Commercial Kitchen Walkthrough with Rapids Wholesale

Kirkwood kitchen equipped by Rapids Wholesale

Ever have this happen?  It’s the middle of the afternoon, and the second largest party you've ever booked is due to arrive in just a few hours.  You’ve been up all night prepping and organizing.  You’ve gone over every little detail, down to the stupidest little thing, dozens of times in your head.  Tonight’s performance has played over and over in your mind -- at the expense of sleep.  But it’s your kitchen, your name on the menu, and you live for this. 

Sweat on the brow and a tickle in the stomach is par for the course on a day like today.  And then, a sudden calm comes over you.  Confidence builds as you realize you are ready now!  You got this, it’s a lock!  You’ve given the line staff the pep talk.  Morale and energy is high!  All the training and preparation has brought you to this exact moment.  Your well oiled machine is on autopilot!  It’s go time, and then . . . “hey boss! range won’t light?!?”

Reliability and Consistency.  Think about those two words, and how, in this moment, they will determine your overall Quality.  As you scramble to become operational, you are cutting into the precious little time you need to make tonight Perfection.

When you get a spare second, before the next big thing, look at your kitchen.  Take a good long look at YOUR kitchen.  Do it when you are all alone.  Look at the fryers, the range, the ovens.  Look at the slicers, the processors and mixers.  Look at the sinks and the warmers and even the darn hoods.  Is everything working right?  Is everything ready?  I offer you this: your staff will say everything is A-OK to avoid the degreaser bottle.  The tape (don’t deny it) may hold another week if it has to.  Just remember whose name is printed in the menu.  Is it worth it?

You need to make sure your kitchen is geared up properly for the rush, and we can help.  Equipping you and keeping you running is what WE do.  We’ve been doing it since 1936, and we do it well!  We have everything you need and an experienced support staff on stand-by.  Stories like this one are told daily around here.  Many of us have found ourselves standing, alone in our own kitchen, preparing.

Check out this video from our YouTube page that shows you what we carry for your kitchen and how to order it.  And as you watch it, think about your kitchen.  Think about your current model and condition of the gear you see on the screen.  Then ask yourself, "is it ready for the rush?"

We’ve heard just about every kitchen horror story there is here.  Don't get yourself stuck in a pinch. These things are often preventable with a little foresight.  For bigger operations with multiple locations, we can even offer you a “one call” resolution to any potential kitchen catastrophes or facility failures with our in-house affiliates Chain Restaurant Solutions.  These folks are lifesavers.  Here are just a few of the companies that agree and take advantage of our expertise!

Do you have any kitchen catastrophes or front-house fumbles to share?  We'd love to here them!  Leave them in the comments below!

Cheers,

Paul

Thoughts on St. Patrick’s Day Liquor, Big Gingers and Irish Car Bombs!

Big Ginger in Collins Glass

Ok folks, we’re getting a bit closer to St. Patrick’s day and now it’s crunch time on ordering your bar supplies.  In the last story we went over proper Irish beer to stock.  If you missed it, go back HERE!  If you caught it . . . let’s move on to spirits, and the supplies you need to quench the forthcoming thirst!

There are few things Irish folk enjoy more than a cold pint.  Many would agree there is but one alternative or compliment to the beloved beverage . . . Whiskey!  As with beer sales, your whiskey sales will likely see a HUGE increase this St. Patrick’s day, especially those distilleries that call Ireland home.  

Leading the pack of Irish distilleries by distributing an amazing 32 million bottles a year throughout the world is the widely recognized Jameson brand, according to the wikipedia.  In the same article, we learn that John Jameson (actually a Scottish dude) established his distillery in Dublin way back in 1780.  Nowadays, Pernod Richard (a French company), owns the brand.   It's distilled in Cork, but vatting still takes place in Dublin and they pump out more than a million gallons a year.

Now get this!  There is a pub in Minneapolis called The Local that holds the world’s record for the largest amount of Jameson served averaging well over 20 bottles a day!  Wow.  Just . . . wow!  Apparently, their signature drink, the Big Ginger, was responsible for much of this unbelievable Jameson consumption.  

