Meat Source for Commercial Enterprise

Hi Preston.

Check out Gordon Food Service. They are primarily a MidWest company with most of their stores in Ohio, Indiama, Michigan, and Ill., but they have stores in Florida s well. St. Petersburg, Miami, Hollywood, Little Havana, Clearwater and Ft. Lauderdale.

Here's a link to their website: www.gfs.com

They have a minumum order for their delivery service, but they have their Marketplace stores for small restaurants, caterers, and concessionaires.

If you set up an account with them they give a volume rebate back at the end of the year on all dollars spent.

You have to make them good enough to sell for $18-20 per rack (no sides).

you are right, preston! ribs are a very high dollar item for a mom and pop. i use st louis style ribs, and they cost $7/pound out the window. some folks grip at my price of 9.95, but they always come back for more. i get my ribs from u.s.foods. in these parts, they are mom and pops best friend! sometimes, when i run out, i will buy the monster ribs at sams, but i hate them. they are too fatty, and by the time all the crap is trimmed of, they cost me 8-9 dollars a pound!'
if i only sold ribs, i would be out of business. thanks goodness folks buy other stuff as well. like 20 percent food cost cole slaw, and okra, and pot salad, fries, corn, beans, baked potato.
plus, most of the other meats are 25 percent food cost, so it all balances out in the end. just never advertise the high cost ribs, and never put them on any kind of special. selling them by the half pound is much better. i sell half pound for 5.25. plus, selling them as a dinner will force the sides, which will lower the cost of the plate.

I know I am in New york but we use a Meat company for all of our beef and pork. I pay for Danish Baby Backs $4.99/lb St louis cuts $3.40/ lb
Brisketts $1.89 and sholder pork bone in $1.29 go to your local super market not a chain and ask where they get there meats from.
David

IF I ever open a business I plan NOT to have ribs be on the menu. Unless I head more towards catering.

thats about what i pay for raw meat also, david.
but a pound of raw does not equal a pound of cooked. and it cost plenty to get it to the window. like spices, packaging, gas, electric, wood, labor. everything sold has to bare its share of the overhead to properly figure its cost. so a case of ribs($3.40/lb) comes in the door at 30 pounds(appr.). that same case will yeild 18-20 pounds(appr). thats up to $5.10 per pound without adding costs. my overhead(which is real real cheap compared to most) will increase the pound price by 2 dollars a pound..
so 7.10 per pound is break even price...
no wonder some places charge up to 15 dollars a pound for ribs..