By Jorge Mercado Thursday, March 27th, 2025

The Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara was a packed venue on March 23 and 24, but it wasn’t for the usual reasons like the annual county fair or a beautiful wedding, it was the star-studded return of Jordanos Foodservice signature event, the 2025 Food & Equipment show.

Jordanos, the Santa Barbara-based independent distributor, runs the event every other year and has done so for nearly four decades. And, although this was the second time Jordanos has run the show since the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2025 version finally felt like a return to normalcy, said Patrick Day, Jordanos vice president and general manager.

Day said all booths at the event were sold out and saw a record number of registrations over the two days, 4,400.

“It’s a great program that we have to build a strong partnership with our customers,” Day said.

The event provides the opportunity for all of its customers and partners to showcase their products and to get to know each other on a more intimate level. 

As a distributor, Jordanos works with brands and the restaurants/storefronts that request to sell those brands. This event gets them all together in the same place.

“We did this event in 2022, but this time around, you can really sense customers are looking for something,” Day said.

“The economy and damage have been rough and these people, they want to meet face to face again, they want to have those conversations with the manufacturers and the brokers, they want to talk to customers themselves and their partners. They want to see management and staff and have a connection.”

Alex Edwards, a senior director of national food service at Hint Beverage, goes to many trade shows throughout the year, some of which have over 70,000 people in attendance.

Hint Beverage specializes in flavored water and flavored sparkling water as an alternative to people looking to get away from soda.

But he prefers the size of Jordanos event, which allows him and the company to showcase their newer products and try to put that out in front of restaurants and storefronts that would be interested in stocking it. 

“For us, launching a product that’s carbonated, it does well with actual food service, so for us, it makes sense to debut this at a place like Jordanos,” Edwards said.

For local companies, it is also a great place to get more awareness. Santa Barbara-based Mikuna Foods made its debut on the showcase floor this year and CEO Ricky Echanique told the Business Times it is a huge honor.

Mikuna specializes in developing protein powders with chocho, a type of bean sourced in South America in the Andes Mountains, as the main ingredient. It is sold in Whole Foods.

“I usually have to travel for these events, so to have one of the more premier events right here in our backyard means a lot,” Echanique said.

“I met with Jeff (Jordano) and he is an amazing guy. Jordanos as a whole has that Central Coast spirit.”

The event also featured some of the biggest players in the industry and even some of the newest hotshots.

Poppi, an alternative soda company that recently sold for $1.65 billion to PepsiCo, was at the event. Fe Lopes, a market sales manager at Poppi, noted that despite the company’s rise, there are still “so many people that have never tried us.”

“I heard at least 50 people saying they never tried us. Maybe they heard but never tried, that is why we come, we want to continue to spread our brand’s message.”

It is also a place where some places try to offer a solution. Maple Leaf Farms, which specializes in providing signature duck dishes and meat, debuted its fully cooked product — more specifically its fully cooked duck confit, a French dish made with whole duck.

Tricia Hammer, Maple Leaf’s Western Regional Sales Manager, told the Business Times as labor shortages continue hurting restaurants, something like their product could help chefs save time and costs.

“For these chefs and restaurants, having a fully cooked duck confit that is equivalent to what they would make in the kitchen is huge for them because that means they can keep duck on the menu,” she said.

Those in the food industry also know that there are always problems.

Right now, Maple Leaf is dealing with the issue of the avian flu. Though ducks are not affected by the flu, they are carriers, which means the farm, which has about 100 locations, has had some flocks destroyed by the virus.

“But we’re at our highest level of biosecurity to really protect those ducks,” Hammer said.

Overall, the show is also a good place for aspiring cooks. Troy Vercota runs Goodland Grillers alongside his brother in Santa Barbara, a popup grill that specializes in smash burgers.

The duo has been making their burgers at local beer spots throughout the city for the past three years like Captain Fattys, Draughtsmen Aleworks and Centennial Beer Hall.

“This is just a great place to meet other vendors, other brands and to boost our name in the community,” he said.

“We want to keep growing and be at more locations.”

email: [email protected]