A Big Ginger is super easy to make.  Grab a Collins glass like the ones found here.  Fill it with cube or half dice ice.  Add two shots of an Irish whiskey.   Fill the rest of the glass with ginger ale, and garnish with lemon and lime wedges from your condiment dispenser.  

Condiment Dispenser from Rapids Wholesale

The Big Ginger is a hugely popular drink in the twin cities, not surprisingly due to the influence of one incredible Irish born personality, Kieran Folliard.  He is the founder of The Local, The Liffey, Cooper, and Kieran’s Irish Pubs scattered throughout the metropolis.  Not only have these pubs garnished their own individual success, but they became the testing grounds for his next endeavor . . . 2Gingers Irish Whiskey.  Folliard committed to creating his very own Irish Whiskey.

In their own words, 2Gingers claims, “The award-winning spirit is smooth, malty, and slightly sweet to start, with a tingle of honey and citrus. The woody essence of this four-year-aged blend suggests caramel and vanilla to the finish.”  And I have to admit, I agree with their description.  It is a really a solid Whiskey!

2Gingers was just acquired by Beam Inc. last December, but will continue to be distilled and bottled at Kilbeggan on the River Brosna in Westmeath County, Ireland.  Kilbeggan along with New Midleton, Old Bushmills and Cooley round out the four major distilleries in Ireland.

Now, for the super cool part!  Rumor has it 2Gingers is currently outselling Jameson in the Twin Cities area and can be found in most of the upper midwest spreading like wildfire.  I was able to pick up a bottle at my favorite spirits provider (and Rapids customer) Benz Beverage Depot.   Word on the street is Mr. Folliard himself is on tour promoting his Irish success with his motto “Bring your own luck!”  And he is coming to visit my home town for St. Patrick’s Day!  

You can join Kieran, and likely me, for a Big Ginger at Cedar Rapids’ very own Mahoney’s Irish Pub St. Patrick’s Day Street Party, Saturday March 16 through the 17th.  Mahoney’s, in the Irish district, has been one of our favorite local Irish pubs and a valued customer for years!

Image courtesy of Mahoney's Pub

If you’re not in the area, or working the holiday, be sure to support the little and independent guys in your area when making your holiday plans.  There is nothing as charming and as real as the passion these guys have for their craft!

Now onto the dirty stuff, the Irish Car Bomb.  It’s a love/hate thing.  To some the name is offensive, which isn’t surprising.  But people buy it, especially on St Patrick’s day.  You need to be prepared for it and be careful, this one is tricky.

The problem isn’t the ingredients, it’s the technique.  All you need is Guinness, Bailey’s Irish Creme and an Irish Whiskey.  Unlike a lot of other bomb shots --cherry bombs, Jager bombs and saki bombs, for example-- you can’t easily get away with using a Bar Maid Bomb Cup.  The foam from the Guinness would be problematic.

So, first grab a regular pint glass or frosty mug and fill it 2/3 full of Guinness.  While the head is settling, fill a 1oz shot glass half full of Bailey’s Irish Creme.  On top of the Bailey’s, in the same shot glass, layer an Irish Whiskey.  The customer should then suspend the shot glass over the pint glass and drop IMMEDIATELY BEFORE chugging it in it’s entirety.  If dropped prematurely, or not consumed instantly, it will start to curdle.  This will stimulate a gag reflex in many, and soon you’ll be calling for the mop bucket.  Avoid this catastrophe, and be prepared!

Happy St. Paddy's!

Slainte,

Paul

Thoughts on St. Patrick's Day Beers and How to Make Green Keg Beer

Rapids Wholesale

St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, and the Irish in me is thirsty in anticipation.  The pubs, the pals, the beers and belly laughs will soon be here.  And here at Rapids Wholesale, we want to make sure your bar is ready for the rush.  There are a few “must have” items that you gotta have in stock to appease the masses of green clad Irish and “one-day honorary Irish” that make it through your door.  Like me, they’re going to be thirsty!

