Blog posts tagged with 'flatware'

Picture courtesy of Frog Prince Paperie

Appetizer spoons will vary in cost depending on a few factors – shipping, volume (i.e. how many you are ordering), and the material of the product. Appetizer spoons can either be porcelain in material or melamine. I've seen both and it's really a matter of personal preference as both are safe for food use. Melamine will naturally be slightly less weight than porcelain but porcelain can hold food at a cold or hot temperature for longer periods. Porcelain appetizer spoons range in cost from $0.60 to $3.82 each without taxes or shipping. Melamine appetizer spoons range in cost from $0.73 to $2.22 each spoon without taxes or shipping.

Shipping for either porcelain or melamine appetizer spoons would be fairly minimal. As an example, shipping 50 wonton spoons from Toronto, ON to Vancouver, BC would add less than $0.50 per spoon for shipping.

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?

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.