When I worked at 91 Wood Fired Oven, one of the hands-down most popular summer specials was a salad made with homegrown local tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil, just drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with salt and pepper.  It was very simple, but what our customers loved about it was the extraordinary flavor and freshness of those tomatoes--a world away from the flavorless, queasy-pink slabs of tomato that travel a thousand miles (or two) to come to rest on a limp lettuce leaf as a “garnish” for your burger.  The chef at 91 would pick up a basket of the tomatoes from a farm stand a few blocks from the restaurant on her way in to work, and the rest was easy--and delicious.

        While most chefs love the idea of working with fresh, locally grown produce, few of them have a farm stand a few blocks away, and not all farm stands have a consistent supply of produce in the quantities needed by restaurants.  It also would make no economic sense for a restaurant to pay an employee to drive around the area trying to find and buy all the produce for the menu, nor does it often make economic sense for an individual farmer to spend the time and money it would require to drive in from the farm to make restaurant deliveries for several hours each day or week.

        Most restaurants rely upon suppliers who bring in produce in large quantities from factory farms in places like California and Florida.  Because the system for distributing produce has evolved to serve industrial-scale agriculture, there has been no system in place to bring high quality local produce (and other locally produced foods) to restaurants in a consistent, efficient, cost-effective manner. 

        That is until very recently.  Enter entrepreneurs like David Sharp and Tim Ogan of Summit Select Provisions, which serves northeast Ohio.  They are among a growing group of small, independent food distributors who are finding ways to get local foods to local restaurant tables.  It can be difficult. Sharp says that when he and Ogan started out, “one of the biggest challenges of the business was just figuring out how to get products from point A to point B to point C.  It remains the biggest challenge.”  It is still, he says, “harder to get produce from southeast Ohio than from Hawaii,” but things are changing.

        Summit Select has “gradually built a repertoire” of local farmers and developed routes where Summit Select drivers go pick up produce from the farmers and, with minimal processing, deliver it quickly to restaurant chefs.  Sharp and Ogan are hard at work expanding their network of farmers, as well as local specialty food producers, and are committed to working with small farmers, cottage industries, and artisans.  Currently, among the Ohio-sourced foods Summit Select offers its restaurant customers are seasonal produce, meats, cheeses, grains, beverages, pasta, and prepared foods such as Cajohn’s raspberry chipotle salsa and Garden Vineyard’s roasted pepper mustard.  (To compliment their Ohio products, Summit Select carries a broad selection of basic provisions and domestic and imported specialty foods.)

        Another key aspect of Sharp’s work is building relationships with chefs.  Sharp and  Ogan have extensive experience in the food industry (both grew up working on family farms, and accumulated a combined 50-plus years of experience as chefs and food distributors), and the two are continually working “to get a better understanding of what chefs are looking for,” according to Sharp.  In turn, they strive to educate chefs about what they can expect as they transition to using more locally produced foods.  Summit Select’s key offering, Sharp says, is to be a resource for quality local products and for information: “A chef can call me up and say ‘I can’t find it’--and I find it.” 

        When Sharp thinks about the future of Summit Select, in addition to a thriving distribution business continuing to serve restaurants, he envisions a production facility, where Summit Select might make prepared foods like roasted local tomatoes or a selection of frozen appetizers, and a storefront where they could sell products directly to consumers.  “The next generation of consumers,” Sharp says, “is far more interested in knowing about their food . . . . People are becoming more aware of what’s available and the different layers of quality in food.”  The interest in eating local goes hand in hand with knowing where food comes from and wanting better food on the table.   As Sharp says of himself, “If you’re dealing with  quality, it really comes through, and it energizes you.”

        To learn more about Summit Select Provisions, visit their web site, www.summitselectprovisions.com --or visit some of the fine dining establishments that Summit Select serves and get a taste of fresh, local food: Bistro on Main in Kent, Brookside Country Club in Canton, Downtown 140 in Hudson, Glenmoor Country Club in Canton, The Harbor Inn in Akron, Piatto Nuovo at the Sheraton in Cuyahoga Falls, The Office Lounge in Akron, Vue Restaurant in Hudson, and The Wooster Inn in Wooster.