Autumn is a great time for food. The seasonal harvest provides a multitude of fruits and vegetables that well compliment a variety of dishes and satisfy a range of appetites. A versatile and succulent meat like pork is essential for fall dishes as it enhances the flavors and textures of entrees and appetizers to create an appealing overall menu. October is National Pork Month which gives restaurants an opportunity to feature rustic and comforting pork dishes that welcome diners in from crisp, autumn weather. This month let AGAR provide your establishment with quality pork, fresh produce, complimentary sauces and seasonal spices to create an enticing pork menu.

Pork dishes can create delicious and seasonal selections for diners looking for warm, delicious food to satisfy their appetites and delight their taste buds after a day spent enjoying fall activities like sporting events or apple picking. Pork loin is a strong addition to any menu and can be paired with autumn vegetables like butternut squash and onions or with cranberries, raisins and apples for a sweeter taste. The addition of fresh spices like nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon add to a mouth watering autumn pork loin dish. Diners can enjoy pork medallions as an entrée served with tasty side dishes or sliced pork loin on a sandwich served with sweet potato fries. Diners will enjoy the succulent pork loin addition to your menu and will appreciate the seasonal tastes the meat can evoke when paired with autumn produce and spices.

Pork chops are another popular addition to any menu. The dish can be prepared in a variety of ways most of which evoke feelings of home and contentment for diners. A healthy portioned chop can be grilled or slow cooked to evoke a succulent and enticing meat that can be dressed up with fresh, grilled vegetables and savory sauces or served in a more causal manner with tangy sauerkraut. Fresh pepper, ground ginger, tangy apple cider and honey accents can further add to an overall fall taste and can entice diners looking for a sumptuous, satisfying and festive repast. The meat is adaptable and different preparations can please different diners ranging from those looking for a hearty meal to those in search of something satisfying yet healthy.

To celebrate National Pork Month, consider a few simple but popular dishes featuring ‘the other white meat’ to draw in diners. AGAR is proud to work with customers to provide their establishments with the highest quality meat, produce and spices to create delectable and enticing pork dishes infused with the essence of the season.

Any successful restaurant owner knows that the secret to a good dish is freshness. A restaurant that offers delicious, quality and ingredients will draw in diners looking for an incredible meal. Freshness is particularly important when serving a seafood dish; products that have expired have unusually strong odors and tastes that are not appealing. This wholesale food distributor has years of industry experience and aims to make customers competitive by providing quality seafood and other products to create the best meals possible. October is National Seafood Month and AGAR can provide a foodservice team of professionals that lead the industry in knowledge and experience to help your restaurant develop innovative, fresh, seafood menu choices.

• AGAR Freshness: AGAR has over 70-years experience becoming the largest family owned independent foodservice distributor in New England. We have stringent specifications to ensure our products are never compromised, particularly our seafood items. AGAR receives fresh fish from the pier on a regular basis which is inspected based on the highest quality standards. 
• Frozen: In addition to fresh seafood choices, AGAR offers several frozen items. This enables your establish to create quality, dishes to compliment your menu. Most are frozen with 6-12 hours of exiting the water right at sea. They are delivered to you as fresh as if you caught them yourself ensuring superior taste and appearance.
• Shellfish: Shellfish is enjoyed by many as a high-end bar appetizer with drinks or as a sumptuous entrée repast. Whatever the case, AGAR provides the freshest oysters, mussels, shrimp, crabs, scallops and crabs with clean, ocean tastes that will delight diners. Our seasoned team of seafood professionals yields the freshest catch which is shucked by hand to ensure tenderness and extend shelf life.
• Nautifish: This line of seafood is offered exclusively by AGAR and adds to our reputation of providing great taste and a commitment to the sustainability issues that face the world’s oceans. The Nautifish brand is seafood with integrity that is fresh, tasty and will contribute to any seafood dish to keep customers coming back for more.

AGAR takes great pride in always offering seafood with integrity; we consider integrity to be our special ingredient. We can help your restaurant celebrate National Seafood Month in October with innovate and delicious dishes derived from the sea with the best quality products in the industry. We buy direct from partners with daily access to fleets of modern fishing vessels and monitor daily market conditions to seek only those alternatives that make sense for our customers.

