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.

Utilizing Mahogany Chiavari Chairs & Wedding Linens Direct from National Event Supply to Make an Event Pop!

I came across a fabulous wedding which took place at the Brock House Restaurant in Vancouver and thought it was such a beautiful event that it deserved a nod on our blog.

Party rental companies who also do event design or event planning will truly appreciate the little details this wedding has that makes it a truly beautiful, vintage chic wedding as the author Stephanie Weers of Style me Pretty has classified it as.

I thought that deconstructing some of the key wedding pieces using National Event Supply’s products as well as others would be an interesting way to pull together new themed looks for our readers.

Instead of using the traditional rounds, the bride and groom along with their event planner Petite Pearl Events chose a different route utilizing rectangle tables. If you’re hoping to achieve this same look you could use wood harvest tables covered in ivory wedding linens direct from National Event Supply.

For seating, the wedding went the traditional classic chiavari chair route. The same look can be achieved with National Event Supply’s Mahogany Chiavari Chairs with Plywood Base Chiavari Chair Cushion in White.

As far as wedding tableware, I’ll break it down into wedding dishes, event glassware, and wedding cutlery. Wedding dishes – feature a white dinnerware set with rolled rim similar to the Hotelier white dinnerware line. The cup is so similar that I wondered if it was the Hotelier dishes!

Event Glassware could be achieved with the Eclisse 11oz water glass and the Eclisse 12oz wine glass or utilizing the Serenity Crystal stemware collection should wholesale crystal stemware be a preference to the couple.

Wedding cutlery could be achieved utilizing Concord Cutlery a popular flatware line.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the photographer of this event, Vasia Photography, who shot some truly glorious images all shown above.

For full details including a touching write up on the wedding, go to Style Me Pretty to read more.

Now that tradeshow season is officially nearing its close, we’re ramping up for what we lovingly refer to as Container Season. Just this past Monday, we received our second container of the year and what I suspect will be the first of many during Container Season. As many of you know we sell wholesale plates for catering, party rental, golf courses, banquet halls etc. While a lot of our open stock dinnerware is plain white dinnerware, we also sell a pattern called Snow Drop Porcelain that party rental & catering companies think is quite similar to Wittur & Company’s Julia White pattern.

With this container we just replenished our stock of Snow Drop dishes to ensure catering companies, and party rental companies who think these plates rock can get them in stock. (See how I made that rhyme) For those that don’t have these beauts in their inventory, the pattern is lightweight dinnerware (which helps when you’re transporting them) that is a beautifully versatile pattern to compliment French country themed events, vintage themed events, rustic events and much more.

We replenished stock on the following pieces in the snow drop porcelain line:

• Snow Drop Soup Plate
• Snow Drop 8.5" Luncheon Plate
• Snow Drop 10" Dinner Plate
• Snow Drop 6" Side Plate
• Snow Drop 7.5" Dessert Plate
• Snow Drop Saucer
• Snow Drop Oatmeal Bowl
• Snow Drop Sugar Bowl with Lid
• Snow Drop 'Betty' Cup
• Snow Drop Salt
• Snow Drop Pepper

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.

As the large majority of our customers are party rental companies, we are not unaware of the fact that January – March can be a slower time for the sector. With less major holidays, no major exams for universities and graduations still a far off dream – I can understand how planning event equipment purchases now can seem both premature and/or farfetched. But hear me out. I may even be so bold to state you’re going about buying event equipment wrong – or at least the equipment you know you need for the upcoming season. You’re not a fortune teller after all.

Allow me to list 4 reasons why you shouldn’t wait until April to buy your event equipment.

1. You’ll be first to the market with new products:

We’ve recently brought in a number of new products including new line of spandex table covers, polyester linens, commercial outdoor patio heaters, 13.125" flat pizza plate, an 11" square plate & a 4.75" straight sloped bowl. If you are concerned about being first to the market with new products we offer, buying them sooner rather than later ensures you can be the first to offer your customers new products.

2. No Risk in Stock Delays:

We try our absolute best to ensure we have ample stock of all our products but we can’t always forecast when there’s an outlier order that comes in that needs 700 gold chiavari chairs or 2500 pieces of Nova Table Forks and suddenly we’re in a bind. Buying before April helps ensure you don’t get stuck sourcing additional ways to get what you need. We’d also suggest if you have an idea that you’re going to need something, to let us know as soon as possible so that if we don’t have stock we can get stock in before you require it. Not always possible I know, but we want to work with all our customers (or partners is a better way of looking at our clients) to ensure we can meet and exceed their needs.

3. Less stress:

It’s funny how stress-free buying early can be. You aren’t being held to a deadline and worried about when you need something, if it’s in stock and can you get it delivered tomorrow and so everyone can just relax and enjoy the process for what it is. But as soon as spring rolls around and you have events coming out of the woodwork asking "Are you booked for 100 Tall Folding Cocktail Tables on April 1st?", you’ll wish you had acted sooner on your purchase.

4. You’re not so rushed:

Who wants to be rushed when it comes to spending 20-50k on event staples such as linens, folding tables and chiavari chairs? I don’t know about you, but I like to feel like I’ve got a solid head on my shoulders when I’m making such a serious decision. By shopping for new or replacement event equipment ahead of the event high season, you can make a relaxed and informed decision, and not base your thoughts on silly stipulations like ‘which company is cheapest’ (because let’s be honest – cheaper doesn’t always equate to a good quality product that will get you at least 10 turns of rentals, because in the race to the bottom, it’s usually quality that takes the hit first). We strive to provide high quality products that will allow you to maximize your return on investment while offering good prices.