Tomaso’s Story
Tomaso’s began as an Italian restaurant in Old Town, Eureka, famous for its spinach pies. In 1989, founder Tom Pagano, decided to take his family’s everyday pasta sauce, jar it, and distribute it to local markets and thereby created Tomaso’s Specialty Foods & Distribution.
Enter into the picture, Ryan and Amy a pretty ordinary married couple who love food. The couple met Tom as he taught them how to make homemade pizzas in their kitchen. Who doesn’t love homemade pizza?! After a lot of conversation, in 2021 in the wise lyrics of Eric Church we “decided to hang our toes off the ledge” and purchase this company, now known as Tomaso’s Distributing.
The Tomaso’s Humboldt County tradition continues on with our local family, producing and distributing a number of exceptionally delicious Humboldt County products.
So, cheers to the love of food and drink!
The Secret Sauce
We are a locally owned and operated Humboldt County business, which gives us a special advantage when it comes to supporting and understanding the communities we serve and the brands we support through distribution. At Tomaso’s Distributing, we are committed to continually enhancing the reputation and quality of not only the items we produce in house, but also the items we distribute in and around Humboldt County. We strive to set the standard in consumer confidence through top-tier food safety systems, standards and practices paired with unrivaled customer service.
Locally Owned & Operated
Meet Ryan & Amy Nilsen, owners or Tomaso’s Distribution. Ryan was born and raised Humboldt County and graduated from Cal Poly Humboldt in 1999. Ryan is a partner in the long-standing family business, Nilsen Company, a retail hardware and feed store. Ryan was surrounded by good food his entire life, due to his mother and grandmother being fabulous cooks. Amy moved to Humboldt County at the age of four from the mid-West and graduated from Cal Poly Humboldt in 1998. Amy dabbled in the world of marketing and human resources, and instead pursued a 20 plus year career in local government before transitioning to Tomaso's. Amy was not surrounded by great food growing up, until she met Ryan. Ryan frequently jokes that Amy will never leave him because if she did, she would not eat. Their experience together in business and bureaucracy, as well as a love of food and drink make them a great pair to operate Tomaso's Distributing.