A Guide to Restaurant Wholesalers Now Selling Groceries to the Public

With the shutdown of dining rooms across the state, the companies that supply meat, produce, and other wholesale goods to the city’s top restaurants have also experienced dramatic drops in business. The temporary fix: Many are now pivoting to sell their high-end goods directly to locals — meaning fish that once went to Michelin-starred restaurants like Le Bernardin can now be purchased for at-home cooking.

Some companies are only doing pickup, while others have beefed up their online presences and delivery offerings. Many of them work with small local farms, and several have been in business for decades but have never sold directly to consumers until now. The wholesalers’ clients range from luxurious to everyday dining, but whatever the price point, they present an additional way to buy groceries. This list will be updated, so check back for more options — though be warned, as demand goes up, delivery times may as well. And go to this story to learn more about the measures that companies are taking to change business.

Produce and other groceries

Local Porter: This intermediary between suppliers and restaurants is now selling a very interesting range of foodstuffs to the public from those wholesalers in many categories. A quick browse of their website reveals meat boxes, spice collections, pastas and grains, condiments, and dried beans, as well as recipes with links to most of the ingredients for purchase. Delivery comes from wholesalers, so if trying to make one of the recipes, they may arrive on different days.

New York Mutual Trading: Through its subsidiary Mutual Trading Kitchen, this wholesaler of Japanese groceries and kitchenware founded in Japan in 1926 is offering miso, nori, fresh mushrooms, rices, noodles, dumplings, seafood and meat. Now offering home delivery to Manhattan, parts of Queens and Brooklyn, Westchester, and Hudson and Bergen counties. Delays currently being experienced, though some orders can be expedited.

Asian Veggies: An offshoot of the the Long Island City-based wholesaler Fresh Goods Trading, this recently-launched service offers a large selection of Asian produce including snow pea shoots, Shanghai bok choy, vermicelli noodles, and spicy chili crisp, among several other products. Asian Veggies offers next-day delivery in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. There’s a $45 order minimum and a flat $8 delivery fee on each order.

Dine Market: Once serving as an intermediary between wholesalers and restaurants plus other businesses that use food raw materials, Dine Market is now selling directly to the public in the categories of vegetables, fruit, dairy meat, seafood, and groceries. Upon ordering, shipments come directly from the original wholesalers. Minimum orders from each wholesaler apply.

Natoora: This international produce purveyor with an outpost in Bushwick and clients like Per Se is delivering to Manhattan and Brooklyn with a $6 fee. After a major surge in demand however, wait times for the service are currently at just under two weeks.

Farm One: Microgreens, herbs, and edible flowers are all available for contactless pickup or delivery from this indoor vertical farm based in Manhattan that sells to restaurants like Eleven Madison Park and L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon. The company is also launching a weekly home delivery subscription package and the option to buy seedlings for home gardens.

Chef Collective: Though there’s a $100 minimum to ship to Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, this fine foods purveyor is selling a wide range of imported and domestic cheeses, cured meats, eggs, vegetables, and more.

Baldor Food: There’s a $250 minimum, but with that comes a massive selection of groceries that are home delivered the following day.

Norwich Meadows Farm: The well-known produce supplier — clients include Gramercy Tavern, Hearth, and Estela — has started offering home delivery to customers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Riviera Produce: This New Jersey-based produce wholesaler is now offering fruits, vegetables, herbs, and even dry goods to consumers through a platform called Pepper. Order minimum is $75, and it delivers to the tristate area.

Solex Fine Foods: Produce, seafood, meats, and other goods are available at this wholesaler, which has supplied to Eleven Madison Park and all of the Daniel Boulud restaurants. Other luxury goods like caviar and truffles are sold here too, plus a selection of smoked salmon. CEO Marcus Draxler is close friends with Boulud and is donating 20 percent of online sales to out-of-work staffers.

The Chefs Warehouse: This national wholesaler offers meat, produce, pasta, and other grocery goods for delivery in the larger tri-state area, with a $35 fee for orders under $250. For the next six months, 10 percent of profits for online orders will go toward hospitality industry workers impacted by the crisis.

Smallhold: This New York-based mushroom company sells mini-farms to local groceries and restaurants such as Mission Chinese. Individuals can now buy mushrooms for home delivery through this Google form, with a $25 minimum order.