Thirsty for BEER, and lots of it.  So get with your distributors to make sure you’ll have an ample supply.  Just to put things in perspective, Guinness reported selling 3.5 billion pints on St Patty’s day in 2011.  A normal day for them is around 600,000 pints.  So stock up heavy on beer and make sure you’re smart about your selection.

Guinness may be my personal favorite “readily available” Irish beer of all time, but they certainly are not the only player on St. Patrick’s Day.  As the craft beer movement continues to flourish, our tastes are maturing, and you may find yourself in front of a more “selective” crowd.

Since we already mentioned Guinness, let's continue with the stouts.  Other well known Irish stouts you may want to stock include Murphy’s, Beamish, and Mackeson’s.  And there are a ton of craft stouts that are worthwhile, too.  Although they may not immediately conjure images of the Eire, a couple of my personal favorite stouts would be Left Hand’s Nitro Milk Stout, anything from Founder’s, Bell’s Black Note, Old Rasputin Imperial, and luckily local to me, Millstream’s Back Road Oatmeal Stout.

Be sure to serve your stouts in the proper glass.  I prefer an English pub glass, but if you put it in an American Shaker pint, I’m not gonna turn it down! Ha!  And remember, if you’re getting a keg of Guinness for your home bar, they take different plumbing as well.  You need to get the right keg coupler and faucet.

For Irish Lager’s I would serve Harp.  As for Irish Ales and Red Ales, again there are a ton to choose from. Safe bets would include Smithwick’s, Samuel Adams Irish Red, Boulevard Irish Ale, Kilkenny Irish Creme Ale, and George Killian’s.  Sure there may be better tasting and better reviewed brews out there, but these should be safe to move timely and have more of a universal appeal.  To get an idea for what’s hot and what’s not in the beer world, I would strongly advise folks to check out beeradvocate.com. They’ve never let me down!

And then, of course . . . there is the green beer, ugh!  I know, I know, most of you are cringing at the thought of it, but we have to face reality.  Lots of folks like to drink green beer on St. Patrick’s day.  I’m not sure why, and I don’t know where this silly tradition came from, but here we are.  And if we ignore it, we may lose out on some extra St. Patrick’s Day green (in the till that is).

So suck it up and order a keg or 5 of a green dyed domestic light pilsner from your distributor.  A marketing trick and general maintenance tip would be to use a separate portable beer dispenser or kegerator for your green beer.  That way your staff will obviously know which beer is dyed.  Your regular customers, and those with perhaps a more refined palete, will see that their selection and service isn’t being compromised by a passing fad.  To them you won’t lose face, and you won’t miss out on any beer sales.  And as a bonus, you don’t have to worry about cleaning your long draw lines the next day.  Try plastering your portable dispenser with advertising.  Set up a separate beer line and till away from your main bar to ensure nobody is left waiting with an empty pint.  Then compare your numbers to last year!

portable beer dispenser or kegerator

Don’t panic if you forgot to order “green kegs” from your distributor.  It really isn’t that hard to make beer green.  It’s pretty obvious that a drop of green dye in a pint glass will turn a lighter colored brew green.  But in a busy bar or club, that is simply not an option, right?  Logic tells us if we can get the food coloring “inside” the keg we can pour it green per normal.  So how do you do that?  I’ve heard of some people putting the dye on the keg ball as they tap it.  Should work, but how many of you trust your staff to pull that off without green spray completely covering your walk-in cooler in the process?  I can just see it plastering all your bottles and backstock with sticky green goo.  It’s like ectoplasm from the Ghost Busters movie in my head!

Here’s a trick that should work to inject the food coloring into your keg.

Somewhere in a drawer in the backroom you have a picnic pump.  If you don’t have one, you can get one here.  Grab that thing and PUMP the the dye into the keg without making a mess.  Check out this video to see how I think you should be able to pull this off.