October is National Seafood Month along with a couple others including Pizza and Pork…But for now, we’re talking seafood. Fall is a fitting time to enjoy hearty harvests from the sea paired with seasonal yields of produce like: carrots, onions, corn and tomatoes.  Let this wholesale food distributor provide your restaurant with the best quality seafood, produce with other fresh ingredients to create the most delicious additions to your menu this month and every month…

Seafood Chowder:

This delectable dish originated as a seafood stew first prepared in San Francisco by Italian fisherman who were looking for a way to put the left over bits from the day’s catch to good use. It is a great way for diners to sample a wide variety of seafood tastes in a delightful, rich, creamy broth with smoky undertones generated from bacon and lean salted pork. Assorted, fresh shellfish like shrimp, oysters, crab, lobster and mussels swim in a rich consommé create a filling meal that warms diners after days spent in crisp fall weather. The addition of warm crusty breads or rolls further enhances this bountiful meal full of taste and variety.

Seafood Soup:

A bowl of this delightful soup provides and opportunity to enjoy a bounty from the sea as well as the garden. Seasonal tomatoes create a fresh, pithy broth filled with tender chunks of salmon and shrimp, enhanced by peppers, onions, corn and carrots. It is a great addition to a fall menu which will please those in search of a filling, seafood repast and can also satisfy diners looking for a healthier choice. The mouthwatering meal in a bowl is simply seasoned with basil, oregano and garlic to highlight fresh fish and vegetable essences.

The addition of a few substantial soups and stews with generous portions of seafood will draw in diners looking for a nourishing and appetizing entrée in a large bowl or sumptuous appetizer in a cup. Let AGAR help your restaurant create a few extraordinary additions to draw in diners looking to enjoy October’s harvests from the sea. Our fresh fish and products from our Nautifish brand will produce dishes that celebrate National Seafood Month and satisfy autumn appetites.

October is National Seafood Month which gives restaurants the opportunity to pair harvests from the sea with seasonal vegetables and flavors. Seafood features on the menu can be enticing to consumers as many do not prepare it at home due to uncertainty on how to properly cook it. Seafood is a healthy, versatile option for a hearty fall dinner. It is a blank canvas that can be served in a wide variety of dishes ranging from a fresh filet to savory chowder. Seafood enhances the flavor of seasonal vegetables and is a satisfying meal when served with risotto, mashed potatoes, polenta or warm bread. The success of a seafood dish depends on quality so look to AGAR to provide fresh, delicious seafood such as Nautifish that is well complimented with our sauces, glazes and quality produce.

This time of year many turn to the fall flavors of braised meats but it is also a great time to showcase favorites from the sea with a few dishes on the menu that feature robust seafood flavors. A few crowd pleasers are appetizers like coconut shrimp, Oysters Rockefeller or mussels embellished with white wine and tomato juice. Diners will also enjoy entrees like blackened tuna steaks with mango salsa; colorful salsa can mirror fall hues with red tomatoes, green cilantro and orange and yellow peppers. Halibut chowder is a delectable dish for those drawn to a warm and nourishing dish with brawny taste following a day spent in crisp, autumn weather. A rich, caramelized scallop can satisfy autumn appetites especially when served with a base of creamy polenta.

Grilling is not just limited to summer dishes; seafood dishes prepared on the barbeque add variety and zest to autumn menus. The technique provides rich, smoky taste to fish like salmon, tuna and shrimp. A few simple seafood additions to fall menus can be healthy like a fresh fillet paired with seasonal, root vegetables also prepared on the grill. For diners in search of a more complex meal, a spicy salmon steak served with caramelized onions and a side of locally grown vegetables is pleasing to those craving a sumptuous repast.

AGAR can help your restaurant explore intense seafood flavors in celebration of National Seafood Month. Our fresh seafood and produce can create the optimum seafood specials to well compliment your menu.

