Blog posts tagged with 'dinnerware'

This past weekend, I spent some time in our kitchen going through our cupboards and making plans for Christmas. I found out that I'm hosting part of my family for Christmas this year, and have been hunting down family recipes, making schedules for cleaning, baking, and cooking, and generally just making plans. I know that I'm going to have to hunt down a turkey for the big day, make perogies for the day before, and bake enough scuffles, shortbread, butter tarts, buns, and stollen to feed an army. I find making plans is a good thing—it keeps me sane.

While I was going through the kitchen, I realized that I don't have a platter that would hold a turkey. The last time I cooked a turkey, it was just me and a roommate and we picked what we wanted off of an 18 pound bird (which is WAY to much turkey for 2 people, lesson learned) before we cut the rest up and put it in the freezer. That won't fly this year. I'm going to need a platter to serve the bird. I'm also going to need a way to deliver the delicious desserts that my family desires and deserves to the table. That calls for another platter. Luckily, we sell platters.

When you see a turkey on tv or in a movie, it's always a golden brown bird on an oval platter. National Event Supply sells three sizes of oval porcelain platters: 18 inches, 20 inches, and 22 inches. They're made of the same high quality porcelain as our Quadrato and Hotelier Dinnerware, and are perfect for a commercial setting. They are the perfect platters for delivering a turkey to the table.

Sometimes though, you want to shake things up. You want to be a little edgy, yet still have elements of the traditional. If you're looking to go a little unconventional, we have 3 large rectangular platters that could easily handle a turkey or a nice roast. The largest of these platters is 12.5"x19", the medium sized platter is 12"x18", while the smallest is 11"x17". While they don't have quite as large of a lip as our oval platters, they'd still be awesome for bringing the bird to the table.

For delivery the goodies to the table, I'm thinking about grabbing a round porcelain platter. We currently have three sizes of round porcelain platters (14", 16", and 18"), so you can pick a round platter that's just the right size for whatever you're serving. Our round platters are just as strong as our oval platters and are also perfect for a commercial environment.

Sometimes though you need a larger platter. If you're looking for a larger platter, take a look at our Melamine line. With round, square, and rectangular options in a variety of sizes, these platters are perfect for serving a large group. They are also dishwasher safe and work well in a commercial environment. The one thing to keep in mind, however, is that you can't cut anything on the Melamine platters as you will leave knife marks.

Top Image courtesy of Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

During the show we had the pleasure of meeting with Don MacKay, the outgoing President of the NGCOA and owner of the Muskoka Highlands Golf Club. Don thanked us for our participation and support of the NGCOA’s annual Golf Business Canada Show. If you didn't make it to the show and would like to learn about products that can help drive events to your course, please don't hesitate to ask us any questions.

Golfer image courtesy of pichart99thai / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We often get asked what our most inexpensive (cheapest) dinnerware line is. There are many reasons that someone might be looking for cheap dinner plates. Sometimes it’s a rental company looking to do a large event without breaking the budget; others are organizations looking to purchase dinnerware for their lunchroom; others still are restaurants looking for cheap plates for large occasional events. Whatever the case may be, when a customer is looking for a cheap dinnerware line, our go to product is our Pearl White Dinnerware line. For years now we have offered our Pearl White Dinnerware line as our entry level, everyday value, dinnerware line. With the Dinner Plate starting at $1.80 and other dishes having a similarly attractive price point, it is easy to see why Pearl White is such a great choice for large events. If you are interested in adding an inexpensive dinnerware line like pearl white things that you need to consider are the quality of the dinnerware, and growth potential that it offers to your business.

Quality

One of the key features beyond price is the quality of porcelain that Pearl White dishes are made with. Our Pearl White Dinnerware is all made of A/B grade porcelain. A/B grade porcelain is the porcelain grade that many high end brands. Even our more expensive dinnerware lines use A/B grade porcelain. So then what’s the difference and why is Pearl White so much less expensive? The first reason is that Pearl White porcelain is missing the additives that our Quadrato, Hotelier, Ovali, and Polar White porcelain have. Porcelain additives like aluminum oxide make the porcelain stronger, more chip resistant, and therefore better suited to a commercial environment. As a result, Pearl White is closer to houseware quality, and it might not be the best option for a restaurant to use on a daily basis.

