{"id":460359,"date":"2025-12-20T16:32:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T16:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/460359\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T16:32:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T16:32:19","slug":"meet-gary-phillys-go-to-caviar-delivery-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/460359\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Gary, Philly’s go-to caviar delivery guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a November afternoon, Gary Shusman slid hundreds of dollars\u2019 worth of caviar across the counter for inspection at the Center City<\/a> oyster bar Pearl & Mary. The seven 1-ounce tins were flipped upside down so the chef could scan the individual eggs for irregularities. Deep-green pearls of golden osetra glistened like tiny emeralds in the overhead light. <\/p>\n

They were all perfect.<\/p>\n

Shusman, 50, is in the business of tiny fish eggs. His company CaviarXS<\/a> supplies the Philadelphia region\u2019s most in-demand restaurants with sturgeon caviar imported from parts of Europe and Asia. Shusman only sells wholesale so his prices don\u2019t reflect retail rates, he said, but a single kilogram of similar-grade caviar could cost consumers roughly $3,500.<\/p>\n

These precious beads are on the menu at nearly 50 upscale hotels and restaurants in and around Philly. They\u2019re heaped on bluefin tuna nigiri at Jesse Ito\u2019s notoriously difficult-to-book<\/a> Royal Sushi omakase. They ooze out of a $65 double cheeseburger from Honeysuckle<\/a>. They\u2019re spooned onto petite rye tartlets filled with wagyu tartare at Emmett<\/a> and plated next to crispy gold pierogis at Harp & Crown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Provenance<\/a>, Her Place Supper Club, and Friday Saturday Sunday \u2014 three of Shusman\u2019s top clients \u2014 all took home Philadelphia\u2019s first Michelin stars<\/a>. Several others, including Honeysuckle, earned recommendations<\/a> from the storied gastronomic guide.<\/p>\n

Chefs choose to work with Shusman because his concierge-esque style adds an extra layer of luxury to caviar \u2014 something his clients say they appreciate as the fish eggs become trendier and more \u201caccessible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think chefs are artists,\u201d Shusman said, \u201cand what I do is like supplying paint to Michelangelo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caviar for all?<\/p>\n

Long considered a bourgeois delicacy, caviar exploded into the mainstream in 2023<\/a> thanks to the growth of mass-produced Chinese varieties<\/a> and viral TikToks from caviar heiress Danielle Zaslavskaya<\/a>, who encouraged followers to spoon roe on Doritos<\/a> and plain bread with butter<\/a>. Suddenly caviar seemed attainable.<\/p>\n

Soon after, \u201cbump bars\u201d<\/a> started popping up in cities across the U.S. to sell microdoses of fish eggs, and Philly\u2019s not immune. <\/b>The Biederman\u2019s caviar kiosk<\/a> opened outside the Four Seasons Hotel late last year, and caviar is set to rule the menu at a forthcoming Rittenhouse Square Champagne bar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the hoi polloi\u2019s enthusiasm, <\/b>caviar still occupies a mostly <\/b>rarified space in Philly. It\u2019s largely reserved for high-end tastings and prix fixe menus, meted out carefully with a mother-of-pearl<\/a> spoon. The fish eggs\u2019 growing presence represents a rising tension in Philly\u2019s food scene, which attracts national acclaim<\/a> \u2014 and with it, more expensive restaurants \u2014 as the city continues to have a stark poverty rate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some chefs say, let caviar be caviar. <\/p>\n

