Blog posts tagged with 'restaurants'

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?

We frequently get asked if people can pick up their orders to save on shipping. The answer is yes, you absolutely can come to our Mississauga Showroom/Warehouse or Delta, BC Warehouse and pick-up your order! Here are a few things to keep in mind to ensure that everything goes smoothly on your visit to the National Event Supply Showroom and warehouses.

1) If you want to pick up your order in Vancouver, you need to give us 24 hours notice.

Our warehouse in Delta (a suburb of Vancouver, BC) is a third party facility owned by Locher Evers International. National Event Supply doesn't have any staff at the facility and Locher Evers needs 24 hours to pull the products so that you can pick it up. If you show up at the warehouse without placing your order with us first, you will not be able to pick up the items that you want. That being said, we try our best to make our customers happy so if there is ever a rush situation of less than 24 hours, still give us a call. We will try our very best to ensure your able to meet your deadlines.

2) You can come and look at our products at our Mississauga Showroom before you place your order...

But it can take as long as 45 minutes to an hour for our warehouse staff to pull your order depending on how busy we are. If you know what you want, it's better to give us a call and let us know ahead of time so the warehouse staff can pull your order and so that we can get a start on preparing your paperwork. If you get to the warehouse and decide to change your mind after seeing our products, let us know and we'd be happy to change your order.

3) Make sure that the vehicle you're bringing is large enough for the products you'd like to pick-up.

Occasionally we get customers who order products for pick-up without really realising how large the products really are. Wood Folding tables and plastic folding tables that are five foot (60 inches) round or larger don't lay flat in the backs of van or SUVs or in the box of a pick-up truck. A box of 8 plastic folding chairs is over 3 feet long, is a foot and a half wide and is almost a foot thick. A box of 12 Quadrato Square Dinner Plates is about 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 foot. If you need to make 2 or 3 trips in your vehicle to get all of the products that you have purchased, you may find it more economical to just have the order shipped to you. If you aren’t sure your vehicle will fit your order, ask one of our customer service representatives! They are trained to calculate the dimensions of your order for shipping purposes and would be happy to send you the overall dimensions so you can make the appropriate accommodations for your order.

So now that you know you can pick up your order and get wholesale prices, what are you waiting for? We hope to see you soon!

Photo Caption: Vollrath Refrigerated Curved Drop-In Display Case

Temperature controlled food counters are in any deli, bakery or grocery store and used to safely display food at their optimal temperature while allowing potential customers to view. Oftentimes, food is displayed on porcelain platters, or porcelain bowls. Melamine platters or bowls would work equally well as melamine works well in a temperature range of 2°C – 93°C (35.6°F - 200°F). Anywhere below zero degrees melamine platters and bowls will get quite brittle and breakage will more easily occur.

If you have a refrigerated display case in that temperature range, melamine platters and bowls will work quite nicely with your food offerings.

Appetizer Menu Trend #1: Sage

Sage is a fantastic herb best known for balancing meat dishes. It was the fastest growing flavour based on Technomic’s research. Consider using this herb in a starter red potato salad with caramelized onions.

Appetizer Menu Trend #2: Peanut

Peanut is frequently used in Asian cuisine in particular. You could consider jumping on the lettuce wrap bandwagon and pairing your delicacy with a peanut sauce as an appetizer. You could also feature a sweet potato fritter with peanut dipping sauce as a limited time offer to capitalize on this trend.

Appetizer Menu Trend #3: Maple

Maple flavour is not a surprising addition to the hottest trends. Maple Syrup in particular has become a hip trend with the entrance of boutique syrup retailers. Maple pairs well with spicy sauces or with salted items to make a juxtaposition of sweet/salty flavour. You could offer a twist on the traditional Caesar salad with maple salted bacon bits to liven up the plate. You might also consider featuring a Maple Corn & Butternut Squash soup starting September 1st.

Appetizer Menu Trend #4: Pistachio

Pistachio is most traditionally used for baklava and pistachio ice cream. They generally are known for their rich and nutty taste that works well alone or combined with other flavours. To take advantage of this menu trend, what about pairing salmon puffs with a pistachio basil butter? Alternatively you could offer pistachio-goat cheese bites as a starter option.

Appetizer Menu Trend #5: Lime

Lime is a citrus flavour most traditionally associated with Mexican foods and pie. If your restaurant theme supports it you could create an appetizer of cilantro lime chicken tacos with a slaw on top. Tacos are a big hit these days. You could go a totally different route and offer a salad with ginger-lime dressing.

Hopefully these 5 appetizer flavour trends will pique your interest and you can use the flavours to your advantage.

While I’d like to say our NES Folding Pedestal Table is really easy to assemble and disassemble – if you’ve never done it before it can take a few scratches of your head before you figure it out. I thought because it took me a couple fumbling embarrassing seconds to figure it out I would write a how to post to talk through how to assemble a folding pedestal table.

What an unassembled Folding Pedestal Table will look like in box

Step 1:

Remove table top from on top of base and identify which two tabletop clips have sides and which two clips has one side missing

Step 2:

Identify which two pedestal legs do not move and remain stationary.

Step 3:

Line the two clips with sides on top of the two pedestal legs that do not move.

Step 4:

Press down on each side of the tabletop on top of each leg until each leg snaps into the clip.

Step 5:

Taking one of the legs that moves, slide the leg towards the clip with no sides and press the leg firmly into the clip.

Step 6:

Take the last leg and slide the leg toward the clip with no sides, pressing the leg firmly into the clip.

Voila. Your Folding Pedestal Table is now assembled!