In the Triad and Triangle, Dennis Quaintance, who owns the Green Valley Grill and two Lucky 32 restaurants, has established a similar reputation for offering the freshest ingredients available to his chefs while helping keep a host of local farmers in business growing produce and making cheese. Kindred spirits separated by 3,000 miles, it's only natural that Niman and Quaintance would meet, as they did several years ago, and do business together. Quaintance is Niman Ranch's only customer in the Triad, offering pork dishes and now beef. "We are very careful who we sell to," says Niman, who was in Greensboro last week to meet with the chefs and wait staff of Quaintance-Weaver (Q-W) restaurants.

The affable Niman, who started his business in 1972, conducted training sessions on the nuances of Niman Ranch meats, which come from grain- and grass-fed livestock raised naturally on small farms. Antibiotics or growth hormones are never used. San Francisco-based Niman Ranch is in partnership with more than 500 family farms across the country, 30 of which are in North Carolina. Bart Ortiz, a Q-W vice president who oversees the restaurants, says Niman Ranch meats cost significantly more than meats from large, wholesale suppliers. So does buying local produce. "It's a huge risk; you can't pass along all the extra costs," Ortiz says. "If we did, we'd be sitting in an empty restaurant." Instead, Ortiz and Quaintance are betting on freshness and taste, and the "green sensibilities" of their customers, to keep their restaurants busy. The goal is for volume to offset higher costs.

Thus far, the bet is paying off, and not just for Q-W restaurants. Triad produce farmers, who sell in bulk to the restaurants, and North Carolina livestock farmers, who sell through Niman Ranch, are also the beneficiaries.

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