Supplying Great Chefs Accross America since 1988
In 2005, Cavendish Game Birds completed construction of a Vermont-inspected poultry processing facility that follows an approved HACCP plan. On-site processing reduces stress on the birds, and enables a team of experienced food processors to carefully prepare and inspect them by hand. No automation, with the exception of feather removal, is used in the preparation of their quail or pheasant.
2005-present
In 1998, they purchased a 75-acre farm in Springfield, Vermont, where they maintain their breeding stock of Coturnix quail, and operate a state-of-the-art hatchery that fills their barns with thousands of quail each week.
In 2004, they acquired a former restaurant that they renovated to house their offices and a new processing facility. Now the brothers are marketing their quail and pheasant to fine restaurants and home kitchens throughout the United States.
1998-2004
Cavendish Game Birds was started in 1988 with the goal of providing local kitchens with fresh game birds and quail eggs. The Thompson brothers, backyard poultry producers since childhood, have been in the food business their entire adult lives. Bill is a professional chef with a degree from Johnson & Wales in Rhode Island, and Rick worked as a sales manager in the food service industry.
OUR STORY
1986-1991
In 1986, Bill sold his New Jersey restaurant to work at a Vermont inn. Fresh game birds were not available locally, so he began raising pheasants in his backyard to supply the inn’s guests.
Three years later, Bill was delivering fresh pheasant and quail to many of Vermont’s finest restaurants, and Rick was selling them to his restaurant accounts in Philadelphia and Boston. In 1991, the brothers joined forces to grow the business.
25
years