WARNING: DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!  Personally, I’ve never tried it, and am unsure of the actual results.  I drink Guinness.

more videos at youtube.com/RapidsJR

It should work because the dye along with the air will be injected into the keg.  It shouldn’t be messy because the system is essentially sealed and the check valve in the picnic pump will keep it inside.  The amount of dye to use will be dependent on a handful of things.  Is your keg full?  How dark is the beer?  Obviously light pilsners work best for this.  You don’t have to leave the picnic pump attached once you’ve pumped the dye into the keg.  I would let it sit for awhile to properly mix in.  Hook it up to your keg dispenser and serve!

So there ya go, once again Rapids Wholesale saves the day!  Check back soon for tips on what Irish Whiskey and drinks to stock up on and tips on how to prevent a glass explosion with your next Irish Carbomb.

Slainte,

Paul

Midwest Winter Cold, the Dawn of Commercial Refrigeration, Beer and Rapids Wholesale

Rapids Wholesale Marion Headquarters in Winter

Here at Rapids Wholesale we have a unique view on cold.  We have branches in the Midwest and upper Midwest, right off the prairie. Frigid winter winds can chill us to the bones but can’t bring us down.  We’re tough, hardworking folk, known not only for our willingness to share a cold pint with a stranger, but also for our keen ability to sniff out opportunity.  And over time we’ve come to discover that COLD certainly has it’s advantages.

Wintertime in the Midwest is one of the primary reasons the ice and and beer industries thrived in the early years of our nation.  Cold winters with thick frozen lakes produced all the ice we needed.  The earth provided us with limestone caves to keep it frozen for extended periods of time, even as the seasons changed.  Everything fell perfectly in to place for the beer barons like Captain Frederick Pabst whose Milwaukee brewery employed Rapids' founder Harry Ribble who later went on to invent the world's first direct draw beer dispenser.

Harry Ribble invented the Direct Draw Beer Dispenser 

As more and more immigrants were drawn to our little piece of paradise, they brought their own ideas of the perfect pint with them.  Collectively, our beer tastes eventually switched from English style ales and stouts to the Bavarian style lagers and pilsner beers which utilized a different bottom fermenting, cold brewing technique.  Eventually, our thirst for these new brews grew stronger and as the population continued to increase, we needed a more efficient way to continue production of lager beers long into the summer months.  

At the same time another challenge was facing brewers and other industries like the meat packing and dairy folk, who were becoming more and more dependent on prolonged cold for their production.  The ice we had been harvesting was increasingly being found to be tainted and polluted; an unpleasant side effect of the industrial revolution.

The first known demonstration of refrigeration is accredited to William Cullen at the University of Glasgow way back in 1784.  He proved the theory, but was lacking at that point a practical purpose.  After nearly a century of experimenting with and tweaking the designs we now have stumbled upon a viable commercial use of refrigeration.  To keep our beer, beef and cheese from spoiling.

Until this point, the technology was primarily used for cooling sickrooms.  John Gorrie developed a cooling system to help in the treatment of those unlucky enough to catch the yellow-fever.  Gorrie went on to be granted the first US patent in 1851 after switching gears to experiment with ice making.  And according to the same article we found on the wikipedia, from1870 to 1891, nearly every brewery in service was using commercial refrigeration machines.  All resulting in the birth to commercial refrigeration!

Things have changed a bit since then.  Check out the newest designs in commercial refrigeration and how to order the unit you need from Rapids website in this cool little video.  We even braved the winter cold to bring it to you!  What devotion, Ha!

Click here for more from Rapids YouTube Page!

It's mind-blowing to see how far we have come!  Today's refrigeration technology is truly amazing and here at Rapids Wholesale we supply all the best brands including TRUE and BEVERAGE AIR to name just a couple.  Apart from bar refrigeration equipment to keep your brew cold, we also carry a huge supply of walk-in refrigerators, refrigerated display cases, commercial kitchen refrigerators, glass and plate chillers and ice machines.

