Blog posts tagged with 'restaurants'

The snow is quickly receding here in Toronto, as sunny days, rain, and temperatures in the high single digits are all doing their part to eliminate snow piles. Any day now, I expect the trees out front of our building will start budding, and the heaters will be turned off. Sure, we haven't even had Easter yet, but the evidence is out there—winter is ending!

Tradeshows

Winter is not the only thing ending, the NES trade show season is coming to a close, with the Prairie Regional Trade Show and Quebexpo the only shows remaining. We've been to BC for a couple of trade shows, Las Vegas for The Rental Show, and exhibited at The CRFA Show in Toronto again this year. The trade show team had a great time seeing everyone at all of the shows. The trade shows that we do are always an opportunity to go out and see people that we wouldn't be able to see in our offices, and to let them examine and touch our myriad of products. Plus, the trade show team often takes sample products out on the road to get feedback from our customers. If we saw you at any of the shows we exhibited at, we'd just like to thank you for stopping by and if you didn't manage to see us, we hope we'll see you next year!

It's almost Patio Time

Today has been a grey day, and with the time change, things have been a little subdued. But that hasn't stopped me from closing my eyes and imaging that I'm sitting on a patio, drinking a beer, and catching some sun. And as it just so happens, we have three things that can make patio time great.

National Event Supply has stocked our NES Reliable Bistro Chairs in black and white for over 5 years now. These chairs are similar to the Grosfillex Miami Bistro Chair, but feature a more elegant back and different colour choices. It's a comfortable chair, suitable for lazy afternoons on a patio, or around a table at an outdoor wedding. The NES Reliable Bistro Chair is incredibly strong and features legs that won't do the splits regardless of the surface the chair is on. They're easy to keep clean and a favourite for outdoor weddings and on patios from Victoria to St John's. We've currently got a large supply of the chairs in both black and white in our Toronto Warehouse, and they are ready to ship from coast to coast.

Now that you've got seating for your customers, it's time to look at glassware. National Event Supply has our inexpensive Eclisse glass stemware that would perfect for any patio parties. Our Eclisse line includes everything from 5oz Champagne Flutes to 14oz Beer Glasses. If your customers are more interested in wine, there's three sizes of wine glass to meet your needs. So whether you're serving a nice Chablis or a fine microbrew, National Event Supply has the glassware that you need to slake your customers' thirst.

Finally, National Event Supply has a new product that we're proud to announce for 2013, Sol. Sol is a G2V spectral class star, with a diameter of 1,392,684 km. It's an almost perfect sphere of hot plasma and magnetic fields, and is the perfect companion to a cold beer on the patio. Due to the cloud cover and drizzle, Sol is not available in the lower mainland of Vancouver.

New Product Spring 2013 continues here at National Event Supply. So far this spring, we've introduced our New Folding Pedestal Table, our new wood Serpentine Tables, our new Wood 60inch Half-Moon tables, our new Wood Harvest Tables, and our new Polar White Dinnerware. The products just keep coming as containers arrive at our facilities in Vancouver and Toronto. And we're still not done. We have new colours of Plastic Folding Chairs coming including Wedding White on White, Royal Blue on Grey and Black on Grey. Finally, we have some new Natural Wood Folding Chairs on order.

Recently we took delivery of some cutlery that we had eagerly been awaiting: a Small Amuse Bouche Fork and a Small Amuse Bouche Spoon. Amuse Bouch Spoons and Forks are meant for single bite hors, d'ouevres. Unlike appetizers which customers order, Amuse Bouch or "mouth amusers" tend to be the chef's choice and provide a glimpse into the chef's technique and style. We've had a large Amuse Bouche Spoon in inventory since last spring. It's 5.25 inches long by 1.625 inches wide by 1.625 inches tall with a bowl roughly the same size as a tablespoon. It has been popular with several of our customers, and has been a nice alternative to our Porcelain Wonton Spoon. However, several of our customers asked if we had a smaller version of the spoon, and whether we had a smaller amuse bouch fork. We didn't at the time, but we do now.

