Wild Fork: Tasting is Believing!

Wild Forks meat and seafood market held its grand opening on Wednesday, Sept. 25, after previously soft launching on Aug. 28.

For guests, samples of brisket, Mac and cheese, and key lime pie were available. The first fifty people to make a purchase and enter their email at checkout received a swag bag. If you spent $100, you got to spin the wheel and take home one of their products including a foot-long spatula.

Though the chicken breast sold out due to the event, there were still plenty of products to choose from; with over 700 cuts of meat, Wild Fork has the widest selection of any grocer around.

“You guys have a lot of stuff here, it’s really unique,” said shopper Debra Corley. “There is nothing in Long Beach like this.” Debra used to attend the Laguna Niguel location before moving to Long Beach.

With exotic meats such as chicken hearts, alligator, ostrich, bison, venison and  even rabbit, Wild Fork offers many proteins not seen in grocery markets. For non-exotic meat lovers, grocery staples such as frozen fruits and vegetables, smoothie packs, seasonings, breads and  pizzas. Located along the name tags of the products are QR codes with recipes for said products.

Controlling the source of the meat to ensure good quality is at utmost importance for Wild Fork. Though they don’t outsource their meat – everything comes straight from their farms – the vendors they do work with for certain items are genuine. For example, their Belgium waffles are made and frozen from Belgium, crepes made and frozen in France, their frozen pizzas are flash frozen from Italy and  so on.

“Its not just about taking any product and freezing it, where we source the products matters just as much and working with the right vendors.” explains Regional Director Pares Tulsiani.

Tulsiani began working with Wild Forks when it was just three guys and a vision. Spending five years on the product development team, Tulsiani explains how another inspiration behind the company included the need for a strong brand attached to protein; when you think of a phone you think of Apple, when you think of electric cars you think of Tesla. But there’s no brand associated with protein.

By creating a brand, they can change the way consumers shop for and consume protein. This is important to reshape the negative views people have on frozen food.

“The only barrier we know we have to combat with consumer is helping them understand that frozen is fresher. The way we do that is cooking up for people to truth the products themselves, tasting is believing.”

Sustainability has also played a huge role in Wild Forks growth and affordable prices. The use of flash freeze, the process of freezing a product at -40° for 30 minutes, helps with quality, longer shelf life and  reduced food waste. This is because food avoids being tossed in the garbage due to overdue spoil dates – a component of carbon emissions. With less food waste comes less money wasted, allowing for decrease prices for consumers; a 10% to 20% difference compared to other grocers.

“The other barrier that people have is overcoming the perception that this meat needs more planning,” Tulsiani said. “More than 80% of our products are designed for people to have them the same day.”

The area of the Second St. and PCH intersection is now the perfect playground for foodies with Wild Forks joining Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Gelson’s and Ralph’s.