 2019, Chris made some modifications to the shop his grandfather built many years ago, it was from there that he would run his expanding business. Interest in his business started to grow among acquaintances in the food industry, but Chris, still needing to keep a stable income for his family, continued doing both his produce business and working as a chef at Public House 124.

Then came 2020 and the infamous COVID-19 Pandemic. Chris recalls that Sweet Basil Pizzeria placed their very first order with A.R. Teal’s Produce and the next day the Governor shut everyone down. Suddenly all restaurants were closed and Chris’ business, which was finally gaining some momentum, hit a stand still. Chris found himself sitting on lots of fresh, high quality produce, but had no restaurants to buy it! Remembering his grandpa’s work ethic, Chris found a way to keep his business going. Since Public House was also shut down, Chris was able to solely focus on A.R. Teal’s. He decided to try and offer home deliveries. Everyone was stuck at home, and he had lots of food that needed to be sold. He posted an ad on Facebook and the very next day had 40 orders. This was the start of A.R. Teal’s retail operation. Chris continued offering home delivery and would sometimes deliver to 140+ households per week. While he put in a lot of work all on his own, his dad, Spike, helped pack orders and deliver. Chris’ wife, Tiffany, would also help by writing invoices. At the beginning, they did all their invoices by hand and would sometimes spend eight hours a day just writing invoices. As restaurants started opening back up, Chris continued offering home deliveries and also got back to the wholesale part of his business. Soon enough A.R. Teal’s grew to the point where Chris was able to leave Public House 124 and focus completely on running his business.

The dream of running his own produce distribution company and providing exceptional service to Walla Walla’s Restaurants was finally a reality! Running his business from the property that was once his grandpa’s farm, allows Chris to stay true to those roots and grow as much of his own product as possible. When his own crops aren’t available, Chris is contacting local and regional farms to find the best product available. Of course each day poses new challenges when it comes to running a business, but Chris always pushes on, never forgetting his original goal - to provide exceptional service and quality ingredients to The Valley. A.R. Teal’s continues to grow, with over 40 local businesses using his services. Chris hired his first employee in the summer of 2022 as business started to really take off. Now he has three employees helping with farming, operations, and delivering. With as far as he’s come, Chris still attributes his inspiration to his grandpa, Alfred Robert and continues to work with incomparable passion and work ethic to provide Walla Walla with his unique services.