Over the years, the appearance and composition of pizza has drastically changed as more gourmet restaurants offer their special take on the cheesy cuisine. Traditional pizza is still a crowd favorite and popular as ever however, pizza can also have a more serious side these days acting as a delectable appetizer in an upscale pub or as an entrée topped with fresh, local produce, fine meats and even seafood. One of the best ways to enhance any pizza is with the addition of fresh, flavorful news cheeses. October is National Pizza Month making it a great time to tap into fresh, regional cheeses when composing tasty pizza dishes for you establishment. AGAR provides a line of pizza cheese blends that provide a delicious accent to any style pizza and can work with your restaurant to create the best pizza for your customers.

Mozzarella is one of the world’s most popular topping for American-style pizza due to its perfect elasticity, flavor and melting. Its smooth, creamy composition and texture help it melt evenly and make it perfect alone or as an exceptional part of a cheese blend. When combined with Provolone it can add a smoky flavor to a pizza which can evoke juicy, savory tastes from fine meats or grilled, seasonal vegetables. It can also be combined with Asiago for a nuttier, richer accent that tastes great with chicken, sausage and even oysters. This month, try a little experimentation to create an appetizing pie that will delight diners and keep them coming back for slice after slice.

This wholesale food distributor carries only the freshest, quality ingredients that will compliment any restaurant’s pizza creation. The addition of the right cheese blend from our line will compliment any pie with flavor profiles from different New England regions like Connecticut and Rhode Island. Find the optimum cheese blend that well compliments your restaurant’s gooey creation to celebrate National Pizza Month by appealing to the pizza enthusiast in everyone ranging from traditionalist to trendy.

Pork is a staple for fall as part of tailgating and holiday celebrations and is part of a centuries old industry full of delicious tradition. It is engrained in American culture and traditions. October is National Pork Month (and if you’ve been reading my blogs, it’s also national Pizza Month…) and serves as a reminder to Americans that pork is a great product and as a way to support pork producers. This month is a great time to add pork to your restaurant’s menu with a few specials featuring pork paired with seasonal, harvest vegetables. Pork is quite versatile and easily fuses with other items to provide a complete dinner loaded with fiber and great taste. This month let AGAR provide the fresh, quality ingredients necessary to enhance your establishment’s pork dishes and specials.

The crisp air that accompanies the fall months changes tastes and appetites, leading people to crave warm, hearty dishes. Pork can provide a solid foundation in comfort dishes that are delicious without the guilt. Fresh cuts of pork can be significantly leaner today (an average of 25% leaner) than 15-years ago which makes for a healthy dish. More and more consumers are adding pork to their diets due to the benefits generated from the high-quality protein. Adding a few pork features to your menu during October can draw in diners looking for a delectable and filling meal that is also lean and healthy.

Even though today’s pork can be less fatty, it can remain incredibly flavorful when doused in a pithy marinade, a complex spice rub or a delightful wine that makes meat moist and sumptuous. October is a great time to pair pork chops, pork tenderloin or pork roast with fall vegetables like: potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, yams or peppers. A couple of seasonal pork dishes that enhance most any restaurant’s menu are: cider-braised pork with harvest vegetables or pork chops stuffed with apples and cranberries. Add a few special pork dishes to your menu this October to celebrate fall and National Pork Month and provide diners with flavorful, healthy and also filling choices.

I cornered our pizza expert for an additional video blog during our fall food shows a couple weeks ago. I wanted to get his take on what else operators could do to bring in more business to their pizza/sub shops.

Aside from two for one specials and other well known promotions, you need to create some excitement and develop new menu items. That can be new styles of pizza, news side dishes to add to the amount the customers is spending, and items you might not have even thought of.

One item, and we mentioned it in our last blog, was flavored pizza dough. Not something a customer might anticipate when they walk into your shop. Just one example of how you can wow a customer.

Peter says “don’t be afraid to try new things.” And he’s right. Customers will get bored so keep them on their toes.

And for all you other restaurants that don’t have pizza, why not? National Pizza Month is a great way to add these items even if it is for the month of October. It’s a great way to beef up your menu and add a timely special to what you offer.

As the largest independent wholesale food distributor in Boston and a building full of pizza experts, have everything you need to start offering pizza so what are you waiting for?

Here’s one more video on pizza with Peter our resident pizza expert.