If you need any help choosing equipment for your place, give us a buzz!  We're here to help!

Remember, at Rapids Wholesale, Your bottom line is our top priority!

cheers,

Paul

Rapids Associates Gain Expertise on New Products and Going Green at NAFEM Show

Rapids goes to The NAFEM Show 2013

Recently Rapids Wholesale associates received education and hands-on experience at the North American Association of Food Manufacturer’s annual food equipment and supplies show. This event, held in Orlando, Florida, helped Rapids associates learn about energy efficiency, gain in-depth product knowledge, and strengthen their relationships with manufacturers.

Check out this time lapse video one of our key suppliers Manitowoc posted of the event from their perspective.  We found it on their youtube page.  It's pretty cool!

Time Lapse Video of NAFEM 2013 by Manitowoc

Rapids sent 17 sales and support associates from Minnesota, Iowa, North Carolina, and Missouri to the largest food service show in the industry, hosted by the North American Association of Food Manufacturer’s, or NAFEM. These associates may be better equipped than ever to help customers learn about energy efficiency and cutting edge products. 

Rapids associate Robert Wiltgen attended the show, where he got a better feel for the newest models of equipment Rapids carries. 

"When we design projects, we can suggest those to customers."

During a demonstration, Wiltgen got a closer look at a new oven made by Blodgett and Pitco, as well as a taste test of steak prepared in the new model. Wiltgen said going to the show helped him solidify his relationship with key Rapids’ suppliers. This may help him provide better customer service by working with manufacturers more closely on future projects, he said.  

Associates encountered a treasure trove of new knowledge from other key suppliers as well, including Vulcan, Hobart, Frymaster, Manitowoc, True Refrigeration, Cleveland, Eagle Manufacturing,  Advance Tabco, Star  Manufacturing, Blodgett, Garland, and Delfield. 

The NAFEM show also helped Rapids associates who passed a rigorous exam to become Certified Food Service Professionals advance the standing of their certifications.   

Troy Little, a Certified Food Service Professional on the sales staff at the Marion Rapids location, said seeing and touching new products at the show enhanced his understanding of the equipment he explains to his customers. Experiences like this help him supply his customers with the exact items they need.  

“We’re better prepared to educate our customers” Little said.  

Several associates also attended Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Certification classes. These associates learned ways to reduce waste, stay green, and help customers qualify for tax rebates and other incentives. Rapids Wholesale is an Energy Star approved Distributor Partner, which means we carry products that allow customers to earn Energy Star incentives. 

Opportunities like this help Rapids associates better the environment and educate customers on green energy topics.

Written By Holly Hines

Condiment Caddy Bar Advertising Trick from Rapids Wholesale

Click here for Rapids Wholesale Bar Supplies

Is your bar properly stocked?  Here at Rapids Wholesale we understand that a properly stocked bar has more than just a large selection of beer, wine, liquor and mixers.  Profitable bars owners make sure their staff is equipped with all the proper tools necessary for slinging drinks and pushing pub grub.  When assessing your new bar’s needs, the sinks, washers and blenders are obvious.  But the small-wares like bottle openers, proper cutlery and the often overlooked condiment caddy need to be addressed as well. 

A bar is not a bar without the little things like the condiment caddy or condiment rack.  It’s a simple storage and organizational device that allows for you to keep together and easily transport utensils, ketchup, mustard, steak sauce, salt and pepper and all the other bits your customers will likely request to enjoy their meals!  If your bar is going to serve food, you need to provide your customers with these essentials.  But while you're at it, why not have it be your silent salesman and spokesman as well?  While customers are waiting for your staff to take and prepare their orders, more and more of them are pulling out their smart phones to pass the time.  Put YOUR message on that phone!  And use a condiment caddy to get it there.

Though designs of condiment caddies differ, consider caddies that allow for a little table side advertising.  Many will allow for you to attach postcard sized ads right on top of them.  Check with your food and beverage vendors to see if they can help you design and produce these powerful little marketing cards with or even FOR you!  Likely they’ll want their product name on your table, but make sure it benefits your establishment as well.  This is prime advertising real-estate.  Use this space to promote an up-coming event, new dish, or special in the kitchen.

