If you’ve dined at one of St. Louis’ top restaurants or country clubs—or shopped at a select group of gourmet grocers—then you’ve likely encountered products from Tony’s Family Farms, the 10-year-old produce company founded by Tony White, a.k.a. “Tony Tomato.”
A former Yellow Pages staffer-turned-specialty grower and distributor, White has built a reputation for delivering tomatoes with true summertime flavor, even in the depths of winter. One memorable example: the flat of on-the-vine cherry tomatoes he dropped off at SLM’s offices one January. They were as fragrant, juicy, and vividly red as those picked in July.
During the pandemic, White launched the Workplace Farmers Market Program, which brought fresh fruits and vegetables directly to St. Louis area businesses for employees to purchase or receive weekly. The service continues today, supplying homes and workplaces with just-picked produce, free-range pasture-raised chickens, cage-free brown eggs, and seasonal specialties such as morels and other mushrooms.
For the past three years, White has cultivated a 3-acre plot at Defiance Ridge Vineyards, growing berries, vegetables, and his signature tomatoes, which now include heirloom varieties. This season, he’s also partnered with a Mennonite family in Vandalia, Illinois, that grows heirloom tomatoes through the winter in heated high tunnels, or hoop houses, allowing for harvests as early as May, two months ahead of the traditional local season.
White’s lineup of “summertime” tomatoes is currently available at select restaurants and gourmet grocers throughout the region (listed below), and can be ordered for free home delivery. (Click here to see what’s available this week.) Heirloom varieties for delivery are in short supply and will become more widely available once the local growing season begins.
Restaurants:
- Annie Gunn’s
- Cafe Napoli restaurants
- Kreis’
- Olive + Oak restaurants
- Osteria Forto
- Peacemaker (green tomatoes)
- Sapore
- The Main House
- Town Square Pub ‘N’ Grub
- Twisted Tree restaurants
- Westchester
Specialty grocers:
- Box Hill Grocers
- Circle 6 Market & Wateringhole
- Smokehouse Market
- The Fruit Stand & Seafood
- Theis Farms (Fridays)
- Truffles Butchery
Learn more about Tony Tomato on the Arch Eats podcast.
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