BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
The work day starts shortly after sunrise for cowboys at the Adams family’s 14,000-acre home ranch west of Fort Pierce.
table restaurant that will serve food grown locally. “The restaurants
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will feed the community products grown and sold
nationwide for years and will be located among a variety of
amazing shops in the Galleria.’’
Gutierrez, who has renovated a succession of aging vacant
buildings in downtown Fort 3ierce and Àlled them with new
tenants, said the restaurants are scheduled to open in mid-
January. He said each will have its own kitchen, inside seating
and courtyard and outdoor seating. The partnership also
plans to seek permits for valet parking.
As developer of the 15-space building, Gutierrez said the
restaurants Àt his goal of using the *alleria to create a vibrant
commercial district downtown.
“It’s a community boutique mall with local mom-and-pop
operators introducing handcrafted goods to the community,”
he said. “It goes back to the old Main Street community feel.
We want places where people congregate in downtown. We
want to bring downtown alive again and make it appealing
to shop, get lunch, get dinner and go to the theater.’’’
COMMUNITY TO BENEFIT
Gutierrez approached the Adams family more than a year
ago about partnering on the restaurants. “The family all
agreed that this would be something really good for Fort
Pierce and a way to feature at least one of our products,’’
Simmons said.
Simmons, 35, sees the restaurants as a way to promote
Adams Ranch Natural Beef. The ranch traditionally has been
a cow/calf operation, with calves being sold to feedlots once
each reaches about 600 pounds. But for the past few years,
the ranch has been transitioning part of its operation toward
raising calves to maturity and harvesting them. The Natural
Beef program allows Adams Ranch to oversee the production
SAM ADAMS
of its beef from beginning to end while also increasing proÀtability
by selling its product at the end of the production line,
eliminating the middleman.
The cattle raised through the Adams Ranch Natural Beef
program meet natural certiÀcations from the 8.6. 'epartment
of Agriculture and do not receive growth hormones,
antibiotics or steroids. They are pasture-raised with no
animal byproducts in their feed. Because the beef is raised
and processed in Florida, it carries the Florida 'epartment of
Agriculture’s “Fresh From Florida’’ label.
The calves in the program are raised at Adams ranches in
St. Lucie or Osceola counties until 6 to 9 months of age and
then transported to 4uincey &attle &o. in &hiefland, where
they are fattened before being processed and packaged an
hour away at FM Meat Products of Fort McCoy.
SUPERIOR BEEF QUALITIES
The cattle in the natural beef program are ABEEF composite
cattle, which are half Braford and part Angus and
Gelbvieh. Bud Adams developed the Braford and ABEEF
breeds. The Adams family touts the beef’s superior qualities
in marbling, tenderness and taste.
The ranch supplies all 26 Whole Foods stores in Florida
with Adams Ranch Natural Beef. It is also being distributed
to restaurants on the Treasure Coast through Cheney
Brothers, a food distributor. Simmons is married to Cheney
Simmons, who is a Cheney family member and the company’s
executive vice president. Adams Ranch beef is now in
year-round demand, Simmons said, “and Cheney Brothers is
making it possible to handle the logistics and sale of our beef
to restaurants.’’
Adams Ranch Natural Beef is just one of three “Fresh From
Florida’’ beefs sold in the state. The others are Seminole >>