Hudson Valley Harvest: Working with small and medium-sized farms, this distributor offers produce, meat, eggs, dairy, and other grocery items like flour and pasta. The company previously only sold to restaurants such as Buvette and ABC Kitchen but is now doing home delivery in the NYC area and in the Hudson Valley. Minimum order is $150; new customers can fill out a form here.

Southeast Asia Food Group: Those seeking produce, including hard to find items like banana blossoms and celtuce, and other supplies specifically for Asian cuisines — both local and imported — can now receive home delivery from Southeast Asia Food Group, a wholesaler that’s supplied to restaurants such as O Ya for more than 25 years; delivery minimum is $100, plus a $15 fee.

Crown Finish Caves: This cheese affineur deep beneath the streets of Crown Heights finds its business off by about 50 percent since the virus arrived, and is now selling its carefully aged cheeses to the public, by pickup or shipped. Orders over $100 ship free.

Ace Endico: This wholesaler based in the Westchester town of Brewster has been selling its produce, dairy, poultry, meats, cheeses, specialty imports, chemicals, dry goods, and fresh and frozen seafood to the public. Delivery is via its fleet of trucks, with a lead time of one to three days, and a minimum of $200 for free delivery. Currently, the service area includes Westchester, Dutchess, and Putnam counties In New York; Fairfield and Litchfield counties in Connecticut; and Essex, Morris, and Passaic counties in NJ. This area will be extended to New York City in the next week or two.

Seafood specialists

Pierless Fish Corp: Sunset Park wholesaler Pierless Fish, based out of the Brooklyn Wholesale Meat Market, is selling a wide range of fish. There’s a $40 minimum, but it offers next day delivery in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and parts of Queens.

F. Rozzo and Sons: The high-end fish supplier is selling scallops, shrimp, red snapper, tilefish, and other types of seafood out of its retail shop in Chelsea, at 159 9th Avenue, between West 19th and West 20th streets. The selection changes daily. There is no regular online shop, but the supplier is listed on Goldbelly, where customers can find bulk packages of fish available to ship across the U.S.

Aqua Best: This family-run seafood purveyor has been in business since the 1980s, supplying to restaurants such as Le Bernardin and chefs like Bill Telepan, but recently, Aqua Best started a more consumer-focused business at Essex Market, with a sister restaurant called Essex Pearl. Everything from salmon and scallops to caviar and razor clams is available on its website. Delivery is available in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey, as is nationwide shipping.

FultonFishMarket.com: The online supplier for Manhattan’s historic Fulton Fish Market offers tuna, halibut, salmon, and more for home delivery. Orders over $125 ship for free.

Blue Ribbon Fish: This Bronx-based fish wholesaler has been family-run and owned since 1931, and it’s now offering salmon, shrimp, and other seafood through a platform called Pepper. Order minimum is $100, and it delivers to all five boroughs, plus New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester, and parts of Connecticut.

Greenpoint Fish & Lobster: This popular, sustainably-minded Greenpoint seafood restaurant and retailer also supplies to restaurants such as Cervo’s and Eleven Madison Park. It is now delivering raw shrimp, salmon, squid, and more throughout the city.

Yama Seafood: New Jersey-based seafood distributor Yama has worked with area restaurants for more than 40 years, including high-end businesses such as Sushi Noz, Gabriel Kreuther, Le Bernardin, and Atomix. It’s now doing once-a-week home delivery to Hoboken, Jersey City, and Bayonne, with plans to expand to FedEx deliveries for a wider footprint. Minimum order is $50, and orders over $100 will receive free delivery. Bluefin tuna sashimi, sashimi-grade scallops, salmon roe, and more are available.

Hong’s Seafood: This 45-year-old purveyor based in Greenpoint has provided sushi-grade fish to Momofuku Kawi, Odo, and Sugarfish. It furnishes following-day truck delivery to Manhattan, northwest Brooklyn, and parts of northern New Jersey, of a broad range of seafood with an emphasis on fish used in sushi, both wild and farm raised, with sushi rice also for sale. See selection here. Call 917-648-4626.

Val’s Ocean Pacific: Founded in 1982, Val’s is a seafood distributor located in the Hunts Point Market. Categories include shrimp, lobster, squid, octopus, crab, and fish, and truck delivery will be provided in the tri-state area. Visit the website, which advises you to call 718-589-0500, or the Instagram page.

