Directory
How listings work
Short version: listings are free, we write them, you cannot buy one or buy a better position, and you can ask to be removed at any time.
Who we list
One test, and it is not about size, location, or whether a business competes with the publisher: can they actually serve a kitchen at an address in Northeast Ohio? This directory exists to answer “who can help me, here”. A listing that cannot answer that makes the page worse for the operator, whoever it belongs to.
- Where a business is headquartered does not matter. A national company with a warehouse or a route here belongs, and several are listed. So does a Columbus or Cincinnati business that genuinely covers this region. What matters is whether they will turn up.
- Wanting leads from here is not the same as serving here. If a business does not work in these counties, listing it would send operators to someone who cannot help them. We decline those, and we reply saying so rather than leaving the submission unanswered.
- Location-independent services can qualify where kitchens here genuinely use them and the location truly does not matter — point-of-sale software, payroll, online ordering. They are listed for what they do rather than dressed up as local.
- A web-only catalogue with no presence here generally does not. Not because it competes with anyone — the publisher competes with half this directory. The reason is in the next paragraph, and it is worth reading, because this is the criterion most likely to be applied to someone who disagrees with it.
What “can serve a kitchen here” actually means
Almost everything that goes wrong in a kitchen is physical and time-bound. The walk-in fails at five on a Friday with a full book. The hood inspection is Tuesday and the fan will not tip. The grease interceptor backs up during service. A gasket splits and you need the part today, not Thursday.
So the test breaks into three questions, and a listing needs at least one:
- Can they physically get here? A technician, a truck, a delivery, an installer — someone or something arriving at your address on a timescale that matches the problem.
- Do they know this market specifically? Which health district licenses your street. Which municipality wants the grease trap sized differently. Which inspector asks about the hinge kit. That knowledge is not transferable from another state, and it is often worth more than the price.
- Can you reach a person who can act on it here? A local number answered by someone able to dispatch, quote, or decide — not a national queue that opens a ticket.
A national storefront shipping from three states away answers none of the three. It is not a bad business; it is simply not an answer to the question this directory asks, and putting it on the page would mean an operator with a dead walk-in scrolling past it to find someone who can actually come.
There is a second reason, and it is about what happens without the rule. Listings here are free. Free plus no geographic test means every lead-generation business in the country can ask to be listed, and enough of them will that the directory stops being a shortlist and becomes a phone book — at which point it is worth nothing to the operator it was built for. The rule exists to protect the reader from that, not to protect the publisher from competition.
Every listing publishes the counties it covers, so you can check our work. That is deliberate. A directory published by a supplier saying “we declined that one” is a sentence that deserves scrutiny, so the judgement goes on the page in a form you can disagree with. If you think we have drawn the line wrongly, tell us.
Getting listed
- There is no charge, ever. Not to be listed, not to stay listed, not to rank higher.
- We write the listing. You can send us corrections of fact — hours, service area, what you actually do — but the description and the caveats are ours.
- We verify before publishing. That means confirming the business is operating and that the contact details work. An unverified submission does not go up.
- We say how hard we checked. Every listing shows when it was last verified. Where we have checked the phone number against published sources without speaking to anyone, the listing says “number checked against N sources” — and where someone has actually called, it says “confirmed by phone”. Those are different standards and we will not blur them, because a number that is published consistently and a number that rings are not the same fact.
- Ordering is alphabetical within each category, always.
What we will not do
- Sell placement, position, or a "featured" slot.
- Take affiliate commissions or referral fees from listed vendors.
- Remove a competitor at another vendor's request.
- Publish marketing copy. If a submission reads like an ad, we rewrite it or we skip it.
The publisher is listed on the same terms
Published by Dean Supply — supplying Cleveland kitchens since 1950. Dean Supply appears in the restaurant supply and furniture categories, labeled as the publisher, in alphabetical order, next to its own competitors — who are listed on identical terms and are actively invited to submit.
If you sell against Dean Supply, that is not a reason we would leave you out. It is a reason to make sure your listing is right, because a directory that quietly buried the publisher's competition would be useless to operators and obvious to everyone in the trade.
Removal and corrections
Ask and we remove it. You do not need to give a reason. Email listings@clevelandfoodservice.com.
We also remove listings we can no longer verify. A directory full of disconnected numbers is worse than a short one.
Inclusion is not endorsement
A listing means we confirmed the business exists and serves operators here. It is not a recommendation, a vouching for quality, or a guarantee of anything. That is why every category page carries a what to ask before you hire checklist — the diligence is still yours, we are just making it faster.