tips&features

Starting Ash Wednesday and lasting all the way through Easter Sunday is Lent.  If your restaurant isn’t paying attention to this crowd, then you’re missing out on potential profits and satisfied customers. 

Where there’s customer demand, your restaurant needs to be prepared with high-quality supply! If you haven’t done so yet, it’s time to freshen your menu with gluten-free items.

Local grocers are changing with the times, and the transformation from strictly retail to a mesh of retail and quick-serve dining may be the new norm in just a few years!

Consider that now is the time that many are also focused on their physique (bikini season!), so offering light, produce-based sides is sure to be a hit. If you’re stuck on what to offer, here are a few blockbusters that are tried-and-true.

Let’s take a look at some of the specials out this month that can affordably bring a Manitowoc Ice Machine into your kitchen within days.

So rather than questioning the HACCP guidelines, let’s take a look at what it takes for small restaurants to meet these standards.

Your servers are the face of your restaurant. Even the best of menu items can be tainted with an inefficient or incapable waiter or waitress, and perceptions can be altered with a drink left unfilled or a rude attitude.

House-made drinks are a great way to cater to your customers, and with Mother Nature turning up the heat, now is a better time than ever to perfect some Summer favorites into your menu! For blended beverages, ensure you’ve invested in a bar blender designated specifically for blended versions of cocktails and glass rimmer to garnish your glasses with sugar or salt! Similarly, a juicer will help bring that fresh citrus taste to all of your drinks. Here are four blended cocktails to ensure your bartenders have perfected for your summer lineup.

For the cooked quinoa for a fluffy, beautiful texture! From here, you can play with recipes and seasonings for a perfect quinoa dish. Here are a few recipes to get you started.

Suggestive selling is an easy way to increase ticket averages and tips in an unobtrusive and pleasant manner. Let’s take a closer look at suggestive selling and how to incorporate it into your restaurant in a way that is profitable.

We recently talked about the food truck fad and whether or not we can expect to see it stick around (hint: we can), but what’s it really like to cross from brick-and-mortar to food-on-wheels?

Stainless steel is a well-known and widely-used material, especially in restaurants. Going back to basics, let’s delve into what stainless steel actually is, what the different grades are, and what types of finishes can be used.

On St. Patrick's Day in the United States, the streets of many cities and towns are awash in a tide of green decorations and Irish pride.

Most restaurants have taken the time to create a kids’ menu, and 90% of parents agree that having a kids’ menu is important when eating out. Designing an appropriate menu for children can boost ticket sales and cater to a population subset that simply should not be overlooked.

Have you ever been in a restaurant with a meal that looked so delicious that you wanted to take a picture of it to upload to Facebook, Twitter, or even your blog… but when you tried to capture the essence of your delicious-looking food, you ended up getting nothing but disappointment? Well, you’re certainly not alone. Often times, taking photos of food in restaurants turns out to be a very difficult job. Here are five tips to help you be more successful in taking a photograph of your food the next time around:

Fall is the season for warm beverages, comfort foods, and pumpkin baked goods. If you haven’t fit some pumpkin items onto your fall menu, now’s the best time to prepare and create! 

When it comes to cooking pasta consistently and precisely, a pasta cooker is a must-have! If you’re looking for an efficient appliance with reliability when cooking pasta, a specialized pasta cooker might be right for you!

It’s the Season of Giving, and restaurants play a big role when it comes to giving back to the community.  

For small business owners, opening a new restaurant can be a financially daunting task. There are a variety of small business lease options to help you and your business afford quality, name-brand equipment to support your kitchen operations.

If you haven’t considered adding breakfast as an all-day menu offering, then the phrase ‘better late than never’ is appropriate!

Looking for the perfect pumpkin-inspired dessert to serve at your restaurant this fall season? Well, look no further! This simple and delicious Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Scones recipe is just the recipe you’ve been searching for. If you’ve ever made scones, you know that they aren’t too difficult to make. They are actually pretty quick and easy to make, so once you get the hang of it, you can be sure to have a readily available supply of these little pieces of Heaven in your restaurant at all times!