Meat specialists

The J&E General: While butcher shop White Gold is long gone, but its butchers have gotten together to create a meat subscription service. Five weekly boxes available for delivery, priced from $20 to over $100, and poultry and seafood are also possible.

DeBragga: The high-end meat purveyor for restaurants including Cote, Cosme, Momofuku Kawi, and Portale is now offering weekly butcher kits starting at $100 for home delivery in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Place orders by calling 212-924-1311; lines are open from Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Happy Valley Meat Co: Working with top NYC restaurants like Frenchette and Golden Diner, this meat purveyor is now selling to customers throughout the city with contactless two day delivery and a five pound minimum.

Piccinini Brothers: The meat supplier that counts Daniel Boulud, Dan Barber’s Blue Hill, and Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group as clients is now running an online shop with selections of beef, chicken, pork, and lamb available. For orders under $50 a $5 delivery charge applies, and the delivery area includes Manhattan south of 96th Street, Brooklyn, Westchester, and the Hamptons. After a flood of orders, the company is currently advising customers to expect a two-week turnaround time for deliveries.

Fossil Farms: This New Jersey-based wholesaler specializes in supplying game and exotic meats to restaurants including Momofuku, Charlie Bird, Legacy Records, and ABC Kitchen. The retail shop offers a wide range of meat, including bison, elk, boar, and pheasant, for shipping across the country via UPS. They’re in the process of repurposing their fleet of wholesale trucks to make local deliveries.

D’Artagnan: Shop from an extensive selection of meats, foie gras, caviar, mushrooms, and truffles at this legacy gourmet food supplier, available to ship across the U.S. The company is currently running a 20 percent discount on Easter meats and eggs.

Joe Jurgielewicz & Son, Ltd (Tasty Duck): Duck supplier Tasty Duck, based in Pennsylvania, is offering meal kits, whole ducks, and speciality duck cuts for sale on the company’s online retail shop.

Heritage Foods: This nationwide meat supplier focuses on animal welfare and sustainability, and has been sold at restaurants like Union Square Cafe and the Grill. Its steaks, pork, lamb, poultry, and other animal products can be purchased online for delivery, or by calling 718-389-0985.

Mosner Family Brands: This Bronx-based, family-run meat wholesaler has opened in 1957 and has worked with companies like Whole Foods, Fleishers Craft Butchery, Keens, and Peter Luger. Eater readers can receive a 10 percent discount with the code EATER.

Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors: The famed meat supplier responsible for burger blends at restaurants ranging from Shake Shack to Minetta Tavern offers home delivery for dry-aged steaks, burger blends, and other meats through Goldbelly.

Ends Meat: “Whole animal salumeria” Ends Meat had a satellite location at Essex Crossing (Essex Market and the downstairs Market Line, the latter now closed) where you can still arrange a pickup, but most of the action is at the mothership at Industry City. It isn’t doing sandwiches and soups at the moment, but you can pick up individual cuts or meat packages at Industry City, or arrange shipment via Chef Collective.

Master Purveyors: This furnisher of prime, dry aged beef to restaurants and hotels in now delivering by van to private consumers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and some parts of Long island and New Jersey, and by FedEx to other parts of the country. Veal chops, chickens, bacon, and pork chops also available.

Bread specialists

Featherstone Foods: Featherstone is a bread wholesaler that works with bakeries like Amy’s, Grandaisy, and Orwashers to deliver their goods to chefs and grocers throughout the city. The supplier just launched a weekly bread basket subscription that is available for home delivery in Manhattan, some areas of Brooklyn, Westchester, the Hamptons, and Hoboken.

Borough Provisions: The bakers of Brooklyn favorite Bien Cuit and the roasters behind Joe Coffee — who once did large wholesale orders — are now doing home delivery of breads, pastries, coffee, and a small selection of fruit, jams, and other items, such as butter. There’s a $60 minimum and a four-day lead time.

Luxury goods

Regalis: Fancy foods purveyor Regalis is selling truffles, caviar, and more for delivery with orders shipping Monday through Thursday.

Bindi: The high-end Italian dessert wholesaler that sells to restaurant clients like Bar Pitti and L’Express in Manhattan now offers home delivery for customers in NYC and Northern and Central New Jersey. Order online or call 1-800-882-4634 and dial 1 to place orders; lines are open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This story was originally published on April 2, 2020 and has been updated with new information.