Shopping for meat products in Denver can be a bit overwhelming. After all, the best wholesale meat Denver has to offer doesn’t boil down to just one or two vendors. Instead, there are several meat suppliers that leverage wholesale distribution channels.
Denver’s best wholesale meat distributors can service both retail stores and restaurant industry enterprises. And like any robust and growing city, the need for high-quality meat at realistic prices is a constant need amongst the local dining scene. If you’re a business owner or upper-level F&B executive in the Greater Denver area, consider shopping from one or more of the five suppliers ranked as the best on our list.
Read on to learn all about them!
Wholesale Meat Denver: 5 Best Vendors
Within the city limits of Denver, there are numerous meat wholesalers that might suit your restaurant. Whether you need standard cuts of variations like beef and poultry or something a bit more unique, there’s surely a supplier that will have what you need. If you’d like to learn about five of them, continue reading the remainder of this section.
1. Western Meat Inc.
With quality and food safety at the forefront of its operations, Western Meat has been serving happy customers since 1975. With a wide range of products and a knowledgeable staff, Western Meat can provide you with sufficient insight regarding each meat product, ensuring that you’re only buying what’s best for your menu.
Speaking of your menu types, Western Meat also sells a selection of unique items. This variety includes items like pizza toppings, exotic game meat, an Italian selection, a Mexican selection, and gourmet sausage. They also supply already-cooked meat products, which are often go-to items in grocery stores.
2. Buckhead Denver
As a Sysco company, it’s no wonder that Buckhead Denver made the list of the top meat wholesalers in the city. If you’re unaware, Sysco is the world’s leading food distribution company. So, how does the partnership with Buckhead Denver affect operations?
Sysco has the resources to implement state-of-the-art cold chain logistics and warehouse technologies. The company and its subsidiaries also operate out of the industry’s best facilities, all of which are FDA, USDA, and SQF3-certified. With daily on-site inspections, you can feel assured that you’re only investing in the safest products. And speaking of safety, Buckhead Denver takes rigorous measures to conduct microbiological and allergen testing. As a result, quality dissatisfaction is a rarity among Buckhead Denver’s clientele.
3. Stillman Wholesale Meats
Since 1973, Stillman Wholesale Meats has been serving clients in Colorado as well as the surrounding states. The company’s specialties include fresh cuts of beef, poultry, and pork. They also distribute some of the best deli meat in the area. Oh, and we can’t forget about some of their more niche product offerings, such as lamb, wild game, duck, goat, and more. It’s not every day that you can find a supplier that sells both general goods as well as specialty products.
One of the many attributes of Stillman Wholesale Meats that has kept it in business for over fifty years is their stellar customer service. If you’re unsure of which wholesale products will suit your menu, the team will happily work with you to answer all your questions.
4. Meat Specialty of Colorado
Sure, you might not think of looking for wholesale seafood within an inland state, but when you have a full-service distribution center like Meat Specialty of Colorado, anything is possible! Restaurant businesses all throughout The Centennial State can purchase wholesale meat and seafood for their establishment. In doing so, they can easily raise the bar, implementing a sense of product differentiation amongst all the local eateries.
The packers that Meat Specialty of Colorado works with include IBP, National Beef, Iowa Premium Pork, and Seaboard Foods. The company’s wholesale distribution team remains very cautious over the quality of their seafood vendors. When operating a food supply company so far inland, gauging the quality of a coastal vendor can be tricky. However, Meat Specialty of Colorado takes proper precautions to only acquire the best products available to them.
5. Rocky Mountain Provisions
There’s a strong likelihood that you’re familiar with Boar’s Head meat products. The brand sells some of the best packaged lunch meat and other cold cuts in grocery stores. Since 1990, Rocky Mountain Provisions has been a distributor of said products.
Any food service establishment in the Greater Denver area with sandwiches and subs on their menu should consider Rocky Mountain Provisions. While they exclusively carry Boar’s Head products, you can’t deny that their quality is superior. From sliced deli meat to a selection of cheeses, eateries throughout Denver, as well as the rest of the nation, can source their wholesale deli meats from Rocky Mountain Provisions.
Frequently Asked Questions About Wholesale Meat Denver
Thanks to an overabundance of farmland, Denver meat wholesalers have access to some of the best products on the market. If you’d like to read a bit more about the topic at hand, including information regarding Denver meat suppliers as well as the region’s meat market, take a look at the FAQ section below!
Where Can I Buy the Best Wholesale Meat Denver Has to Offer?
If you’re in the market for the best wholesale meat Denver has to offer, consider shopping from one of the following suppliers:
- Western Meat Inc.
- Buckhead Denver
- Stillman Wholesale Meats
- Meat Specialty of Colorado
- Rocky Mountain Provisions
What Is the Largest Meat Wholesaler In Denver, CO?
One of the largest meat wholesalers in Denver, CO is Harvest Food Distributors. And not only are they one of the largest wholesalers of meat in Denver, but throughout the United States in general. As of September 2024, Harvest Food Distributors supplies products to over 6,000 restaurants, hospitality entities, and retail stores. They also operate out of several distribution centers, making them one of the largest wholesalers not just in terms of revenue, but its number of facilities as well.
What Kind of Meat Products Is Denver Known For?
Colorado lamb is one of the meat products that Denver is most known for. It’s also common to find other meat varieties, such as bison all throughout Colorado. Due to the extensive farmland, a variety of meat products are abundant in Denver as well as the rest of the state.
What’s the Difference Between Meat Wholesalers and Butcher Shops?
The main difference between meat wholesalers and butcher shops is the series of processes that take place from the time of acquiring meat to the time of each sale. Another differentiating factor is who the business sells to. For instance, wholesalers purchase meat from farmers and producers, package it accordingly, and sell it to retail stores and food service establishments.
Meanwhile, butcher shops operate similarly on a smaller scale, but sell products to consumers. With this in mind it’s also important to point out that meat wholesalers leverage storage and shipping protocols that butcher shops might not.
Is There a Lot of Farmland In Colorado?
Yes, in fact, Colorado is home to approximately 3.55% of the nation's farmland. Though this might seem like a fairly small percentage, let us put this metric into perspective. If you combine all of the farmland in the United States, 3.55% equates to about 31.8 million acres. That’s certainly a massive amount of land where herds of cattle can thrive.
Shop the Best Wholesale Meat Denver Has to Offer With BlueCart
With Endless Aisle, BlueCart’s digital marketplace, food service establishments have the ability to search for vendors and see the value of their products front and center. Seriously, each and every product listing will be marked as Great Value, Good Value, or Fair Value. Meat products can fluctuate in price quite a bit, especially depending on the region. And considering the overabundance of wholesale meat in Colorado, it’s ideal if you can get the best bang for your buck when shopping near Denver. If you’d like to learn more about the Endless Aisle feature, book a demo with us today!