Half a decade after its inception, a local frozen burrito delivery company is rolling more of its products onto grocery store shelves.
Sous Casa is expanding its production and distribution to sell its meat-based products through retailers for the first time.
The South Richmond-based company was launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic by Jim Hamilton, a chef who’s worked at local spots like Kuba Kuba and for the likes of Phish, Jon Bon Jovi, Beyoncé and other performers.
Also on the team are co-owners Michael Larkum and Anj McClain, along with operations manager Lora Gess.
The company, which has a host of frozen meat, vegan and vegetarian burrito and burrito bowl options, offers twice-weekly direct-to-consumer deliveries in Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield and some surrounding areas. Its products are in the $4 to $7 range.
Sous Casa first expanded into local markets in 2021, starting with its vegan and vegetarian burrito products. The veggie-based retail sales first kicked off in October of that year at Outpost Richmond in Forest Hill. Those products are now sold in over 100 smaller grocery stores up and down the East Coast.
Adding meat burritos to its retail menu wasn’t quite as easy.
The company has been working through government approvals to sell retail meat products for a few years. It currently operates out of Hatch Kitchen, a food-and-beverage incubator in Manchester. But because Hatch currently does not have the ability to produce meat products for wholesale use, Sous Casa has been looking elsewhere for a co-packer with that ability. Now it has found a partner for the job in Warrenton-based Evermade Foods.
Evermade provides USDA and FDA food production at its 12,000-square-foot commercial kitchen, packaging line and warehouse in Warrenton.
“We have been working for a couple years to find a co-packer who can produce our most popular products, our meat burritos, in a way that represents the care and quality we put into making them ourselves,” Gess said.
Gess said Sous Casa hopes for their meat products to hit shelves in late March or early April.
First to launch will be its “Brrreakfast” sausage burritos, which feature scrambled eggs, pork sausage and cheddar cheese. Following those will come the regular and spicy versions of its “Frollo” verde burritos with chicken, cheese and salsa verde, along with the “Chorfreezo” burrito with pork chorizo, shredded potatoes and cheese.
Sous Casa is currently targeting around 140 smaller grocery markets and co-ops across the East Coast for the meat product launch. It hopes to target some bigger grocery chains in the long term.
“The bigger conversation is about Whole Foods, Kroger’s, bigger chains,” Gess said. “That’s an eventual conversation. Our model right now is lots of small.”
Gess anticipates a retail price for each burrito of $6.99 when they hit stores, though it is subject to change. Delivery prices for the meat burrito options are currently $5.75 per burrito.
For its multistate vegan and veggie retail distribution, Sous Casa uses New Jersey-based Rainforest Distribution in the northeast and Georgia-based P10 Foods in the southeast.
Aside from the challenge of finding a meat products distributor, Gess said Sous Casa has also battled a sustained increase in prices of ingredients like eggs and the recent water crisis in Richmond.
But her hope is that when the meat products hit store shelves this spring, new and returning customers can see the quality the frozen food company has to offer, in a market that is not always known for high-quality products.
“Our Richmond fanbase have seen you can have really high-quality, delicious, well-curated and thoughtful food done store-to-freezer,” she said. “Frozen burritos don’t have to be boring, they can be creative.”
Half a decade after its inception, a local frozen burrito delivery company is rolling more of its products onto grocery store shelves.
Sous Casa is expanding its production and distribution to sell its meat-based products through retailers for the first time.
The South Richmond-based company was launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic by Jim Hamilton, a chef who’s worked at local spots like Kuba Kuba and for the likes of Phish, Jon Bon Jovi, Beyoncé and other performers.
Also on the team are co-owners Michael Larkum and Anj McClain, along with operations manager Lora Gess.
The company, which has a host of frozen meat, vegan and vegetarian burrito and burrito bowl options, offers twice-weekly direct-to-consumer deliveries in Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield and some surrounding areas. Its products are in the $4 to $7 range.
Sous Casa first expanded into local markets in 2021, starting with its vegan and vegetarian burrito products. The veggie-based retail sales first kicked off in October of that year at Outpost Richmond in Forest Hill. Those products are now sold in over 100 smaller grocery stores up and down the East Coast.
Adding meat burritos to its retail menu wasn’t quite as easy.
The company has been working through government approvals to sell retail meat products for a few years. It currently operates out of Hatch Kitchen, a food-and-beverage incubator in Manchester. But because Hatch currently does not have the ability to produce meat products for wholesale use, Sous Casa has been looking elsewhere for a co-packer with that ability. Now it has found a partner for the job in Warrenton-based Evermade Foods.
Evermade provides USDA and FDA food production at its 12,000-square-foot commercial kitchen, packaging line and warehouse in Warrenton.
“We have been working for a couple years to find a co-packer who can produce our most popular products, our meat burritos, in a way that represents the care and quality we put into making them ourselves,” Gess said.
Gess said Sous Casa hopes for their meat products to hit shelves in late March or early April.
First to launch will be its “Brrreakfast” sausage burritos, which feature scrambled eggs, pork sausage and cheddar cheese. Following those will come the regular and spicy versions of its “Frollo” verde burritos with chicken, cheese and salsa verde, along with the “Chorfreezo” burrito with pork chorizo, shredded potatoes and cheese.
Sous Casa is currently targeting around 140 smaller grocery markets and co-ops across the East Coast for the meat product launch. It hopes to target some bigger grocery chains in the long term.
“The bigger conversation is about Whole Foods, Kroger’s, bigger chains,” Gess said. “That’s an eventual conversation. Our model right now is lots of small.”
Gess anticipates a retail price for each burrito of $6.99 when they hit stores, though it is subject to change. Delivery prices for the meat burrito options are currently $5.75 per burrito.
For its multistate vegan and veggie retail distribution, Sous Casa uses New Jersey-based Rainforest Distribution in the northeast and Georgia-based P10 Foods in the southeast.
Aside from the challenge of finding a meat products distributor, Gess said Sous Casa has also battled a sustained increase in prices of ingredients like eggs and the recent water crisis in Richmond.
But her hope is that when the meat products hit store shelves this spring, new and returning customers can see the quality the frozen food company has to offer, in a market that is not always known for high-quality products.
“Our Richmond fanbase have seen you can have really high-quality, delicious, well-curated and thoughtful food done store-to-freezer,” she said. “Frozen burritos don’t have to be boring, they can be creative.”
Surprising and too bad there is not a facility in Richmond that could handle this. You would think there would be enough of a market where much of the original economy was built on food.
Big congrats to Jim and the Sous Casa team. They have been providing a very high quality product to those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to order in the Richmond area. Glad to see others will get the chance to enjoy them as well. A great product made by great people equals a successful business model. Wishing you continued success.