Fresh Fork Market Provides Restaurants with Local-Grown Foods

Area fine-dining restaurants are embracing a new service that brings them garden-fresh, locally produced fruits and vegetables without damaging their bottom line. “The onions are so sweet they taste like candy,” enthused Molinari’s server Mindy Clause, explaining a smoked chicken and onion pizzette appetizer special to a customer on a recent evening.

Her boss, Molinari’s owner, Randal Johnson, is one of several area chefs working with Fresh Fork Market, a service aimed at connecting farmers with restaurateurs.

“We order two days before it’s delivered. It’s harvested and delivered within just a few hours,” said Johnson, who taste tests his shipment when it arrives.

Fresh Fork Market, which serves only restaurants, originated last year in a competition between eight Ohio schools at an entrepreneurship consortium.

“We won the challenge and went back to school to fine tune our ideas,” explained Trevor Clatterbuck, who graduated in the spring from Case Western Reserve University with a degree in business management. His classmates and partners in the effort are Bob Gavlak, supplier relations; Matt Suzugyi, operations manager; and Kyle Napierkowsi, bookkeeper.

The men designed a Web site and signed a couple of dozen farms to list their produce. Each farm describes its produce, including details like whether it’s organic, and has the option of adding photos of what they grow. The chefs order directly from the Web site or by phone. Their just-harvested orders are picked up from the farms by Fresh Fork vans and delivered to the restaurants three times a week. Fresh Fork keeps no inventory.

“I am a Fresh Fork fanatic,” said Richy Cunningham, chef at Sara’s Place in Gates Mills. “For a lot of reasons, people these days are much more interested in eating local and supporting the local economy. Our customers are loving it.”

Cunningham said he’s getting green beans, lettuce, eggplants and other items grown within 50 miles of his restaurant and harvested hours before being delivered.

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