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When DTC food and beverage brands develop an appetite for wholesale, their journeys usually start on Whole Foods or Target shelves.
Not for these brands: Haus (aperitifs), Fly By Jing (sauces), and Parlor Coffee (self-explanatory) are thinking outside the store to entice new customers, appearing on restaurant menus as featured ingredients. It’s part marketing ploy, part interactive experience.
Restaurant locator: The brands above are starting small, with one-off or limited partnerships.
- Fly By Jing and Parlor Coffee joined cocktails and entrées at Neighborhood Goods’s in-store restaurant in Austin, TX, this month. Matt Alexander, Neighborhood Goods’s cofounder, told Retail Brew diners can scan a menu QR code to shop the featured items from their table.
- After experimenting with cocktails at two California restaurants earlier this spring, Haus is “signing contracts with restaurants all over” the state, cofounder Helena Price Hambrecht told us.
At least one player is getting more ambitious. Nuggs, the plant-based “chicken” nugget brand, previously told Retail Brew it’s pursuing quick-service partnerships. COO Sam Terris declined to share exactly where or when Nuggs will join menus, in a follow-up.
Play with your food
For digitally native CPG brands, appearing on the menu is one form of meeting a familiar goal: expanding beyond online buyers. “Getting on a shelf in a major grocery store is great, but those are the spaces characterized by a huge amount of competition,” Alexander said. “It's hard to really have that moment of discovery.”
With kitchen creatives mixing ingredients, shoppers can “meet” brands in a new context—one more likely to reflect their personality.
- All three CPG companies have given restaurant teams full license to use their items however they want. It’s a taste test and a product demo in one.
- Price Hambrecht said these placements have already inspired halo purchases: “Customers through wholesale can try the particular flavor that the restaurant has, but they could always come back to our website as well for all our additional flavors.”
Why not nationwide? It’s a matter of resources, according to Kat Cole, former COO and president of Focus Brands. Brands like Oreo or M&Ms have more than name recognition on their side. Showing up as a milkshake topping in hundreds of restaurants often comes with enormous distribution requirements and lofty insurance fees—beyond what even the most Instagram-famous indie CPG brand can typically afford, Cole explained.
Looking ahead...CPG brands still see expansion opportunities, even if they can’t yet scale to coast-to-coast chains.
- Alexander told us there are plans for additional Neighborhood Goods locations to create DTC-infused menus.
- Price Hambrecht said Haus aims to enter restaurants beyond its home market after its California rollout. — HL