From our humble beginnings serving local restaurants in Northern New Jersey in the late 1800’s, to our current position as the largest independent processor of USDA Prime and Dry Aged CAB® Beef in the United States, the Abeles family has been serving the finest retail and food service establishments throughout the nation.  Our belief in a simple credo and code of conduct has evolved into a company culture and has helped us to sustain a consistent growth for over a century.  “Simply the Best”® is not just a catch phrase, but rather an entire way of doing business.

            The Abeles family has been in the United States since 1832.  Our involvement in the food service industry began sometime in the latter part of the 19th century, when Julius Abeles opened a retail business catering to the elite of Newark, New Jersey.  It became apparent, rather quickly, that institutions as well as retail customers were going to be interested in the high quality meat products that Julius had to offer.  Thus he began to expand his client base to include the finer restaurants, clubs and hotels.

            The evolution of the Abeles family’s involvement in the meat industry continued with Julius’ son.  With his eye keenly set on expanding the horizons of the small New Jersey establishment, Milton traveled across the river to New York in the early 1900’s.  It was there that he found an even larger potential customer base for his high quality products.

            By the time Milton’s son Julius was old enough to work, his destiny had been determined.  Together, Milton and Julius set out on a course that would eventually result in the formation of Milton Abeles, Inc. and bring it to the position of preeminence that it occupies in the meat industry today.  The wholesale business that Julius named for his father is the same company that thrives today.  Through four decades, under the leadership of Julius, Milton Abeles, Inc. has maintained a constant and consistent growth.

            In 1980, the fourth generation of the Abeles family would enter the business.  Upon his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, Richard Abeles, the current President and CEO, joined the company, and yet another era of evolution began.  Richard’s understanding of the ever changing socio-economic climate resulted in implementation of significant changes in the direction of the business. This change would facilitate continued growth over the next several decades.He recognized that the key to such growth would be through providing unparalleled quality and consistency in both product and service.  In order to sustain such growth, the mantra of Simply the Best® was born.  It became not only the company credo, but the company culture as well.

            Milton Abeles, Inc. specializes in catering to the highest quality retailers, whether large or small, and the finest steakhouses nationally including Citarella, Price Chopper and Fairway, as well as, Peter Luger, Smith & Wollensky, Gallagher’s, Bryant & Cooper and Sparks, to name a few.  By creating strategic partnerships, Milton Abeles, Inc. facilitates the ability of these entities to serve a more consistent, higher quality product.

            Milton Abeles, Inc. dry ages the finest beef available in the market today.  Each piece of beef that enters the dry age room has been hand selected for quality, confirmation, color and size.  Our selectors are trained to pick the finest beef for each of our discerning clientele.  From our mail order fulfillment, to portion cut steaks, to sub-primal cuts, we continue to meet the ever changing needs of our clients.  The key to our success remains our willingness and ability to provide our customers what they require, unparalleled quality and consistency. 

            This philosophy extends into our lamb, veal, pork and poultry products as well.  We have scoured the country to find the finest sources for these products so that the level of quality and consistency can be, and is maintained.  The same processing parameters apply to all of the products as well.  Each item is hand selected to meet the specifications of each client.  In that way, each and every product can be  called “Simply the Best®”.

            In October of 2005, Milton Abeles, Inc. moved its national headquarters to a new state of the art, 40,000 square foot facility in Port Washington, New York.  This plant was designed with the latest in food processing and food safety technology.  Our HACCP plan incorporates all facets of food safety.  This allows us to continue to provide products of the highest quality.  The HACCP plan for our facility is available for review upon request.

            In August of 2006, Milton Abeles, Inc. joined the elite group of distributors to be licensed to sell Certified Angus Beef®.  This union of CAB® and MAI-Simply the Best® is what one could call a perfect match.   Both CAB® and Milton Abeles, Inc.-Simply the Best® have similar philosophies about quality and consistency.  That is why CAB® sought out Milton Abeles, Inc.-Simply the Best® to market CAB® Prime Beef, CAB® Choice Beef and CAB® Natural Beef to both retail and food service establishments. 

            Most recently, Milton Abeles, Inc. concluded a deal with Tyson Fresh Meats (ibp) to become the exclusive processor and distributor of its USDA Prime Natural ABF Angus Beef.  This unique partnership between Tyson Fresh Meats (ibp) and Milton Abeles, Inc. enables us to make Simply the Best® USDA Prime Natural ABF Beef available to the market today.

            All of the employees of Milton Abeles, Inc.-Simply the Best® take great pride in the products that we produce.  Each year every employee undergoes food safety training, and seminars in quality control with participatory input.  The management of Milton Abeles, Inc. actively solicits suggestions from production workers to improve the quality and consistency of our products. 

            We eagerly encourage chefs, merchandise managers, category managers, and owners to visit our facility and let us know what we can do for them.  The application of Our Simply the Best® philosophy enables us to produce what the client desires, as opposed to shopping off a product list.  Once a specification has been determined, the product will always be the same.  It is all part of the same ideal. 

Let us prove to you what Simply the Best® can mean for your establishment. 

You won’t regret it.