If your establishment has a website or uses social media like Facebook, this is an awesome place to print off a QR code linking your customer's smartphone to your bar or restaurant!  A QR code is a lot like a bar code that can be scanned by smartphones and will direct that phone to a place on the internet, like your online menu or facebook page!  Consider a promotion where if they scan the QR code to direct them to your social media site and then "check in," they can get a discount off their tab.  Not only will this point their friends toward your store online, they might even show up in person, knowing they'll find good company at your bar when they do!  Its a win - win - win!  All you have to do is "search" the interwebs for "QR code generator" to create your own custom code and copy your code to your advertising card.

Rapids Wholesale QR code

Please be careful when selecting a condiment caddy.  I’ve seen a few bars that use empty cardboard six pack cases to hold condiments.  This is okay (I guess) if you have zero budget, but these aren’t built for everyday use and abuse.  One table spill, and the next time your staff (or God forbid a customer) picks up the caddy, everything will end up on the floor.  Also, it’s often difficult for your customers to fish the salt and pepper shakers out of them as the sides are too tall.  And, in all honesty, they can make your bar look cheap!  Do you want your customers thinking, “well heck, if they’re skimping on getting me the ketchup, where else are they cutting corners?”

Find the selection of condiment caddies along with all the other Bar and Beverage supplies you need, and how to order them from Rapids Wholesale’s website in the above video.  Grab a condiment caddy and with this little QR code marketing trick, increase your bottom line!

For tips be sure to subscribe to our little blog here or punch in your email on the right to receive updates as we create more awesome content.

cheers,

Paul at Rapids Wholesale

Beer Supplies & Draft Beer Equipment from Rapids Wholesale

Click here for Rapids Wholesale Beer Supplies

Our friends from Perlick, in business since 1917, offered us this tried and true wisdom from their unique view of the Foodservice and Hospitality industry.  They note you will always find more PROFIT poured at the bar than cooked in your kitchen.  And draft beer is the MOST PROFITABLE adult beverage sold.  So, if you want to make more money . . . sell more beer!  Sounds easy doesn't it?  Well it certainly can be, but where many bar and restaraunt owners may struggle is in managing the efficiency and quality of how you get that beer to your customer's eager lips.  Mastering this process of distribution and presentation, from ice cold cans or bottles to glycol long draw systems, results in satisfied, repeat customers and bulging bottom lines.

The easiest beer delivery system is a cooler packed with bottles or cans.  Although easier to install than draft systems, they are rarely as profitable.  To insure the highest quality and efficiency, look to quality beer coolers from our vendor parnters Perlick, TRUE, Beverage Air, and Turbo Air.  Sure it is possible to use a standard consumer refridgerator, but rarely are they built sturdy enough to support the load of inventory you will need or the frequency of use.  They are not designed to keep bottles as cold with frequent opening and closing.  Your customers will likely complain about warm beer and you'll be replacing it inside of a year.  You still have lots of options with these affordable beer coolers.

Find Top Load Coolers Here

Top loaded bottle coolers offer higher capacity with the same footprint as a standard cooler because you can stack your product.  Also, there are no doors to swing out and clip the ankles and knees of your service staff.  Open doors can present a trip hazard in a smaller working space like behind a bar.  And your bartenders won't have to bend over as far to grab the product from the top.

Find Display Coolers Here

Display coolers can be used to highlight specialty products.  Although the glass doors are more expensive to produce than solid doors, this can provide a relatively inexpensive merchandising and advertising option.  Let the product's unique packaging advertise itself!  It also allows the service staff the ability to quickly identify a product for speedy retrieval.  Be sure to have your staff always face the stock in these coolers before and at the end of every shift.  A properly faced and stocked display cooler will garner repeat customers when they see their favorite brand is always readily available in your establishment.

