Blog posts tagged with 'crystal stemware'

Drinking places such as bars and pubs as well as restaurants and caterers that offer bar service often require bar supplies to ensure the bar portion of the establishment is running smoothly and generating revenue. Where to buy bar supplies is one more question that a foodservice operator doesn’t need in his/her life. To make it easier on you (because we know you’re strapped for time!) we’ve answered the question “Where to Buy Bar Supplies in Toronto” below:

1. Barsupplies.com:

Though online and based out of the United States, Barsupplies.com has a wide variety of bar supplies including corkscrews, cocktail shakers, bartender tools, and glassware. They ship to Canada and a multitude of other countries with products charged in US dollars. Depending on the level of shipping indicated, your order will vary in delivery between 5-12 business days.

2. BartenderOne Barstore:

BartenderOne Barstore is based in Toronto with locations right downtown, in Yorkville and in Mississauga. They offer a wide variety of bar supplies, similar to Barsupplies.com, but also have additional products such as videos/dvds & books to add value and enhance a bartender’s education. If you order online through their ecommerce site, it appears as though they partner with Barsupplies.com as depending on the level of shipping indicated, your order will vary in delivery by 5-12 business days. If you need it pronto, it definitely makes more sense to pop by one of their store locations.

3. KAF Supplies:

Located in Mississauga, KAF Supplies is a bar supply and restaurant supply store. They supply sodagun systems, spill-stop bartender tools, tableware, bar equipment such as industrial dishwashers & glasswashers, as well as a Coca-Cola distributor.

4. Nella Cutlery:

We’re written about Nella before, but they have their heads in most of the restaurant supply and bar supply spaces. Along with stocking their own brand of foodservice equipment and smallwares, Nella Cutlery also distributes brands such as Winco, Browne, and Johnson Rose. Because of this, they’re able to offer a variety of different bar supplies including cocktail shakers, glassware, free pourers & sure shot pourers, bottle openers, serving trays, bar strainers etc. While they do not have an online ecommerce site, they do have a 55,000 square foot showroom in North York as well as a smaller scale store downtown Toronto.

5. Hamilton Store Fixtures:

Yet another restaurant supply store that also ventures into bar supply, Hamilton Store Fixtures is located in Southwestern Ontario and along with serving your general tabletop supplies, also stocks measured and speed pours, bus bins, common bar glassware, bar tools, bar blenders and other special order items. Their normal website does not include ecommerce capabilities however they’ve got a separate site linked off their website devoted to online orders.

Hopefully this helps you on your search for local bar supplies to quickly and easily update your current or future stock.

Back in January and then again in May/June, the prominent Foodservice magazines in Canada along with Statistics Canada and the NPD Group, released their forecast of the industry for 2014. There’s a plethora of information – so much so it can be overwhelming. To focus on some of the most pertinent information, we’ve compiled an infographic to make it easier for everyone to consume. Check it out below!

We hope this infographic helps you with your menu planning and forecasting for the remainder of 2014.

Buying restaurant dishes and other restaurant supplies is just one of the multitudes of tasks restaurant operators and chefs have to deal with. Figuring out if there’s a difference between wholesale restaurant supply stores versus a regular restaurant supply is frankly not high on the list. That’s why we’re writing this post – so you don’t have to figure it out yourselves.

Wholesale Restaurant Supply Stores:

• Buy direct from factory
• Stock warehouses full of inventory to avoid shipping delays (as much as possible)
• Same/next day shipping
• No large corporations behind them to set pricing on their behalf
• Better ability to facilitate custom orders with direct relationships to factories
• In-house brands versus name brands such as Steelite, Dudson, Royal Dalton, Libby, Browne or Oneida
• Open stock allows most products to be purchased in small or very large quantities
• Comparable quality items without the multiple markups (sometimes 3 or more markups)

Restaurant Supply:

• Buy either direct from the Brand manufacturer or through a master distributor for the manufacturer
• Have an extremely large number of items generally with small quantities in stock
• Can have same/next day shipping if in stock. If not in stock could be 2-4 weeks or much longer for less prominent dish lines
• Stock brand names such as Steelite, Dudson, Libby, Oneida, etc and price based on manufacturer’s suggested wholesale price
• Are usually more expensive as a result of major brand name pricing
• Often have minimum quantities you need to buy – i.e. buy restaurant dinnerware in case packs

Hopefully this clears up any confusion on the differences amongst the two. Whomever you buy from, make sure regardless of whether they mark themselves as wholesale restaurant supplies, that they offer value for the quality offered, customer service that makes you happy and stock the inventory you require.