The Small Amuse Bouche Spoon is 3.625 inches by 1.125 inches by 1.25 inches and has a bowl that is somewhere in size between a Mocca Spoon and a Teaspoon. It's ideal for that perfect little morsel that highlight your chef's ability to pack flavour and texture into a little bundle of joy. The Small Amuse Bouche Fork is 4.375 inches by 1 inch by 1.25 inches with tines that are 1.25 inches long. They are somewhere in size between a cake fork and a salad/dessert fork. If your chef wants to show off his ability to prepare small, savoury pieces of meat to awaken your customer's tastebuds, this is the utensil to serve them on. All of our amuse bouche spoons and forks are made of 18/10 Stainless Steel meaning they will keep their shine through use, washing, drying and storage. They are available by the dozen and are attractively priced.

February was a busy month for National Event Supply – with multiple containers arriving at our Vancouver and Toronto warehouses containing many products including our NES Wood Cruiser Tables as well as having our largest presence ever at the 2013 Rental Show in Las Vegas. It's also been a big month in the hospitality, party rental and food service industries so check out the articles below for a round up of some of the biggest articles of the month.

In an age of convenience, it comes as no surprise that wanting a little bit of everything has bled into the event and catering industries. Special Events Magazine wrote a fantastic article showcasing the response a number of caterers have shown to the new 'a la carte' wedding menu trend. It seems today's bridal couples are upping the requirements of caterers wanting numerous different ethnicities and foods instead of one common food heritage. Check out the article to hear more about the different responses to the rise in 'a la carte' requests with creativity, service and presentation.

Today's human resources requirements are upping the ante for many businesses making it hard for the solely owned, or independently operated businesses such as event rental companies, caterers, and restaurants to compete in finding top talent. Rental Management Magazine wrote a wonderful article to address this challenge by including practical tips including evaluating an applicant against four general levels of motivation in finding a job. To read the rest of the tips, check out the article to learn how to not only find top talent but attract them as well.

It seems that new and beneficial technology tools are being invented every day. Canadian Rental Service wrote an article on new online tools that could help those in the rental service industry improve their website. Not only does the article showcase some cool new tools that could significantly improve customer service on your website, it also offers tips for improving web experience, leading to greater customer retention and competitive differentiation. Check out the article to learn more tips and tricks to engage your website as a powerful tool to exploit new and unfound business.

Ask any marketer out there and you'll get notoriously mixed reviews on buying email lists to gain new subscribers. But if you can't buy a list to help garner additional followers, what can you do? Check out this article from MarketingProfs on how to gain subscribers without buying email lists.

Ensuring your operating costs are sound is becoming more and more of a challenge due to increasing costs, bargain seeking and socially connected customers. Restaurant Central wrote a blog post on how to reduce inventory control losses at your restaurant which stated the average bar or restaurant is losing 10% of its beverages and 15% of its food to variance and shrinkage—crippling and unsustainable losses. Read the rest of the blog post to learn more about what to do to reduce inventory control losses.

To round off our post, I thought a little social media humour would lighten everyone's day a little bit. Marketo created an infographic on the buzzwords the social media marketer seems to encounter which is sure to provide some amusement and laughs to your day – I present to you the social marketer’s urban twictionary. "What can I say? I'm attwicted."

Have a great week and be sure to check back next month for our monthly round up of articles!

The National Event Supply Trade Show Team is gearing up for our only local show of the season, the CRFA Show at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto. The CRFA Show is a great opportunity for restaurants, caterers, and others within the foodservice industry to take a look at our porcelain dinnerware, our stainless steel cutlery, our crystal and glass stemware, and our many great service pieces. It's also a great time to do a little comparison shopping and understand why our customers are thrilled with our pricing on our fantastic line-up of products. While the team will be spending the majority of their time helping visitors to our booth (1911), they've put together a list of three things that they're excited to see while at the show. Here they are in no particular order!

