I have read some of you talk about selling to local restaurants. Can you tell me how you got into this? I am very interested in doing this once I get my kitchen licensed but not sure how to approach it. Thanks.

I was wondering the same thing, so I'm bumping you up.

Bumping! Really want to know about this!

i had one resturant interested, but it was a friend of my mothers, so that happened by word of mouth. But once she found I wasn't liscensed yet....she couldn't buy from me. Not sure how to do it otherwise.

During the spring/summer months, I sell my desserts to four local restaurants.....it wasn't really my intentions but just sort of happened that way! I would always take a dessert to different meetings that I went to....organizations that I belong to....and this one man kept saying I should sell my stuff....he happened to own a restaurant! Word got around and it took off from there.

I stopped into a local bakery and asked if they needed any help, and since I already had a dessert catering business out of my home, they have been ordering items off my menu and I have been charging them wholesale prices. I would stop into local restaurants that you know do not make their own desserts and bring in some samples and a price list. That was my plan.

Thanks so much for the info.

You need to check out the laws in your area though, I know in SC, you can't sell to businesses or advertise with brochures/business cards without being licensed and regulated by DHEC. You CAN however be considered a "hobbyist" and just sell to friends/family by word of mouth. I did have a restaurant ask if they could buy my cakes once. We had taken my grandmother there for her b'day and I brought the cake. This was a small restaurant in NC that my family goes to alot. Anyway, they gave the waitress (they usually get the same one and she's great) a piece of cake and she was so impressed, she gave some to the owner while we were there. He asked about buying from me, but unfortunately, it's a 3-hour drive and the delivery would really cut into my profit margin! Good luck!!

Every state is different. In PA where I live it is not legal to bake out of your home and sell to anyone. The bakery I sell to has taken on that liability. The owner used to do it herself. Also in my state wholesale baking comes under the Dept. of Agriculture not the Dept of Health, and the guidelines are very different. You are allowed to bake out of your house as long as certain guildelines are met.