Blog posts from March, 2014

We love testing our chairs and watching them fail under enormous amounts of weight. The last time we tested a chair, we weren't able to get enough weight onto the bistro chair to get it to fail. We've made videos where our NES Reliable Plastic Folding Chairs collapsed under the weight of the salt. We'd shown our plastic folding chairs holding weight overnight to show their durability. But our stacking bistro chairs? 1800 pounds resting on the chair and no collapse.

Our goal when we bring in new products is to bring in quality products. We're not interested in bringing the cheapest products if they're going to fall apart the second time that our customer use them. Durability was one of the key issues we had when we brought in our Natural Wood Folding Chair. We were already selling an incredible White Resin Folding Chair (see the stress test video here) and we didn't want a weak wooden chair that would disappoint customers looking for a wood folding chair as strong as our resin folding chairs. Earlier this year, when we shot the footage for the most recent set of stress test videos, the Natural Wood Folding Chair was high on our list of products to get tested. How did it hold up? Check out the video below.

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Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Spandex cocktail table covers are a popular linen option to cover wood cruiser tables or folding high cocktail tables for events. They`re sleek, contemporary, and easy to clean for party rental companies, hotels, golf courses, banquet halls or caterers who stock them. When these companies are starting their search for spandex cocktail table covers, the most common question encountered seems to be how much do spandex cocktail table linens cost in Canada? This blog post will detail the range of cost (in Canadian dollars, assuming as if buying from a Canadian or US event equipment supplier) and the colour choices and reasons for cost variations.

Stretch cocktail table covers vary greatly in the Canadian Market and range in price from $19.95 CDN - $58.00 CDN. The price tends to vary based on colour of fabric (as some suppliers charge extra for different colours), size of fabric (a 42” high linen will generally be more expensive than a 30” high linen) and the finishing associated with the table cover (whether it is a hemmed or surged finish). The most popular colours for spandex cocktail table cloths include white, black and ivory.

Shipping costs on Spandex Cocktail Table Covers:

The shipping costs of these linens usually run $7.00 – $25.00 per table cover depending on the size of the order (shipping costs tend to decrease dramatically per piece based on volume), where it is shipping from and where it is shipping to. The shipping costs vary solely on volume, weight and shipping location. Nationally based suppliers to the hospitality industry will have multiple warehouses across the country to provide better shipping rates coast to coast. Also keep in mind that suppliers in the United States often may not have factored in the duties and customs fees associated with trans-border linen shipments – which tend to add an additional cost to each piece (above and beyond the exchange associated with the Canadian / United States Dollar).

More and more over the years National Event Supply has increasingly gained additional customers in the catering / foodservice industry – particularly in the Greater Toronto area with respect to their catering supplies such as porcelain platters & bowls, melamine platters & bowls, porcelain wonton spoons, porcelain tasting spoons, amuse-bouche spoons & amuse-bouche forks. And because so many folks know our thoughts (from this website) on quality products and great service, they often ask us who would we classify as the best catering supply store and competitors that sell catering supplies in the area.

We like to be as transparent as possible with our customers and because of this, here is a list of some of the companies that have a solid catering supply history in the Toronto area:

1. Nella Cutlery:

Nella Cutlery (also known as Nella Food Equipment & Nella Cucina) started in the Toronto area in 1952 and is located in North York, Ontario. With a 55,000 sq foot showroom, they sell their own line of knives, pizza accessories, scales & cutting boards as well as reselling additional catering supplies such as buffetware and serveware from Johnson-Rose, Browne Foodservice, Vollrath, Cambro, Rubbermaid Commercial, Winco & Tableware Solutions.

2. Dinetz Restaurant Equipment Ltd:

A long standing fixture to the Toronto catering scene, Dinetz Restaurant Equipment Ltd has been around since 1912. They supply cook & bakeware, heavy equipment, kitchen knives, appliances, smallware, glassware, flatware and china to hotels, caterers, hospitals, offices, schools, entertainment facilities, culinary students and households throughout Ontario and Canada.

3. Williams Food Equipment:

Based in Windsor, Ontario, Williams Food Equipment is a 100% Canadian owned and operated family business (much like National Event Supply) and supplies high-quality cookware and kitchenware. They believe in 100% customer satisfaction, the latest kitchenware products and getting those products to you fast.

4. Gordon Food Service:

North America`s largest family-owned broadline foodservice distributor, Gordon Food Service supplies restaurants, hotels, caterers, convenience stores, camps, daycare centers, churches, amusement and recreation facilities, jails, and prisons with meat, seafood, dairy, produce, bakery and tabletop supplies. Instead of focusing on a few core areas of competency they focus on providing broadline distribution of foodservice products.

5. Browne Foodservice:

Browne & Co. is a Canadian company that provides the global marketplace with foodservice and retail housewares products. They focus on product innovation and outstanding service with their own proprietary brands while also marketing and distributing other brands such as Arc International, Emile Henry, Bamix, T&S and Global in the Canadian Market. They distribute and sell bakeware, bar service, buffet service, coffee service, cookware, dinnerware, flatware, food preparation, glassware and tabletop essentials.

So there are 5 companies to consider if you’re getting quotes or pricing for your catering business. At risk of sounding like a broken record, the key to a great experience with purchasing from a catering supply store is:

• The durability of the product
• The value of the product
• The quality of the product

Hopefully, in your case, your experience with the best catering supplies stores in Toronto will be an exceptional one.

There are a number of different shapes and sizes of banquet tables. The most common shapes include serpentine tables, round banquet tables, rectangular banquet tables and cocktail tables or cruiser tables. For the sake of this blog post, we’re going to examine the most common sizes for round banquet tables.

The smallest size of round banquet tables is the 36” round banquet table. This 3 foot round banquet table generally fits 4 people comfortably around the table. It is a less common size and because of this lack of demand thus far, National Event Supply does not currently stock this size.

The next size up for round banquet tables is the 48" round banquet table. This 4 foot round banquet table generally fits 5 people comfortable seated around the table. We offer this size in both a plywood round folding table and a blow-mold round folding table.

The next size for round banquet tables is the 60" round banquet table. This 5 foot round banquet table along with the largest size banquet table (below) are the most common sizes requested in round banquet tables. This size of banquet table seats 8 people comfortably around the table. We offer this size in both a round wood folding table and a round plastic folding table.

The largest size for round banquet tables is the 72" round banquet table. This 6 foot round banquet table seats 10 people comfortably around the table. As mentioned above, as it can seat up to 10 people, it is one of the most common size tables for receptions and other events such as conventions that require adequate seating in a limited space. We offer this size table in both a plywood round folding table and a plastic round folding table.

It's no secret that we've been attending trade shows. Just before we went to The 2014 Rental Show in Orlando, we loaded up an iPad with all the movies that we've made so that we could show attendees just how strong our products are. We showed them how much weight our 6-ft NES Reliable Rectangular Plastic Folding Tables and our 8-ft NES Reliable Rectangular Plastic Folding Tables could hold. We also put an 8-ft NES Rectangular Wood Folding Table to the test. After seeing these videos, the trade show team was told, "Your rectangular tables are impressive, but what about your round folding tables?"

After hearing that our customers were interested in what it takes to break our round plastic and wood folding tables, we knew that we had to push a video starring our 60" round folding table to the head of the line. Today, we have a video featuring our 60 Inch NES Reliable Plastic Round Folding Table. This is the most popular size of round folding table that we sell, and is manufactured to hold 1000 pounds evenly distributed across the top of the table. Want to see how much weight we could load onto the table? Watch the video and find out!

Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net