Looking for new specials to offer for the fall / winter season? What about doing a limited time offer special on risotto? Risotto is not only what I would consider an adult comfort food but can be a low cost menu item made wonderful with some white wine and seasonal vegetables.

If you have risotto bowls on hand this is an easy special to consider. Risotto bowls are one of those versatile restaurant dishes that can not only be used for risotto but also for stacked salads or interestingly plated main entrees.

To help get your inspiration juices flowing I’ve rounded up some restaurant-worthy recipes that can be easily featured in a risotto bowl of your choosing. Check them out below:

Risotto with Parmesan Peas by Chef Michael Smith

Parmesan cheese…farm fresh peas…..white wine…have I got your attention yet? Chef Michael Smith is known for his simple, healthy and fresh cooking style while being a passionate ambassador of the lovely Prince Edward Island and its resources. Risotto with Parmesan Peas is a fresh, delicious risotto worthy of a spotlight on the specials menu as a side or entrée.

Check out the full recipe here.

Sweet Vanilla Risotto with Poached Peaches and Chocolate by Chef Jamie Oliver

A twist on the classic risotto, and similar to a rice pudding, Chef Jamie Oliver once again innovates a risotto into a delectable dessert. Per his website, Jamie states that this recipe "...has to be one of the best rice puddings I've ever made! It's lovely served with the peaches, but you could also use apricots, strawberries or rhubarb."

Check out the full recipe here.

Cheddar Cheese Risotto by Chef Nigella Lawson

A grown up and (I’d like to think) sophisticated version of a classic and comforting macaroni and cheese, Chef Nigella Lawson has perfected this fall classic in risotto form. A perfect blend of sharp cheddar and starchy rice, this risotto is relatively easy to make (as far as risottos go!) and would pair perfectly with a delicious white wine.

Check out the full recipe here.

Stacked Caprese Salad by Chef Tyler Florence

Photo source: www.steamykitchen.com

A risotto bowl is still a bowl and as such is perfect for stacked salads or a seasoned salmon nestled on a bed of saffron rice. To switch up the recipes and if you don’t already have it on the menu, a stacked Caprese salad makes a great option plated on a risotto bowl. Chef Tyler Florence pairs succulent tomatoes with mild bocconcini cheese with the classic balsamic and olive oil for a simple yet scrumptious special.

Check out the full recipe here.

I hope these recipes spark your creativity in some of the options that exist for warm fall menu specials. And if you need a guinea pig, I also don't mind being the taste tester to your new inventions – just sayin'.

In a world that expects so much and expects it now, it can be difficult to truly please your customers. Yes great food and great service will help in achieving that end but what if you want to really stand out? Is there anything else can you do? You should consider adding Amuse Bouche to your offering, even if it's just once or twice a month.

To start, what is this "Amuse Bouche" I speak of? Amuse Bouche is French for "Mouth Amuser" and is, by design, the chef's choice of a small bite-sized sample that is given free of charge to entice, excite, and delight your customers. An Amuse Bouche is often a window into the chef’s vision of what their food is.

So why is this right for your restaurant?

When is the last time you received something for free at a restaurant? Was it by chance right after they made a mistake? Maybe they brought out the wrong item, made you wait forever, forgot something you ordered, or maybe they cooked your food incorrectly. Each occurrence was a disappointment followed by a fix which in reality may or may not have actually fixed anything. Now what if you gave your customer’s something for free without it being the solution to a mistake? Well that would be pretty great wouldn't it! When a customer is given something without expectation or of monetary cost to them, more often than not they're so thrilled with the gift it prompts evangelism – making this the first reason you should consider Amuse Bouche.

Try something new

In most restaurants it's not every day that the chef gets to change the menu except when you offer OR limited time offers Amuse Bouche. This is a great opportunity for your chef to showcase future dishes, try something new, expand their creativity and maybe even have some fun! It could even offer your kitchen staff the chance to expand their skills by having one of them offer an amuse bouche of their choosing. Perhaps you even use it as a team building exercise or motivation contest to increase the innovation and drive in the kitchen.

A way to use up small portions

It's not a secret that there's waste that exists in the kitchen of a restaurant. Another reason you could consider utilizing Amuse Bouche offerings in your restaurant is as a way to minimize your food waste. What if you only have a handful of protein, starch and vegetables left over from a limited time offer you've been serving? Your chef can utilize these leftovers to create amuse bouche offerings thus minimizing the food waste.

