How to sell to restaurants: who decides, when to show up and what to bring

Selling to restaurants comes down to two things: talking to the person who places the order, and showing up while the decision is still open. A chef who has bought from the same produce company for six years isn’t waiting for your call. A chef building a menu for a restaurant that opens in seven weeks needs ingredients, prices and someone who will deliver on Tuesday.

This guide is for farms, microgreen growers, bakeries supplying coffee shops, specialty food makers, wine, beer and spirits reps, and service businesses. The products differ, but restaurants buy them in much the same way.

Who decides what, and when to catch them

In a small independent place the owner may decide everything. Once there’s a chef or a general manager, most day-to-day buying moves to them, and the owner keeps anything with a contract or a big number attached.

Franchise locations usually buy food and packaging from suppliers the brand approved, so a franchisee can’t add your sourdough, though they can still hire a local cleaner. Restaurant groups often have an operations director who sets suppliers for every location, so a chef there may love your product and still not be able to say yes.

Timing inside the day matters too. Lunch runs roughly 11:30 to 2 and dinner prep starts by 3 or 4, so aim for mid-afternoon, Tuesday through Thursday. Never walk in at 12:15 on a Friday. A bar manager is easiest to catch in the hour before the doors open.

Why a restaurant that hasn’t opened is the easiest door in

An open restaurant already has a supplier for everything you sell, an order guide built around it, and a rep who answers texts at 10 p.m. when the walk-in runs out of shallots. To win that account you have to be clearly better, then survive the hassle of the switch.

A restaurant that hasn’t opened has an empty order guide and a long list of decisions to make in a short time. The chef is testing dishes, the bar manager is building a list from nothing, and the owner is choosing who will clean and who will service the ice machine. Vendors who show up then with a sample and a price sheet get a fair hearing.

A restaurant that’s changing hands works the same way. A new owner often keeps the equipment and rethinks the menu, the suppliers and the service contracts. Coming Soon Project currently tracks 9,273 restaurant addresses changing hands to new owners.

The opening timeline, and what gets decided at each stage

Most build-outs take months, not weeks, and opening dates slip. What stays useful is the stage a place has reached, because each stage lines up with a set of purchases. Our data shows new places typically file about 76 days before they open, counting from the first public record we see.

Chefs usually start menu development six to ten weeks before opening, and that’s when food suppliers should be in the door. Opening orders go in during the last two weeks, and by the friends-and-family dinners the main suppliers are set. Pastries for a café are often one of the last calls.

When to reach out, by what you sell

• Owner-level services like POS, payroll, insurance and signage: as soon as you see a new registration or a permit filed, because these get decided early.
• Wine, beer and spirits: when a liquor license application shows up. Approval takes a while, and the list gets built during the wait.
• Produce, proteins, specialty foods and microgreens: once a chef is named. If a place reaches “Almost ready” and you haven’t met the chef, go that week.
• Baked goods for coffee shops: three to six weeks before opening, then again in the first month, when owners learn what their customers buy.
• Recurring services like cleaning, pest control and linens: at “Almost ready,” when the owner is lining up the first month. Cleaners have their own playbook in getting cleaning contracts with restaurants.

Job posts are one of the best signals you’ll find. A place that hasn’t opened posting for an executive chef tells you who your buyer will be in a few weeks. A post for line cooks and servers means the chef is choosing suppliers now.

Getting in front of the right person

Before opening there’s no host stand to walk up to, but there are honest ways in. Ask the general contractor’s crew on site when the owner usually stops by. Check the business’s own website and social pages, where new restaurants often name the chef and answer messages. Ask the landlord or leasing agent to pass your card along. Once a phone number is listed, call and ask when the chef meets vendors.

Keep the first message short and specific. Something like this works by email or direct message:

Hi, I’m [name] with [farm], a microgreen and herb grower about 20 minutes from you. I saw you’re opening on [street] and wanted to drop off samples while you’re working on the menu. We deliver Tuesdays and Fridays, there’s no minimum for the first month, and I can grow to order if the chef wants something specific. Is there an afternoon this week or next when I could stop by? Ten minutes is plenty.

In person, say who you are and what you sell, then ask for a time instead of pitching on the spot: “I sell sourdough and pastries to cafés around here. When’s a good day to bring samples for the owner?” Then come back exactly when they say.

Word of mouth does much of the marketing in this business. Cooks move between kitchens, and a sous chef who liked your greens will ask for them when she runs her own place.

Sampling that turns into an order

A sample is a working tool. Bring what the buyer needs to decide and skip the gift basket.

Produce, microgreens and specialty food

Bring the product the way it will arrive: the case, the packing, the trim. Microgreens and herbs show best as a small labeled clamshell of each variety. Bring your availability list and your price per pound or per unit, and say what’s coming in the next six weeks. A chef who tastes your tomatoes in June wants to know whether you’ll still have them in September.