While there are plenty of excellent reasons to visit Charleston, South Carolina, there is one reason that seems to be above all others: the food. Charleston has been referred to as the “culinary destination of the deep South, ” as the city offers foods of all types. Whether it is fresh seafood, fried food, or other Lowcountry cuisine that you are craving, one thing you can be sure of is that your meal in Charleston will stand out from all other foods in tourist areas. Below, are just five of the best foods you MUST try in Charleston!

Waste management is a fact of life for any restaurant kitchen. Take a look at your waste management plan and we’ll uncover some of the hidden costs you may be missing.

Consistency in your menu items truly boils down to how well you measure your ingredients. In the argument for digital kitchen scales, there are many factors that prove that utilizing digital scales in your everyday operations is the best way to measure items in your restaurant.

Similar to pot roasting, braising uses a combination of both moist and dry heat. In many instances, foods are first seared and then cooked slowly at a low temperature with liquid in a closed container.

Convenience stores are notorious for capturing sales based on impulse buys, and who better to market those impulses towards than the Millennial generation?

Your restaurant is designed for pragmatism and comfort, especially when it comes to front-of-house operations. This is the area where customers must feel comfortable and at ease and where employees can operate efficiently and quickly - all without influencing the perception of relaxation. Seating and table arrangements are a key component to this efficient setup, and understanding seating capacities can help ensure that you purchase the right types and amounts of seats for your table setups.

As you can imagine, choosing an appropriate location for an important meeting is absolutely crucial in the business world. When deciding on a restaurant to hold your meeting at, it is critical that you ensure everyone involved is as comfortable and content as possible, and that the meeting will be as much of a success as possible in the end.

When it comes to specialty broilers, those with light broiling needs may find themselves faced with confusion. Cheese melters and salamander broilers are both great finishing tools for those who need to melt items at low temperatures over fully-cooked products. So what’s the big difference?

Flatbreads have been used for centuries in a multitude of culinary cuisine, and with a variety of types of flatbread, it’s a versatile addition to any restaurant.

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In the early 1900’s, restaurants were much different than they are today! Fast forward to 2014, and restaurants have many new advances in technology to help them reach their clientele and serve their customers.

Condiment stations may seem like an afterthought for many, but the fact of the matter is that they can leave a lasting impression on your customers while nicking away at your restaurant’s resources.

Your profits are dependent on how you market your product, and how you display your products can make or break a sale. Display cases come in many options, and choosing the correct case for your restaurant is key to maximizing your potential profits!

Let’s face it: pizza has become a major staple in the food world. When people don’t feel like making dinner, they get pizza. On football Sundays, they get pizza. For birthday parties, they get pizza. I think you get the idea. Since people don’t always have the time, energy, or equipment to make their own pizzas at home, though, they turn to the next best thing: ordering pizza. Therefore, as a foodservice establishment, it is important to know how to make the perfect homestyle pizza for these people to order and take home. 

For manufacturers, electronic controls offer easier inventory management, and for kitchen staff, these controls are easier to operate due to their simple up and down buttons that change case temperatures.

Refrigeration controls are devices used inside refrigerated units to regulate the environment in the unit. Temperatures are controlled within a certain tolerance that can vary. Newer controls provide alarms and logging for HACCP compliance. They let users know if temperatures are out of balance or if a power outage occurs.

No matter how you slice it, food slicers are not all created equal. As a pivotal piece of equipment for many restaurateurs, choosing the appropriate slicer for your kitchen can make or break your efficiency and final product. There are a few key points to keep in mind when shopping for a meat slicer, and comparing each point to your restaurant’s needs will ensure that your choice is optimal for the job!

Steam kettles are an essential piece of equipment for any high-volume restaurant operation, but many are unsure of how to decide on the right one for their business. Because of the importance of incorporating a steam kettle into your daily operations, it’s essential to choosing the right model for your restaurant.

With their ever-shifting foodservice needs and expectations, customers continue to redefine dining experience. And this year, it will involve even less eating out and more off-premise and on-the-go orders; less restaurant waste and more sustainable options. Even non-food retailers are getting in on the action and so are robots and drones. What does this mean for the industry?