“We do so much business with our tomato, cheese, and wine suppliers that they invite members of our management team to visit their production facilities. It’s great for us and for them – our people return filled with enthusiasm and an added sense of confidence about the quality of the products that they share with staff. These suppliers participate in pizza-making classes and bring in products to sample, which keeps it interesting for customers and employees.”
– Sam Facchini, co-founder, Metro Pizza, Las Vegas, NV

“We whittled down our purveyor list to those who not only give us great quality, but those we like and with whom we enjoy working. Our relationship is mutually beneficial – we get to know them personally, they dine with us; when they donate products to a charity event we give them tickets. In turn, they’re willing to sit down and make changes to pricing, have an open mind about new things I want to try, and generally make our life much easier. We’re all in this together and want to prosper.”
– Brad Farmerie, chef/owner, Public and Double Crown, New York, NY

“Our prime vendor – U.S. Foodservice – does a bunch of things for us. They send us quarterly rebate checks that we use for advertising. Their in-house experts train our servers on product knowledge, how to approach a table, and how to sell. They also print special order forms that have suggestive selling ideas on the top. Servers check them off for each order, and the manager reviews them with servers at the end of each shift.”
– Joe Vicari, owner, Andiamo restaurants, Detroit, MI