St. Louis Restaurant Review refers to the Gateway City as a food lovers’ destination with nearly 2,000 restaurants ranging from family-run diners to “ethnic kitchens that reflect the global backgrounds of St. Louis residents.”
The vast array of eateries reflects not only the city’s vibrant food culture but its “economic resilience and cultural diversity,” the website says.
It also seems like the region’s foodservice segment is well served by the produce community.
“St. Louis has a thriving foodservice business,” says Dale Vaccaro, general manager at Vaccaro & Sons Produce at the St. Louis Produce Market Inc.
The distributor serves numerous restaurants, schools and nursing homes.
In fact, about 40% of the company’s business is with foodservice accounts at this time of year, he says.
Salad items, tomatoes, beans and asparagus are some of the most popular foodservice items, while schools also order fruit like grapes, oranges and apples.
A significant amount of the business at Midstate Produce on the produce market is with foodservice customers, says company president Joe Sanders.
The COVID-19 drop-off in dining out seems to be over.
“Restaurants always seem to be busy,” Sanders says.
He thinks he might be seeing a return of a phenomenon he first read about during the Great Recession of 2008.
That’s when many cash-strapped consumers would forego vacation travel and enjoy an evening of fine dining instead.
“The new vacation was going out to eat,” he says. “People wouldn’t travel, but they would go out to eat.”
He says that might be the case with today’s tight economy.
“Maybe people aren’t traveling as much, but they still need the entertainment, they need the escape, so maybe they’re going out to eat instead,” Sanders says.
“St. Louis is definitely a food town,” Vaccaro says.
But he adds that this is “definitely a crunch time for restaurants.” Eateries are “being pushed to the limit” with rising prices, ranging from skyrocketing costs for everything from beef to some produce items. The cost of a case of lettuce from California was as high as $75 in early November, Vaccaro says.
“It’s a challenging environment for restaurant owners,” he adds.
Sanders says one approach restaurateurs are trying to save money on labor while they also aim to reduce safety risks in the kitchen is by turning to value-added precut items.
“I think that’s a smart choice,” he says.
The cost of dining out might have gotten more expensive, he says, but Midwest Produce is doing as much foodservice business as ever.
The restaurant scene in St. Louis is “vibrant and thriving,” Sanders says.
“There are a lot of good restaurants here,” he adds. “I’m amazed at the new concepts that come out — places open, places close, but it seems to be vibrant.”
