Brand Update 2020

Chef Cimino and crew of Cleveland Family Meal.
Chefs Keep Cooking
In what would have been his second week open,
Cimino launched Cleveland Family Meal behind
those doors, where he and his kitchen crew teamed
up with other prominent chefs, including Certified
Angus Beef ® brand partners Matt Spinner and Dave
Kocab from Ushabu, to provide both cooked and
raw foods for other restaurant workers who were
suddenly unemployed. The project began with food in
the pantry, but donations from purveyors and friends
quickly rolled in to where it became a movement.
operation didn’t fit the to-go order model,” said the
Omaha Hospitality Hall of Famer. “I knew I had food I
needed to use, and once we took care of staff, I decided
to put it out on social media that I would provide meals
for out-of-school children who needed help and any
elderly whose health might be compromised.”
Intended as a on-time solution to ensure the food
went to good use, donations of both product and
their talents kept the initiative alive.
“We acquired a lot of proteins and other products
from other chefs who didn’t want their food to go
to waste,” Wheeler said. “So we started cooking and
serving the homeless and out-of-work restaurant
folks and, quite frankly, anybody who was in need of
a meal in these times. I had Dan Watts from Sysco
Lincoln smoking slabs of ribs, Blaine Hunter from
Porky Butts BBQ smoked pork shoulders and Jacobson
Fish donated 30 pounds of yellowfin tuna that I
transformed into tuna sandwiches. A lot of really great
people were involved.”
In Miami, Fla., Chef Peter Vauthy from RED, The
Steakhouse, Carla DiLorenzo from Los Tanitos
and the crew at Okeechobee Steakhouse kept their
kitchens running in part by cooking for first responders
and healthcare workers.
In Houston, Taste of Texas, Republic Grille and Sysco
Houston all went to great lengths to feed hospital
staff, police and fire personnel working round the
clock. Texas icons Tom and Lisa Perini from Perini
Ranch in Buffalo Gap donated thousands of dollars in
steaks to their local food pantry to help with an evergrowing
need.
Foodservice Fights for
Restaurant Survival
Restaurants closing or adapting to lower-volume
alternatives left foodservice distributors in a difficult
place, much of their customer base diminished or
gone without warning.
Many could sell inventories to retailers facing heavy
demand, but then the distributors looked for ways to
keep their staff employed.
Buckhead and its parent company Sysco helped
restaurants across the country transform into “pop-up
shops,” or corner stores with all the foodstuffs and
paper products that quarantined people might need.
North of the border, Gordon Food Services Canada
launched a website in partnership with Restaurant
Canada as a one-stop resource for restaurants trying
to shift their business models and stay afloat.
Independently owned meat shops also worked with
restaurant customers to help their businesses during
the transition to carryout and catering options.
“Once it started hitting the fan, we needed to figure
out how we were going to react,” said Edward Hall of
Lone Star Meats in Austin. “We found some homes
for product at retail, and then we figured out which of
our restaurant partners were staying open. A lot of our
restaurants have very loyal followings, so we started
making pre-made care packages at different price levels
for them to sell on.”
Lone Star joined in the growing trend of creating directto-consumer
websites that helped stabilize revenues and
kept people on the payroll.
“Fortunately, we jumped on pretty quick, got some
systems in place and got everyone going,” said Addam
Evans of Evans Meats in Birmingham, Ala., and
donated a percentage of all direct-to-consumer revenue
to independent restaurant partners affected by COVID-
19. “There are a lot of people out there scrapping, and it
kept some revenue coming in.”
Evans initially started a curbside program for pickup
at his company’s warehouse; as it evolved, he sent five
trucks around the city to set up as more accessible,
mobile curbside units.
“Hospitality is what defines our industry, so
that’s what we did,” said Cimino. “Be hospitable,
show hospitality and cook. This has been what I
do to occupy my time, and to focus on the good
rather than dwelling on the bad. We’ll keep
feeding people until we can’t anymore.”
Charleston, S.C., Pitmaster Anthony DiBernardo
from Swig & Swine committed thousands of dollars
in local grocery-store gift cards to his out-of-work
employees, while his business shifted to takeout
only. Across the state, his friend Joe Urban, who
oversees Nutrition Services at Greenville County
Schools, continued to push out 25,000 meals per
day for students in his school district, even though
in-person classes had been suspended.
In Omaha, local restaurant icon Glenn Wheeler of
Spencer’s for Steaks and Chops found himself with
a walk-in cooler filled with perishables. With the
help of friends and other chefs in the city, Wheeler
put together a robust plan to address growing needs
in the community.
“The order came down that Omaha restaurants had
to be closed to no more than 10 people, and our
“For many of the 77,000 students in our district,
the meals they receive during school are the only
substantive nutrition,” Urban said. It helped many
families, not having to pay for meals when money is
tight; for others, just knowing they could get food at
all was life preserving.
“We all know there is poverty in our communities, but
most have no clue as to how severe that actually is for
some families,” Urban said.
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