COVID upside? Now you can shop where the chefs shop—buy high-end food directly from gourmet supplier Nicholas &. Co. This is the first time the restaurant supplier has been open to the public. Think ahead to summer’s holidays, cook-outs and celebrations…
Order online at Nicco’s Marketplace and arrange for no-touch pick-up of Daily’s bacon, Two Rivers steak, Wind Rivers chicken and more.
“This is a new program and it’s evolving,” says Nicole Mouskondis, co-CEO with her husband Peter, of Nicholas & Co. “We’re responding to customer input, so there are new items all the time.”
Besides meat, Nicco Marketplace is selling fresh produce, meal kits, multi-meat packs, frozen food and pantry staples.
“Everything comes to us in restaurant-size packs,” says Scott Albert, vice-president of sales at Nicholas. “So we’re getting creative with putting boxes and kits together.” Still, if you have a big freezer or want to share with friends, buying in bulk makes all kinds of sense. Albert is looking to add a “hot deal” button to the site and to expand offerings.
We’ve all heard a lot about how restaurants are hurting. I don’t know if restaurant goers realize that the Utah independent restaurant scene that we’ve all been so proud of in the last few years is in a life-or-death struggle to survive at all.
Today’s retrenchment order is the right thing to do for Utahns’ health, but it’s more bad news for restaurants. And for their allies.
But behind all the best restaurants are the companies that supply them: You cannot make great food without great ingredients and for a couple of generations Nicholas & Co. has been the go-to for chefs in Utah. The Mouskondis family, founders and owners of the food supply company, have sourced unusual foods and responded to chefs’ requests for high-quality and local ingredients and have also supported and contributed to fundraisers, charity and food events—including those organized by this magazine.
In doing so, they have supported the state’s burgeoning dining scene.
Now, like many of its restaurant customers, Nicholas & Co., have pivoted—the online site. Nicco Marketplace offers restaurant groceries direct to the consumer. It’s a new branch of an old business. We’re all learning new tricks.