Class dynamics are top of mind at North Broad Street\u2019s Honeysuckle<\/a>. Chef Omar Tate uses Shusman\u2019s caviar for the McDonald\u2019s Money: a pricey burger sandwiched by milk bread that\u2019s adorned with black truffles, flecks of edible 24-karat gold, and golden osetra pearls. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s an ode to Tate\u2019s childhood in Germantown<\/a>. When he would ask parents for money to get McDonald\u2019s, \u201cI\u2019d get told no because we didn\u2019t have it,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s truffle on this burger, there\u2019s caviar \u2026 It\u2019s a metaphor for consuming the money you don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like most everything <\/b>at Tate\u2019s culinary celebration of the Black American diaspora<\/a>, the burger elicits a big reaction. The presentation\u2019s dramatic irony makes the fish eggs feel more relevant, said Tate, who didn\u2019t learn what caviar was \u2014 let alone taste it \u2014 until his mid-20s. He doesn\u2019t feel like he was missing out.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaviar was never meant to be something consumed at scale, Tate said. \u201dIt\u2019s not food \u2026 it\u2019s more closely related to a drug.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Society Hill, Provenance chef-owner Nich Bazik agrees that caviar isn\u2019t meant for mass consumption. \u201cMaking it cheaper and more accessible just dilutes the product and takes away that exclusiveness, takes away from that moment you want to save up for,\u201d said Bazik, who has a course dedicated to caviar at his French and Korean tasting counter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From nightclubs to caviar bumps<\/p>\n

Like Tate, Shusman remembers what it\u2019s like to go without. He and his parents immigrated from Kyiv to Philly in 1989 as the Soviet Union collapsed. He can still recall the scarcity he felt during his childhood in Ukraine, where supermarket shelves would frequently be bare from food shortages. <\/p>\n

Caviar has captivated him since he was a kid. He had his first taste while still living in <\/b>the U.S.S.R. The pearls, served straight from the tin, were a rare treat procured <\/b>from the black market<\/a> <\/b>by his uncle, a butcher, or his mother, who worked in food transportation. Once stateside, Shusman\u2019s father made his living by importing Eastern European foods, including caviar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember ever not liking [caviar], mostly because there was no telling when I would have it again,\u201d said Shusman, licking his lips. \u201cIt transports you. You taste the sea.\u201d <\/p>\n

Caviar eggs take a decade to develop inside the stomachs of female sturgeon, a hulking freshwater fish<\/a> most closely associated with the beluga native to the Caspian Sea<\/a>. To harvest the eggs, you must kill the sturgeon \u2014 a controversial process<\/a> that involves slicing open the stomach to reveal walls of tiny black, amber, or deep-green pearls.<\/p>\n

Caviar was inexpensive until the 1990s<\/a>, when the overfishing of beluga in the Caspian led to trade embargoes<\/a> and, eventually, a complete ban<\/a> as the fish became critically endangered<\/a>. Today, most sturgeon are bred for caviar production in disparate pockets of the globe \u2014 Israel<\/a>; China<\/a>; Sacramento, Calif.<\/a>; and Florida<\/a> among them. The time- and resource-intensive breeding process drives up prices.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Caviar on Doritos? TikTok loves it. Chefs, not so much.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

While the caviar industry was undergoing its first major transformation, Shusman, then in his 30s, was partying in Philly. He owned a trio of now-shuttered nightclubs \u2014 including Rittenhouse Square\u2019s Rumor<\/a> and beloved EDM venue Soundgarden<\/a> \u2014 when his wife asked him to consider leaving the industry to focus on fatherhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a nonstop party, but it was a lot of work, a lot of stress,\u201d said Shusman, who lives in Richboro, Bucks County<\/a>, with his wife and two preteen sons. (So far, only one son likes caviar.)<\/p>\n

Shusman was working as a real estate developer in 2017 when he found his way back to caviar. He was dining at Royal Sushi\u2019s omakase counter when he gave chef Jesse Ito some unsolicited feedback about the caviar being served. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis caviar wasn\u2019t \u2014 I don\u2019t want to say it was bad. It was just OK,” recalled Shusman. \u201cI told him I could find him something better.\u201d <\/p>\n

Shusman has supplied Ito with caviar ever since, establishing CaviarXS in 2018. His business largely comes from word of mouth: Bazik learned of Shusman from a Bon App\u00e9tit video<\/a> about Royal Sushi, then recommended him to Evan Snyder at Emmett<\/a>. Friday Saturday Sunday co-owner Chad Williams connected him to Tate. Chef Amanda Shulman<\/a> sent Shusman\u2019s number to her husband, Alex Kemp, before the couple opened My Loup<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n