Growth Potential

One of the greatest features of Pearl White Dinnerware is the growth potential that it gives you. If you receive a request for an event with 500 people but you only have 100 Steelite plates, it may be financially difficult to justify purchasing 400 additional plates to win the event. If on the other hand you have the same scenario but with Pearl White Plates, suddenly it is an investment that you are able to make. This flexibility allows you to take on events that you may otherwise not be able to simply because the cost of the dinnerware is too high. It is also great for your customers because if a plate breaks, it is only $1.80 versus close to $20 for a Dudson or Steelite dish (depending on your supplier). This potential for growth is perhaps the most valuable asset of the Pearl White Dinnerware line since a relatively small investment goes a long way.

National Event Supply is pleased to announce that we once again have our full line of Snow Drop and Angelika European fine dining dinnerware available for sale. We were a little delayed getting these fine dining plates back in stock due to our factory shutting down for 4 weeks in July for holidays and retooling, but we now have all items in stock!

Our Snow Drop line of fine dining plates have a traditional French-country look to them, and are quite popular for weddings, kosher events, corporate events, and in numerous fine dining restaurants. With this shipment, we now have an ample supply of the Snow Drop Dinner Plates, 12" Plates, Pasta Plates and Soup Plates to fill the backorders we were holding for these products. In addition, we restocked the accessory pieces that we running low, like our Salt and Pepper Shakers, Creamers, Sugar Bowls, and the like. Our Snow Drop 12" Plates and Pasta Plates both sell for $10.50/ea, while the dinner plates sell for $5.50. Most other pieces (Cups, Saucers, Side Plates, etc.) range in price from $2.25 to $10.00. For additional pricing information or to receive some Snow Drop samples, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Snow Drop wasn't the only line of dinnerware to get restocked; we also received a shipment of our popular Angelika Dinnerware, including Angelika 12" Plates, and Pasta Plates. These gorgeous looking porcelain plates have a nice clean look which is ideal for giving your food that presentation pop you get when great food is combined with a fabulous looking plate. Pricing for our Angelika Fine Dining Plates is similar to our Snow Drop pricing, with 12" Plates and Pasta Plates selling for $10.50, Dinner Plates selling for $5.50, and other pieces ranging in price from $2.25 to $10.00. If you have any questions about specific pieces of our Angelika Line or would like to receive some sample, again please feel free to contact us.

Recently, I went out to dinner with a group of friends at a local restaurant/pub. They had great beer and the food was delicious. One of the dishes we ordered was a plate of Yorkshire puddings filled with Guinness-braised boneless beef short ribs and topped with white cheddar cheese. It came on a very familiar white plate, and when we finished our appetizer, I had to flip it over to see if it was one of our 6" x 12" rectangular platters. It wasn't. It was an Oneida platter, and I filed the information away, so that I could tell the sales rep.

Earlier this week, one of our inside sales reps got a phone call from a high-end restaurant in the Toronto area who had found us online. He had seen our A0961 6" x 12" Rectangular Platters and wanted to know how much we sold them for. The caller was stunned when he found out the platter was only $5.75/ea. He had been buying an Oneida plate that was the same size for over $30.00/ea from Gordon Food Services.

Why was our plate so cheap? Was it because we use inferior materials or processes? Nope, our commercial-grade porcelain is highly vitrified and manufactured to the same standards as the porcelain from the Gordon Food Services. Was it because we're blowing them out because we will no longer be bringing them in? Nope, they've been a good seller since we started selling them. Our plates are $5.75 because we sell factory direct while the Gordon Food Services is a distributor. Like Jonathan wrote in his blog post about 6-ft plastic tables, with the $30.00 plates you're paying for the brand name and the multiple levels of the distribution chain.

Another reason that the plate was over $30.00? The restaurant supply house was charging a premium for a smaller order quantity. Purchasing a new line of dishes can be a major investment. Restaurant supply houses are liable to provide a big discount on a large initial purchase of dinnerware because they know that they'll be able to make up the profits on replacements orders. While the restaurant supply house is willing to give you 50% off on your initial order, they won't be interested in providing any discount when you go to order a dozen replacement dinner plates. We, however, sell our porcelain at the same price whether you're buying 1 plate or 1000.

After taking a look at a sample of our rectangular platter, the customer who had been paying over $30.00 is now paying only $5.75. We know that samples can make the sale and that's why we've put together a sample set of our Quadrato Dinnerware. The sample set comes with a dinner plate, a dessert plate, and with our new stacking mug. If you're interested in getting a sample set for yourself, just ask for a custom quote!