Mr. Greens Produce 6th Anniversary Party

Stevan Stanisic
Sep 29, 2017
3 min read

Mr. Greens Produce (GP) is a food wholesaler based in Miami, FL. The company was started in 2003. It was purchased by former real estate equity manager of Greystone Capital, Peter Politis, in 2011. When the company was purchased, it had 6 employees and 4 vehicles in a 3000 square foot warehouse. Since Mr. Politis has been at the helm of GP the company has undergone a rapid expansion through a number of acquisitions. This has included acquiring a 65,000 square foot warehouse on over 5 acres in Miami and the purchase of Happy Foods, another food wholesaler, in 2016. At present, MG has close to 200 employees, a fleet of over 60 refrigerated vehicles and gross sales upwards of 80 million dollars. Not a bad accomplishment for a time span of 6 years.

Mr. Greens distribution facility, Miami, FL

Besides acquisitions, part of MG rapid expansion has been due to fine-tuning it’s produce offerings to include on site produce processing that is made to order. In addition, many dry goods, meats, cheeses and pastries are also in their catalog offering a more diverse choice of products to clients. In the past MG has mainly serviced independent restaurants but is starting to provide food items to national restaurant chains.

Field trip to Mr. Greens Produce 6th anniversary party

Recently, I was invited as part of a local chefs group to take a field trip to MG 6th anniversary party. Being chauffeured to a party in Miami on a day off seemed like a really fun thing to do. Besides, I was curious about their operation and wanted to learn a bit more about the produce world.

Well, I didn’t learn too much about the produce world but I did pick up a couple of tidbits about their operation. The sales people are all on salary which in my opinion fosters a much healthier working environment than those that offer commission only. They also have what I would call 11th hour service. If you call then up at 2 PM and need an item from their catalog at 5 PM for your dinner menu they are there. How cool is that?

Since I am not a commercial client, it was really fun seeing and sampling some of the goods Mr. Greens offers. Again, they are not all about produce but have a number of dry goods and other wares in their offerings.

They had wonderful cheese displays through their specialty cheese offerings. These included Humbolt Fog, a mild goat milk cheese unmistakably identifiable because of that grey vein down the center in addition to triple creme brie and assorted Maytag and Cheddar cheeses.

Humbolt Fog cheese

There was also a really good pasta station with some great pappardelle pasta with San Marzano tomato sauce.


Pasta station, Mr. Greens 6th anniversary party

What are these prized San Marzano tomatos anyway? They are very famous plum tomatoes that come from Italy. Grown under stringent conditions, they will have an official DOP (Denominazione d’ Origine Protetta), or certification of authenticity by the Italian government. While the DOP certification is all fine and well in Italy, it means nothing outside of the country as their DOP is non enforceable. For a really good discussion of non DOP San Marzano tomatoes go here. It’s quite eye opening.

There were also a good number of other food offerings but was really intriguing were the fruit carvings by master fruit sculptor Tomas Vida from Miami.

It was a real treat watching these being made. Tomas is an incredible talent. It sounds silly, but it’s amazing what one can do with a leek.

There was also an interesting bread display by Pagnifique and dessert displays from White Toque among others.


White Toque desserts

The fruit carvings and displays really added to the product displays that day. They were wonderful and a beautiful combination of the visual and culinary arts.

This was a fun day out and really good exposure to Mr. Greens food catalog. I for one had a great time. I would suspect Mr. Greens had a number of new clients that day, in addition to that much more loyalty from established ones.