Baked goods for coffee shops

Bring the three or four items you’d sell them, with the shelf life, wholesale price and a suggested retail price. Most cafés want pastries in the case before the doors open, so a 6 a.m. delivery is part of what you’re selling. Suggest a starting order you think they’ll sell through. An owner who throws away half a tray the first week will drop you.

Wine, beer and spirits

Bring four to six bottles that fit the menu, and know the by-the-glass math. A 750 ml bottle pours about five 5-ounce glasses, so the bar manager will check your bottle price against what they can charge per glass. Offer a staff tasting before opening, and say honestly whether the wine will still be available in three months. Alcohol sales to restaurants usually run through licensed distributors, so check your state’s rules.

Services

Your sample is a walkthrough. Point out one thing they haven’t thought about yet, and send a written quote within two days.

Whatever you sell, leave one page with the unit and case size, price, delivery days, order cutoff, minimum order, how to order and a phone number that gets answered. Then ask for something small and specific: run it as a special for two weeks, pour it by the glass for a month, try two dozen croissants on Saturday. A small yes is much easier to get than a whole account.

Following up without becoming a pest

A chef who liked your sample has thirty other problems this week, so the follow-up is where accounts are won. A rhythm that works:

1. Two or three days after the tasting, a short note with thanks, your price sheet and the next delivery date you could make.
2. Every week or two through opening, one useful contact: a new item, a heads-up on the season, an offer to run a staff tasting.
3. During opening week, an offer of an emergency delivery if anything runs short. That favor often becomes the first order.
4. Thirty to sixty days after opening, another check-in. This is when restaurants drop the suppliers who missed deliveries or shorted cases.

Ask early how the buyer likes to be reached. Plenty of chefs order by text and never read email.

Pricing and terms restaurants expect

Restaurants build menu prices from the cost of what goes on the plate, and most try to keep food cost to roughly a third of the menu price or less. Chefs will cost your product per portion, so quote it in the units they use. If you cost more, show where it pays off: less trim waste, longer shelf life, or a name they can print on the menu.

Be careful with credit for new restaurants, which have no track record and often a stretched budget by the last month. A card on file or payment on delivery for the first few months is normal, as is a credit application before you extend terms. If someone pushes hard for net 30 on the very first order, take note.

Existing restaurants versus new ones

Established restaurants need a reason to change. The best ways in are a problem with the current supplier (late trucks, uneven quality, a rep who stopped answering), a seasonal menu change, a new chef, or something nobody else nearby offers. Ask what they’d fix about their current supplier, then offer to cover just that one item. Plenty of accounts start as a single product and grow.

New restaurants take patience. Some openings slip by months, a few never open, and the person you met may be gone by opening day. Keep following the stage, and keep in touch. If you sell equipment, finding restaurant supply sales leads covers the earlier purchases, and roasters should read how to win wholesale coffee accounts.

Mistakes that lose the account

• Pitching whoever answers the door. Ask who orders for your category and when they’re in.
• Bringing your whole catalog. Lead with one to three products that fit their menu.
• Missing or shorting a delivery in the first month. One shorted case in opening week costs more trust than a higher price.
• Extending open credit to a restaurant that hasn’t served its first meal.
• Disappearing after the first order. The suppliers who stop by once a month and ask what isn’t working keep their accounts.

Keeping a pipeline

A simple spreadsheet is enough, one row per place, with these columns:

• Business name and address
• Type of place (café, taqueria, wine bar)
• Stage, and the date it last changed
• Who decides for your category, by role, and how you reached them
• Last contact, and what was sampled
• Next step and its date
• Status: prospect, tasted, trial, account or lost

Monday morning, add new places and stage changes in your area. Tuesday through Thursday afternoons, do drop-ins and tastings. Friday, send follow-ups and give every row a next step. A handful of good new rows a week is plenty for one person.

How Coming Soon Project fits

Coming Soon Project lists restaurants, bars and cafés before they open, built from public filings. Right now it shows 8,822 places that haven’t opened yet. Each place page shows the stage and a timeline of its records, so you know whether a café is at “Permit filed” or “Almost ready” before you visit.

It shows business names only, never owners’ names, phone numbers or emails, so you reach people in the usual ways described above. City and ZIP pages and the ZIP search are free and show the first five places.

Pro membership is $39.99 a month, cancel anytime. It shows every result within 50 miles of any ZIP, sends a daily email alert for up to 25 ZIP codes, and filters by type of place and by stage. A bakery can watch only coffee shops and leave out anything with a liquor filing, while a wine rep can watch for places at “Liquor license filed.” Any search exports to a spreadsheet with links to each place’s page, a Google search and its Google Maps listing when it has one.