Mitchell Berliner

As a trailblazer and entrepreneur, Mitch Berliner’s endeavors over the past thirty five years have put him in the forefront of Washingtonians who have been instrumental in making this area a world-class food market.

Today seasonal farm markets and freshly made food to go are familiar to most people, but Mitch did both and started the gourmet-to-go concept fresh out of college in 1971. Expanding into natural and super premium ice creams in 1974, Mitch founded Berliner Foods introducing people in the mid-Atlantic to some of their favorite treats: Haagen Dazs, Ben & Jerrys and the luscious Dove Bars and numerous other high quality and organic frozen products. After Edy’s acquired the business in 1985, Mitch opened Berliner Specialty Distributors and introduced an array of organic and specialty foods to the area, Always the trendsetter and innovator, Mitch helped develop products for American Café, was a founding partner of Louisiana Express restaurant in Bethesda and has consulted for other restaurants in Washington. He also worked with Costco to develop a mail order fulfillment program for specialty ice creams.

Among the many philanthropic organizations that Mitch is involved with he has served on the Board of Directors of the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation, the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science to name a few and served on the fundraising committees of Share Our Strength, The Washington Capital Area Food Bank and FreshFarm Markets. In 2007, Mitch was inducted into the Maryland Food Industry Hall of Fame for his foresight and contribution to the food industry and his longstanding involvement with numerous charitable and civic organizations. Mitch was recently appointed to the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation Advisory Board for the James Beard Foundation. He has now gone back to his roots of bringing the best fresh foods to the area as he opens a new farm market this summer, with co-founder Ann Brody; Bethesda Central Farm Market in Bethesda, Maryland.

But keeping true to his mission of bringing great foods to the area, Mitch is also turning his talents to producing food. He has opened MeatCrafters, a new food company that brings to Washington the finest in all natural cooked, smoked and cured meats.