Find Beer Dispensers Here

Keg coolers are beer dispensers that resemble back bar coolers, but they hold kegs of beer instead of bottles and cans.  You can find them in sizes that will hold anywhere from one to five kegs at a time.  Equip them with proper beer towers and beer faucets, attach the proper tapping gear and CO2 and you have a complete keg beer dispersal system.  

A big advantage of using a draft beer dispenser is that you can generally store and chill a tapped keg of beer inside a good-quality unit for a very long time and the beer will remain in perfect serving condition.  As long as the lines remain properly cleaned, there will be no change in the taste.

Long Draw systems allow for the kegs to be stored back in walk-in coolers, out of the way.  They require a little more setup to make sure the beer can travel the greater distance and remain cold.  For more on how Rapids Wholesale can help you with whichever beer distribution system makes sense for your place, check out this video!

Also remember that proper serving temperture of beer is between 38-42F.  Kegs are usually delivered too warm and need up to 18 hours to bring down to the perfect serving temperture.  Dirty glassware can  greatly affect the way draft beer pours.  Bubbles will stick to grime on the sides of the glass.  Dust and dirt will cause rapid foaming and obviously affect the taste of the brew.  Foam is 25% liquid, and when your staff is dumping unnecessary foam, they're dumping profit down the drain.  Glass rinsers lubricate and cool the inside of the glass to ensure a better pour.  Serve with a smile!

CHECK OUT OUR EDUCATION PAGE HERE FOR MORE!

CHEERS!

Paul at Rapids Wholesale

So, You Want To Open A Restaurant...

So, You Want To Open A Restaurant...

Good for you! Owning and operating a restaurant or bar can be rewarding. Overcoming challenges and exploiting opportunities makes the hospitality industry an addictive environment for the right individuals. Rapids has been there for many entrepreneurs as they have considered this big step toward independence.

When it comes to the tools of the trade, smallwares are the foundation of any food service enterprise. Smart operators realize that consistency in everything from portioning to presentation to prep is important in driving repeat business. The basics such as measuring cups, tongs and spatulas help create signature consistency.

If that sounds like a lot of importance attached to a collection of plastic and metal bits and pieces, think about it this way: these are the products that will be reached for most often in any facility. A set of measuring cups will get touched more often each day than an oven handle. Portion control utensils such as spoons and ladles can mean the difference between profit and loss. Smallwares are important, their cost and acquisition should occupy an appropriate amount of planning and procurement time.

At Rapids we have a series of smallwares checklists created around several of the more popular venues. When we specify the equipment list for our design / procurement contracts we use lists just like these to make sure we don't miss anything. We think that they will make a great starting point for anyone in the planning stages of opening a restaurant, so we have made them available on our website.

When using a checklist like those listed below don't be afraid to edit and substitute. These lists are based on recommendations in type and quantity, not brand and price. Having a set of kitchen floor plan drawings along side will be helpful too. Where a list might suggest two 36" dunnage racks your floor plan might dictate that a 36" and a 48" pairing is a better fit. No pre-published equipment list can anticipate every need or desire, but our lists make for a great starting point!

Browse and download these lists, write up a lot of questions, then give the folks in our catalog sales department a call and let Rapids help you refine your needs. Or go directly to the Rapids Wholesale website and compile a sample order for budgeting purposes.

Choose the closest list type to your restaurant concept:

• For The 100 Seat Restaurant
• Fast Food Staples
• 75 Seat Pizza Joint
• Bakery Basics
• Buffet Smallwares
• Cafeteria Checklist
• Deli Style Dining
• Fit For Fine Dining

Welcome!

Welcome to the Rapids Blog! This is our home for e-Newsletter content, editorials, tips and techniques and all of the other information provided by Rapids.

By basing Rapids e-Newsletter content in a blog we all benefit from a searchable database of articles and topics. Over time, this archive can become an invaluable resource to food service owners, operators and professionals. Subscribe to Rapids e-Newsletter HERE and always get a heads up when new content has been added to the blog!