The first thing that the team is excited to see is the competition at the Flair Festival Stage. If you've ever seen the movie Cocktail with Tom Cruise, then you have an idea what flair bartending is. If not, check out the video below to see one of the competitors in the World Flair Bartending Championships. In addition to the World Flair Bartending Championships, there's flair tandem shows and the TFL Pro Championship which features the best Flair bartenders in Canada. For more information, check out this schedule!

The second thing that the trade show team is excited to see is a booth for a company from Georgia called High Road Craft Ice Cream and Sorbet. We're all big fans of ice cream at National Event Supply, and we're interested in seeing what they have to offer. From the looks of their website, they've got some interesting flavours going on. Personally, I'm hoping they have Red Berries and Prosecco Sorbet to try, but when it comes to ice cream, anything is good. High Road Craft Ice Cream and Sorbet will be exhibiting in booth 817.

The third booth that we're interested in checking out is a little cheesy—but who doesn't love cheese?!? The Springbank Cheese Company has retail locations in Alberta and Ontario and also sell their high-quality cheeses over the internet. Through these channels they sell over 700 different kinds of cheese in sizes ranging from 20 grams to 35 kilograms. While I'm more of a Havarti and Mild Cheddar man, they've got all the cheeses that the cool kids crave like gorgonzola and roquefort. The Springbank Cheese Company will be exhibiting in booth 905.

Spring continues to roll on here at National Event Supply. We received containers at both our Vancouver and Toronto warehouses and in each case they brought us products that we didn't have in stock. At our Toronto Warehouse, we received a shipment of wood cruiser tables, and at our Vancouver location we received three new wood tables: NES Wood Serpentine Folding Tables, 5-ft NES Wood Half-Moon Folding Tables, and 8-ft NES Wood Folding Harvest Tables.

We've had NES Wood Cruiser Tables in our Toronto for almost two years now. Available in three sizes (24 inch, 30 inch, and 36 inch), two shapes (square and round), and two heights (29 inch and 42.5 inch), you can mix and match the qualities you want to get the tables that you need. Each table set comes with the desired table top size and shape, the pole that you need for the table height you want, a steel connector which gets screwed to the underside of the table top and a base with adjustable feet and a polished top. All of the piece can be bought seperately, and if you want both tall poles and short poles, we can do that to. We'll be filling backorders as the week goes on, so if you interested in getting some of these tables for your summer weddings, you should act now.

In Vancouver, we will be receiving three new wood tables which we have never stocked in any of our warehouses. The first of these is a 60 inch half-moon table. This is basically a 60 inch diameter table that is cut in half. These are commercial quality tables, that feature super-strong steel legs, and Canadian plywood tops. The legs on the table are narrower than on a standard 60 inch diameter and are located along the straight edge of the half-circle. Like our other wood tables, the NES 60 Inch Wood Half-Moon Folding Tables feature legs and support beams that are bolted through the table top. We'll be getting some of these tables in our Toronto warehouse in the next couple of weeks, and as soon as I have some pictures I'll be posting them to Twitter and Facebook!

The second table we'll be receiving in Vancouver is our new NES Wood Serpentine Folding Tables. These tables have an out diameter of 10 feet and an inner diameter of five feet. Again, these tables are commercial grade with grey steel legs and Canadian plywood tops. The legs and support beams are bolted through the top for extra strength and the table top is clear-coated to keep it looking great. We'll also be getting some NES Wood Serpentine Tables in our Toronto Warehouse in the next couple of weeks and I'll be posting pictures of this fantastic table as soon as I have them.

The final table is going to be a Vancouver exclusive for the next month or two. We've been asked by customers for a wider "harvest" table, and we've managed to get our factory to produce one that we're happy with. With a wider table, you need to make sure that the supports and legs can handle the extra weight. The NES Wood Harvest Folding Table can handle the extra weight with no problems. It features enhanced supports to keep the table stable even under the heaviest loads. The table itself is 96 inches long and 42 inches wide, allowing for additional table room during family-style meals.