Hotel Restaurant Supply

If you’re over 50 you may remember when the coffee section of your local supermarket stocked and sold about a half-dozen brands: Folger’s, Hills Brothers, MJB, Maxwell House, Chase & Sanborn, and A.& P brands. Today it might take an hour to count all the brands at a typical market as the competition for your coffee dollar is hot! Survey: Sixty-four percent of Americans age 18 or over said they had a cup of coffee the previous day in 2018. Because iced coffee is now almost as popular as hot coffee, there is not as much variation in consumption statistics by month. People love to drink it all year round, but in the winter months people are craving special drinks made with the espresso/cappuccino machine like cafe au lait, macchiato, cafe con leche, cafe mocha, and lattes. Even though we in the U.S. see coffee shops practically on every corner these days, we are still ranked far below many other nations when it comes to coffee consumption per-capita. In fact we don’t even ...

It’s difficult to understand the stories we see in the news every day about depression and addiction, but we do know they have a significant impact on many people in our industry. Hospitality is a fast-paced and high-stress business with easy access to alcohol, so it’s not a surprise to know that people get hooked to the point where it affects their job. Other drugs also find their way into kitchens and bars, and knowing how to help affected employees  and  protect the operation and image of the business is crucial. If you work in the business, you know how crazy things get in the kitchen and if you don’t you can read Anthony Bourdain’s book  Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly  to reveal one man’s view of  life in the back-of-house. NPR published an excellent article on this subject earlier this year, please read:  In an Industry Rife with Substance Abuse, Restaurant Workers Help Their Own    If your restaur...

If you attended the National Restaurant Association Show this past week and we got to see you, thank you for stopping by! We loved meeting so many people who are passionate about food and hospitality. It’s a rewarding industry to be a part of, and we know that’s true because everyone at that show was smiling and happy! We embrace the philosophy “When you focus on your clients’ needs, you will most certainly succeed.” We understand there are many sources for restaurant equipment and supplies , so the difference is people. No matter how technically advanced our world becomes with online shopping, it’s still about people working with people, and we would appreciate the opportunity to work with you. If you’re looking for a particular item, we’ll do everything possible to get you what you need and do it within your budget. We have completely redesigned our website to serve you better with improved search capabilities, express checkout, easy one-click reordering, and more. See...

Robots are in the news in a big way. Headlines like “Robots are Taking More Jobs Than Immigrants” introduce stories about almost almost every industry being affected by robots, including food service. Computerized kitchens, which used to be a silly fantasy in science fiction movies and cartoons are close to being a reality. Flippy, the fast-food hamburger flipper designed for fast-food restaurants failed its first day on the job because it couldn’t keep up with demand. The technicians who programmed the machine have vowed to re-write some code and get it back on the job soon. So, will a robot ever be capable of replacing a chef in a fine restaurant? We found a list of must-have skills needed to be successful as a chef: • A passion for the culinary arts. — We don’t think “passion” is programmable. • Ability to handle criticism. — We’re pretty sure the robot will ignore criticism. • Attentiveness to detail. — Not sure about this one. • Creativity. — Machines do what they ...

Restaurants today are changing, offering services and food items they may not have before in order to compete. Many established eateries that never paid much attention to take-out or delivery now devote major advertising, personnel, and resources to those endeavors. Nutritional concerns are also prompting most restaurants to add ingredient details to their menus. If customers want take-out and non-gluten meals, restaurant owners and managers will offer them or diners will drive further down the road for food. Now comes another common consumer preference: pet-friendly restaurants. If you’re running one now and it’s going well, that’s great. If you’re thinking about it we’d like to share some experiences and advice we have garnered from restaurant clients through the years. Why Pets? Forty-four percent of Americans own a dog and 29% own a cat. While cats don’t usually enjoy dining out, dogs love it and dog-lovers love being with their dogs. And 44% of Americans is a lot of...

Have you ever bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate a special occasion and then remembered when you got home that Uncle Bob broke your only two champagne glasses at last New Year’s Eve party when he fell on the coffee table after tripping on the cat? Well, it happens. You end up drinking your bottle of bubbly from Mason jars, and that is just wrong! As a restaurateur you don’t want to be caught short on having the proper glassware as we approach the biggest champagne days of the year, which are: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and Valentine’s Day. Of course, New Year’s Eve is the grand champion for champagne consumption with 360 million glasses served. Valentine’s Day is second, Thanksgiving third, and Christmas is more a day for giving, not drinking champagne. People give champagne as gifts on Christmas and then drink it the following week for New Year’s. It works out great. We have a tremendous selection of  champagne glasses  as well as  glassware ...