Events of all shapes and sizes including cocktail receptions, corporate events and in particular weddings have the need for crystal stemware. When banquet halls, hotels or party rental companies are looking for crystal stemware, one of the first questions we get asked is: How much is crystal stemware for event rental in Canada? Below we’ve rounded up the average cost one should expect to pay for crystal stemware for events.

Crystal stemware can be classified as any crystal glass that includes a stem – making up crystal champagne flutes, crystal wine glasses, crystal martini glasses, and crystal margarita glasses. If the event planner or bride prefers hand blown crystal, this can set you back more money as hand blown crystal tends to include the higher cost of expert glass blowing artisans who manually make each glass – a time consuming and labour intensive process. Alternatively machine made crystal allows a lower cost due to the amount of supply that can be produced in a shorter amount of time, on a more consistent basis.

The cost for crystal wine glasses ranges in price from $2.65 to $6.93 CDN per glass. The cost for crystal champagne flutes range from $2.85 to $7.33 CDN per glass. The cost of crystal martini glasses range from $2.85 to $8.15 CDN per glass. The cost of crystal margarita glasses range from $3.15 to $4.67 CDN per glass. The range in costs for all these products is because of the difference in labour costs, volume the glass holds, production time involved, and if the manufacturer is a very well-known brand.

Shipping for Crystal Stemware:

Crystal stemware is a notoriously tricky product to both stock and ship. Stocking the product is tricky because it takes up a large amount of space in order to properly store crystal stemware in a way there won’t be breakage. Shipping the product is obviously tricky due to the high amount of breakage that can occur with such a delicate product. The shipping costs associated with crystal stemware is 1.32 to $2.83 CDN per glass. This varies based on volume purchased, weight of product being shipped and the location the product is being shipped to.

Restaurant dishes are the main staple of the tabletop to best showcase an executive chef's creations. Finding restaurant dinnerware in Canada that accents your plating while at the same time affordable is a huge plus. Most restaurants we cater to tend to want to spend more money on the wine and food that will be presented at their location and who can blame them. If restaurants stick to buying restaurant dishes that are white dinnerware, these will be the easiest to replace, will allow your chef to experiment to his/her heart's content with food plating and will perfectly accent any style of interior décor the front of the house has. Because restaurant dishes tend to exist in an environment where accidents happen such as servers dropping plates, or dishwashers stacking plates too high, making sure you’re choosing restaurant dishes that are matching the demands of the restaurant or easily replaced at an affordable price will ensure the most success.

We’ve rounded up a list of companies who excel in restaurant supply that we would consider competitors of ours. All of these restaurant supply stores feature affordable restaurant dishes that any restaurant could use to form the basis of their menu offerings. Here are the 4 restaurant supply stores:

1. Webstaurant.com:

Based in Lancaster, PA, they are a leading restaurant supply store providing restaurant supplies and equipment to the foodservice industry and individual customers worldwide. The WEBstaurant store sells restaurant equipment, smallwares, storage & transport, tabletop, disposables, restaurant furniture including folding restaurant tables, washing & laundry, restaurant dinnerware, consumables as well as janitorial supplies. They are an ecommerce company that regularly ship to Canada however do not include duties and taxes in the shipping fees – which are billed from their shipping courier to your restaurant.

2. Pacific Restaurant Supply:

Located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Pacific Restaurant Supply delivers custom designed stainless solutions, restaurant design & build and foodservice equipment and restaurant supply inventory. They are a brick and mortar company with a showroom in Vancouver and the ability to contact them via their website but no way to view their multitudes of products.

3. Canadian Restaurant Supply Ltd.:

Located in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canadian Restaurant Supply is a full service supplier of tableware, smallwares, glassware, cutlery, restaurant dishes, restaurant furniture and equipment. They also offer planning & design help for restaurants starting fresh or in need of a change. They offer an online ecommerce website for easy viewing of their products and buying.

4. Hamilton Store Fixtures Ltd.:

Located in Hamilton, Ontario, they have been distributing for over 70 years glassware, china, cutlery, candles, kitchen utensils, janitorial supplies, serving accessories and commercial cooking equipment. They have a traditional website with no ecommerce functionalities and a separate online ecommerce retail store.

So there are 4 companies to consider if you’re getting quotes or pricing for your restaurant. While our primary target market has traditionally been selling wholesale event equipment such as dinnerware, flatware, folding tables & folding chairs to the party rental industry, more and more restaurants are seeing the value in extending their budgets with accessory porcelain pieces such as serverware from us.