Mr. Greens Produce (GP) is a food wholesaler based in Miami, Florida that was started in 2003. When the company was purchased, by a former real estate equity manager of Greystone Capital, Peter Politis, in 2011 it had six employees and four vehicles in a 3000 square foot warehouse.
Since Politis has been at the helm of the company it has undergone a rapid expansion through a number of acquisitions. This has included acquiring a 65,000 square foot warehouse in Miami and the purchase of Happy Foods, another food wholesaler, in 2016. Besides acquisitions, part of Green’s’ rapid expansion has been due to fine-tuning it’s produce offerings to include on site produce processing that is made to order. In addition, many dry goods, meats, cheeses and pastries are also in their catalog offering a more diverse choice of products to clients. In the past Mr. Greens has mainly serviced independent restaurants but is starting to provide food items to national restaurant chains.
At present, the company has close to 200 employees, a fleet of over 60 refrigerated vehicles and gross sales upwards of 80 million dollars. Not a bad accomplishment for a time span of six years.
Recently, I was invited as part of a local chefs group to take a field trip to Mr. Greens 6th anniversary party. Since I am not a commercial client, it was really fun seeing and sampling some of the goods Mr. Greens offers. Again, they are not all about produce but have a number of dry goods and other wares in their offerings.
They had wonderful cheese displays through their specialty cheese offerings. These included Humbolt Fog, a mild goat milk cheese unmistakably identifiable because of that grey vein down the center in addition to triple creme brie and assorted Maytag and Cheddar cheeses.
There was also a really good pasta station with some great pappardelle pasta with San Marzano tomato sauce.
What are these prized San Marzano tomatoes anyway? They are very famous plum tomatoes that come from Italy. Grown under stringent conditions, they will have an official DOP (Denominazione d’ Origine Protetta), or certification of authenticity by the Italian government. While the DOP certification is all fine and well in Italy, it means nothing outside of the country as their DOP is non enforceable. For a really good discussion of non DOP San Marzano tomatoes go here. It’s quite eye opening.
There were also a good number of other food offerings but what was really intriguing were the fruit carvings. There were also a good number of other food offerings but was really intriguing were the fruit carvings by master fruit sculptor Tomas Vida from Miami. It was a real treat watching these being made. Tomas is an incredible talent. It sounds silly, but it’s amazing what one can do with a leek.
The fruit carvings and displays really added to the product displays that day. They were wonderful and a beautiful combination of the visual and culinary arts.
There was also an interesting bread display by Pagnifique and dessert displays from White Toque among others.
This was a fun day out and really good exposure to Mr. Greens food catalog. I for one had a great time. I would suspect Mr. Greens had a number of new clients that day, in addition to much more loyalty from established ones.
It’s a wrap for another post on forks.
Mr. Greens Produce
7350 NW 30th Ave.
Miami, FL 33147
(305)545-1399
Mr. Greens Produce Website
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