But why use Amuse Bouche as a way to delight your customers? The White House Office of Consumer Affairs found that it costs businesses of all industries 6-7x more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one. Despite this fact, only 7% of consumers say that their service experiences with a company exceeded their expectations. Think about that...if you could find an inexpensive way to not only retain but also delight and excite your customers to the point that they generate positive word of mouth for you, why wouldn't you offer Amuse Bouche?

Being an event venue or party rental company means hundreds upon hundreds of plastic folding chairs around at any given time if they’re not already in use. One of the main issues with folding chairs is finding the proper folding chair storage in order to ensure your facility is organized and your product is readily available to transport either to another room or into your trucks at a moment’s notice. With the need for ample storage, one of the questions we often get asked is:

How do you recommend storing folding chairs?

There are 3 different ways to store folding chairs, which tend to be dependent on storage space and how the folding chairs will be used. Check them out below:

Folding Chair Cart (also known as a Folding Chair Dolly)

Folding chair carts are available in regular wheel formats and airless wheel formats. Carts with regular wheels allow easy transport on hard surfaces such as concrete or pavement however they can present a challenge when stacked full of chairs and someone attempts to roll them across the grass. Because of the hardness of the wheel they tend to sink into the grass when rolled across it – making it a pain in the derriere if you’re a party rental company attempting to drop off chair carts on grass. The folding chair cart with airless wheels solves this problem by easily allowing a smooth transition between hard and soft surfaces. Both carts hold up to 70 chairs and are best for companies who need to transport their chairs but don’t have a large floor space to store them as they take up more space vertically than width and depth wise.

Folding Chair Racking:

Photo source: eventequipment.com

Folding chair racking are designed for large party rental companies who need racking systems to stack up to 150 plastic folding chairs per rack unit. Companies can stack up to three racking units (one on top of the other), manoeuver them with forklifts from the warehouse to trucks and then from trucks to site via caster wheels.

Hanging Folding Chair Dolly:

The hanging folding chair dolly is used in schools and party rental companies to save on floor space. It features two rows of chairs with three chair stacks per row. They also have wheels and hold between 56 – 84 chairs.

Photo source: hayneedle.com

Since each method is a matter of personal preference we don’t tend to state whether we feel one option is better than the other. There are party rental companies who swear by folding chair racks and those that swear by folding table carts / dollies. It also depends on the number of folding chairs you plan on having in inventory at any one given time and the type of events you service. We hope this post helped showcase the different options you have available for folding chair storage so you can preserve your investment for years to come.

Are there any storage options for folding chairs that we have missed? Let us know in the comments!

Photo source: Stylemepretty.com Photography by: Victor Sizemore Photography

If you are in the market for Chiavari chairs, one of the questions you should be asking yourself prior to purchasing is how many Chiavari chairs fit around a round folding table? Depending on the size of the event venue you own or if you’re a party rental company that can generally rent out to a certain guest count for a party – being able to know the size of the event you can handle helps to determine the number of Chiavari chairs required for your business.

For reference, our resin chiavari chairs have a width of 14 7/8" / 37.78 cm. To illustrate how many Chiavari chairs can fit around a round folding table, I've put together an easy to reference table with the general round folding table sizes available and the number of Chiavari chairs that can fit around each size. The number of Chiavari chairs showcases the optimal number of chairs per table where each guest has a comfortable amount of room around the table and the maximum number of chairs per table should squeezing be required.

I hope this table helps you in planning out your purchase of Chiavari chairs.

Chairs in arenas, theatres, stadiums and auditoriums are a great way to optimize the amount of guests or attendees you can get into a venue. Oftentimes though, these chairs are extremely expensive and are fixed to the venue, limiting the different ways and configurations a venue can be used for (i.e. for weddings, intimate concerts, events featuring lounge furniture + dance floors + banquet layouts). But if you’re looking for seating options instead of a fixed folding chair like auditorium seating, what solutions exist out on the market that keep folding chairs together in rows but can be easily deconstructed and stored after an event?

I'd like to introduce you to a small and unassuming chair accessory called the chair ganging clip.

These ganging clips fit onto plastic folding chair legs just below the seat back and at the bottom of the legs just above the chair feet to keep the folding chairs together in a row.

They make it easy for event coordinators or their staff to set up folding chair rows in any venue imaginable and then easily deconstruct the set up after the event is finished for easy storage. For event venue managers or owners, they are a cost effective way to free up as many different configurations as possible for your event venue. Your venue has the ability to cater to multitudes of different event styles because of this ingenious little product.

I would recommend finding chair ganging clips that are of a similar colour to the folding chair legs of your event as then they blend into the chair itself and allow the event décor to be the main visual instead.