This Tuesday I had the opportunity to attend the Sysco food distribution show at the Dane County Expo Center. Not being used to the business world, it was an interesting change of pace and scene. By interesting, I mean overbearing and liable to induce indigestion. This was a free buffet I was not going to miss, but it left me feeling more out of sorts than even a pizza bar could.
I have a friend who works for a certain food distributor. That's how you get into these things if you don't work in the food business. Before going, I had the opportunity to discuss the ins and outs of partially prepared food selling. I'll give you a quick overview. Apparently, there are a couple of major Wisconsin distributors other than Sysco, and my friend's company sells for all of them. Apparently there is insane rivalry between the companies that puts college newspaper rivalry to shame. After all, these are grown men and women who are putting all their loyalty into mediocre sales jobs. My friend can't even mention the other companies when dealing with one of the others. The only time I have ever experienced anything like that is when I worked at a country club and a Coca-Cola magnate freaked out when he was brought Mountain Dew.
So I was prepared for Sysco-mania. As soon as I stepped into the foyer there was a creepy scale automaton (like one of those Santas that lean back and say Ho Ho) with a swollen pink face lurching awkwardly and saying something about a prize. I quickly claimed my guest pass and went inside.
Immediately, I was not only assaulted by the sight of well over a hundred sample booths lined up on fake roads with names like Sysco Way, but was also involved in conversation with a salesman. Despite my guest status, this man gave me pamphlets detailing the ways in which Sysco can help a new restaurant. Apparently they have schemes like mailing birthday cards to patrons to remind them that your restaurant exists. They can also design and set up a Web page for you at the Web page booth, all for free if you order from Sysco. I played along as if I were going to start one soon.
After that less-than-brief encounter I set about to tasting everything I could. I always did like Casa Solana Mexican-American frozen stuff, and I got to eat some taquitos. I ate some formerly frozen scallops, some mussels, some ham and crappy frozen lasagna, then some walleye, and pork shank. Most people just let you grab stuff and eat without bothering you, although I did enter into a short conversation about Iron Chef with the Racine Kringle guy. Kringles are all over Wisconsin now.
In other news, Brew City fries sell best in Wisconsin, but might not be the best-selling fries in Wisconsin. In any case, they are the best.
There were plenty of bakeries and pastry booths, but I stayed away because of the filling factor. Working in the Cap Centre Deli now, I have to show brand loyalty to Cuisine De France if I want to move up in the \distro biz."" Lastly, beer: free six-ounce cups of Grays.
As I filled up, I began to look around at name tags. This caused a certain amount of discomfort because it included staring at people's breasts, but I figured I had to. My hope was that I would catch a slow-food purveyor like the Magnus owners or at least an El Dorado grill chef. No dice. Most of the people there were from school cafeterias or restaurants with the word ""Inn"" in the name. They sat at tables in the beer garden going over what products they liked the most while their families walked around and ate. I learned that some of those kids can pack it away, and that old ladies like to act opinionated.
Go to the expo if you can'it's like the business expo at the State Fair, but you can eat'a lot'for free.
