Free guide for farmers

How to sell direct to restaurants

Restaurants want local. They want quality and reliability. This guide covers how to pitch, land your first order, set up standing orders, and build the kind of wholesale relationships that hold.

How to approach chefs and make a pitch that sticks
What makes ordering easy enough for a kitchen that never stops
Standing orders, subscriptions, and turning one-offs into regulars
Getting paid on time without chasing invoices

Read by 2,000+ farmers selling wholesale & direct

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What’s inside

Everything you need to sell to chefs.

Practical advice drawn from real farm-to-restaurant relationships — including insights from an executive chef on exactly what makes a supplier worth working with.

Which restaurants are actually worth pursuing

Independent spots, multi-location groups, national chains — the tradeoffs of each, and how to figure out which ones fit your product, volume, and delivery capacity.

How to pitch a chef and make it land

When to show up, what to bring, how to open the conversation — and the dos and don'ts straight from an executive chef who's been pitched by hundreds of suppliers.

Landing the first order without undervaluing yourself

How to set minimum orders, define delivery windows, and make the ordering experience smooth enough that a chef actually wants to come back.

Turning one-off orders into standing accounts

Subscriptions, standing orders, and reorder habits — how to make your farm part of a kitchen's regular routine rather than a vendor they call occasionally.

Getting paid without chasing invoices

Payment terms, how to set them, and how to automate invoicing so you're not emailing reminders at the end of every month.

Using data to grow the right accounts

Which chefs reorder, which products stick in foodservice, which routes are worth the drive — how to use ordering patterns to focus on what's actually working.

Who this is for

For farmers ready to sell wholesale

Restaurants want local. They want to know the farmer, trust the supply, and put your name on the menu. But they also need reliability, easy ordering, and suppliers who fit into how a kitchen actually runs.
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This guide is for farmers who want to build those relationships the right way — starting with the right restaurants, making a pitch that holds, and setting up systems so the account doesn't fall apart after the first order.

From real operations

Farmers building real businesses on Local Line.

Hear from real farmers doing large volumes of wholesale orders weekly.

"Our first team comes in at 1:30 AM to start fulfilling orders, so having a platform like Local Line that allows customers to place orders anytime has been a huge asset. It's helped us provide consistent, dependable service, which is the backbone of our reputation."

Francis Znidarec

Zeus Produce

"Local Line has been really helpful for us. We've stuck with it for years because it adapts to our changing needs and helps us stay efficient. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone managing wholesale operations."

Regan Choi

Ela Family Farms

Written by

Co-author of Ready Farmer One.

Nina Galle has spent eight years helping thousands of family farms set up online ordering, subscriptions, and wholesale channels. This playbook pulls from interviews with ranchers running six-figure direct-to-consumer operations — plus everything Local Line has learned working alongside them.

Nina Galle · Co-founder & co-author, Ready Farmer One

Prefer to see it in action?

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