CaviarXS\u2019 clients almost exclusively choose golden osetra caviar, a mild, slightly nutty variety that Shusman believes to be the best. He sources it from the Caspian region, though he declines to divulge the names of the farms (or his prices). <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to get an exact answer out of people as to where the caviar really comes from, which creates a general distrust,\u201d said Provenance\u2019s Bazik. \u201cI could go online or talk to a rep from a company that says they source their caviar from this place or that place with no stamp of authenticity. Or I could call Gary.\u201d<\/p>\n

A milkman for fish eggs<\/p>\n

Origin aside, chefs choose Shusman\u2019s caviar because he personally <\/b>delivers it, kind of like a high-end milkman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the way you make them feel \u2026 Chefs like when you hold their hand,\u201d Shusman said. \u201cIt\u2019s my personality. I\u2019m very likable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twice a month, Shusman travels to the Brooklyn warehouse where his caviar is stored to handpick the roe he sells to chefs. He searches for perfect pearls \u2014 uniform beads of amber that sparkle. They should burst when pressed to the roof of your mouth, he said.<\/p>\n

On any given Tuesday or Thursday, Shusman drives around Philly for hours in his white Mercedes-Benz, dropping off tins of caviar in cooler bags printed with photo-realistic <\/b>fish eggs. In between stops, he take meetings on his phone for his real estate business.<\/p>\n

Shusman makes upward of 10 caviar deliveries a day. Often, he\u2019ll clinch a sale by asking chefs to taste the product on the spot. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: What does Michelin mean for the Philly restaurant scene?<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

The pearls permeate much of Shusman\u2019s life. He spoons beads of golden osetra atop of fluffy scrambled eggs for breakfast. Even Shusman\u2019s dog \u2014 a 6-year-old Yorkie \u2014 gets caviar as a treat. Every time he starts the engine <\/b>of his car, <\/b>Shusman\u2019s electronic dashboard beams the words \u201cHello, Gary Caviar.\u201d <\/p>\n

Shusman\u2019s personal deliveries stand out because Philly doesn\u2019t yet have a caviar market large enough to demand that level of service, said Bazik, unlike New York City or Chicago. (That may change now that the Michelin Guide has landed<\/a> here, Bazik hopes.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so spoiled \u2026 I can count on Gary to go above and beyond,\u201d said Alex Kemp, whose wife and My Loup co-owner earned a Michelin star for Her Place Supper Club<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At My Loup<\/a>, Shusman\u2019s caviar currently speckles a $35 whitefish doughnut. In the past, Kemp said, he\u2019s used the osetra to top a sour cream-and-onion pork rind and creamy sea urchin mousse: \u201cIt tastes so clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kemp\u2019s loyalty to Shusman runs deep. When My Loup first opened, the restaurant lost over a pound of caviar overnight after a cleaning company accidentally unplugged its refrigerator. Shusman replaced it free of charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could\u2019ve been lying, but he didn\u2019t ask any questions. It was big for us as a new business,\u201d Kemp said.<\/p>\n

That loyalty boosts sales. Provenance<\/a> goes through roughly a kilo of golden osetra eggs a week for its caviar course. In the fall, Bazik spooned it atop a whipped <\/b>tofu mousse that enclosed a firm block of a sweet potato-and-licorice powder custard. Puffs of sorghum sat contrasted with the fish eggs, Bazik said, giving each bite a simultaneous crunch and pop.<\/p>\n

The dish was inspired by things Bazik\u2019s 4-year-old son eats (minus the caviar). Provenance pays roughly $2,000 a week \u2014 or $8,000 a month \u2014 for the fish eggs alone. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of money we spend on caviar for that one dish isn\u2019t the best business decision I\u2019ve ever made,\u201d Bazik said. \u201cBut I keep doing it because it\u2019s Gary. It comes with generosity.\u201d <\/p>\n