Last Hanukkah, Savannah native Jay Epstein grated 15 pounds of potatoes for latkes.  Pretty good for a produce distributor.  His business partner and brother-in-law, Steven Kaplan, wouldn’t have fared as well.

“I know what produce looks like in a box,” Kaplan said.  “I can tell you the grades, condition and quality.  Take it out of the box, and I’m lost.”

He’d rather treat Epstein to dinner but only at restaurants that buy from their wholesale business, NLaws Produce.

Kaplan and Epstein operate their four-year-old company in the Georgia State Farmers Market in Garden City.  They sell fruits, vegetables, dairy and spices: from vine-ripened tomatoes, their bestseller, to asparagus; strawberries to special-order gooseberries; black peppercorn to Black Sea salt; and from brie to mozzarella, all of which demand strict temperature controls.

“I feel like a babysitter babysitting delicate kids that can turn bad on you at any minute,” Epstein said.

They supply hotels, hospitals, caterers, ships and restaurants — their largest client — between Savannah and Hilton Head Island, S.C., a territory that’s expected to expand. 

Earlier this year, they planned to widen their coverage west to Statesboro and north to Charleston, S.C., add 28,000 square feet to their 15,000-square-foot warehouse and double their employees from 15 to 30.

Kaplan and Epstein grew up five houses apart and graduated from Savannah High School — Kaplan in 1969 and Epstein in 1981.  They attended college for a bit and married sisters in the same Orthodox synagogue they’ve attended since they were infants.

They rotate waking at 2 a.m. each day to prepare for workers’ 4 a.m. arrival and answer the occasional call from chefs who’ve forgotten to place orders.  “They’re waiting for the answering machine to pick up, and I pick up,” Epstein said.  “It startles them.”

For Kaplan, the industry is more exciting than his old job as a data processing manager.  His perishables change appearance daily, as do their supply-and-demand prices. 

But freshness remains constant, and, for Kaplan, nothing beats biting into a two-day-old ear of corn.  “You don’t need to boil it,” he said.  “It’s from the grower to us.”