re: Dispelling Beef Misconceptions on the F&D board

So where do the steak places, like Ruth's get their prime beef?

Do they have a 'special" unmarked truck make their deliveries from northern Kansas or montana, so no one knows who their supplier is ?

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I saw a buckhead box leaving the back door of the kitchen last time I was at Ruth's Chris. Yes, buckhead beef.

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Buckhead is the parent company of Snake River Farms. They could do a lot worse.

When I have a bad steak at RC, I'll be concerned.

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So where do the steak places, like Ruth's get their prime beef?

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So, Ruth’s (and most large volume beef purcharsers) has beef buyers on staff that deal directly with Beef Producers. They book contracts with approved suppliers based on specifications that they negotiate with the producers. Those deals are usually booked as price per lb, delivered to their distributor. Sounds like Buckhead might be currently delivering some Ruth’s Chris restaurants. Buckhead is owned by SYSCO corporation.

My former company has account managers on a sales floor in an office building, and it’s pretty similar to a Wall Street trading floor minus the blow and hookers. Every week, we are going to slaughter x number of cattle, and they have to sell everything. (Not just primals and grinds, but tripe, offals, the hide, the bones, the hooves, etc). A lot of it is sold on long term contracts, but a lot of it is also “day traded”. And it’s really a zero sum game. If we book a big contract with Ruth’s or Sam’s Club or Sysco Foodservice or Kroger, that means another packer didn’t get that volume and they have to find a home for it or vice versa.

Let’s say Cargill is long on USDA Prime Strip Loin. They are going to try to sell it as prime, but they may end up having to sell it to a buyer looking for “Choice or better”, which is how most buyers spec their program... Choice or better, select or better, no roll or better.

The sales managers are measured against the USDA weekly published market prices. If they sell at the market or higher, they had a good week. If they sell below the market, it wasn’t a good week. A nightmare week is not getting product sold at all and having to dump it to a cooker (think Hormel Chili or Dinty Moore Beef Stew)

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I saw a buckhead box leaving the back door of the kitchen last time I was at Ruth's Chris. Yes, buckhead beef.

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So this comment is exactly why I wrote this thread in the first place. What you’re implying is that since you saw a Buckhead Box at Ruth’s Chris, it somehow means they are getting an inferior product.

Buckhead doesn’t own a single slaughter facility or feedlot. They are a branded steak cutting and distributing organization owned by the SYSCO FoodService corporation.

Here’s how their relationship with Rith’s Chris works:

Ruth’s goes out and contracts beef with Cargill, Swift, Tyson or National (possibly some smaller producers like Creekstone or Neiman Ranch). They have approved these suppliers based on their ability to produce midwestern prime beef trimmed consistently to Ruth’s specifications.

Ruth’s communicates the terms of the contract they made with the producer to Buckhead.

Buckhead purchases the whole primals from the producer at the price Ruth’s negotiates, and then cuts them into steaks, also based on Ruth’s specifications. They then cryvac them into individual portions and deliver them to the restaurants at a negotiated markup per case.

So Buckhead isn’t selling Ruth’s anything but the same quality level and the same product they’d get from a different distributor (which is likely the case in areas where Buckhead doesn’t distribute)

Clearly your “Buckhead... yes Buckhead” comment meant “Buckhead is awesome!!”

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Interesting info. Thanks for sharing. Do the other restaurants works the same, just not near the same quality (select?) at your run-of-the-mill chains like Outback, Texas Roadhouse, etc?

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Most definitely. Just different quality specs. For instance, I called on a large restaurant group based out of Houston. They own restaurant concepts of different value tiers. They bought prime for their high end steak houses, Certified Angus for their mid-tier operations.

What if I go to a butcher that gets 1 grass fed local cow each week to cut up for his customers?