What Restaurant Supplies Does Your Café Need?
August 29, 2019What restaurant supplies does your café need?
Our Pro’s Do It All: Provide, Install & Maintain
From soda fountains to most any frozen beverage machine, we offer a fantastic variety of beverage equipment and restaurant supplies. Tipton Equipment is one of the few distributors in Central Arkansas and beyond that can install and maintain your drink fountain or FCB. Same goes for bar equipment, custom draft beer systems, and chillers!
How Much Space for Restaurant Supplies Do You Have?
One of the most significant investments that go into opening a new café is in the kitchen. A commercial kitchen needs industrial-grade equipment that can withstand busy café use. The layout of a commercial kitchen should allow food/beverages to flow seamlessly from the prep area to the handoff plane.
Sometimes a new café has a fabulous location, but minimal kitchen space, which dictates the kind of restaurant supplies needed. You may want the six-burner gas range with a convection oven, but your kitchen will only fit a four-burner range.
Where Can You Find Restaurant Supplies?
Restaurant auctions are also a great place to find restaurant supplies for pennies on the dollar. Sales are the right place for picking up small wares like dishware, flatware, bread baskets, condiment containers, and serving utensils.
You can also find good deals on gently used restaurant supplies, like oven ranges and refrigerator units. Be mindful that buying used restaurant supplies is not always your best option since it does not usually come with a warranty.
Restaurant Supplies Your Café Needs
A general checklist of everything you need to outfit your café kitchen:
- Range
- Oven
- Reach-in cooler
- Walk-in cooler
- Freezer (either a chest, upright, or walk-in)
- Sauté pans
- Stock/soup pots
- Saucepans
- Baking sheets
- Baking pans
- Tongs
- Spatulas
- Ladles
- Chef’s knives
- Whisks
- Mixing bowls
- Plastic inserts for coolers
- Steam table
- Entrée plates
- Appetizer plates
- Salad plates
- Dessert plates
- Metal or plastic shelves for walk-in cooler
- Cleaning rags
- Cleaning buckets (specifically labeled for cleaning products)
- Rubber floor mats
- Hand soap/sanitizer dispenser
- Fire extinguisher
Depending on the size of your kitchen and the café concept, you may not need every item. You may need other types of restaurant supplies more specific to your café concept, such as an ice cream maker if you make artisan ice cream, or bread pans if you plan to make bread in-house.
Don’t Buy a Commercial Refrigerator Before Considering These 4 Things
A commercial refrigerator is an equipment staple of every restaurant. There are several things to consider when acquiring a commercial refrigerator for your kitchen. When searching for the correct type of unit, here are four things to consider to help you choose the...
5 Ways to Get the Most out of Your Dishwasher
Dishwashers are an incredibly helpful timesaver, and in the fast-paced restaurant industry, staff and managers are desperate for even a small amount of extra time. Although simply putting dishes into a machine seems simple, if your dishwasher is not well-maintained...
How to Keep Having Fun while Running your Restaurant
Restaurant owners typically have a passion for cuisine. Opening and running a restaurant is exciting, providing the opportunity to fully explore and develop your vision. However, if you have been in the restaurant business for any length of time, you know that it is...
3 Great Reasons to Maintain Your Restaurant Equipment
As the owner of a restaurant, you want a healthy and clean business. In the hustle of everyday restaurant management, it can be easy to forget to take care of issues that don’t seem as pressing as the customer complaining that they got the wrong order or that their...
Avoid Surprises During an Appraisal of Your Restaurant Equipment
When it comes to time for your restaurant equipment to be appraised, confusion can set in. For the purpose of the appraisal, personal goods are given value, but goods that are classified as ‘real goods’ are considered part of the real estate or the building structure...
Essentials of Cleaning and Preventative Maintenance for Your Restaurant Equipment
When it comes to your restaurant equipment, regular cleaning and maintenance is essential for making sure your equipment lasts for years to come. And it isn’t simply a matter of making your food processors and commercial mixers more efficient. There are considerable...
3 Tips for Maintaining Your Commercial Oven
As a restaurant owner, buying a commercial oven is an enormous investment. You will desperately want this oven to work properly and you need to make sure it does. You are responsible for your restaurant business. But what if your commercial oven stops working on the...
5 Steps to Cutting Food Waste from Your Kitchen
Food waste is a problem around the world. Taking steps to prevent food waste in your kitchen doesn’t just make your restaurant more morally strong; it can also help you save money on ingredients and attract more customers. Here are some steps you can take to reduce...
Planning Your Equipment Needs When Your Restaurant is Expanding
Your restaurant is doing great, guests are coming in, and they’re spreading the word about the culinary masterpieces your restaurant offers, as well as the exceptional service that is provided by the kitchen equipment and staff. But with all the new business, you’ve...
How to Keep Cool in the Restaurant Kitchen
Being in the kitchen, it’s hard not to feel overheated, especially during the summer. The heat of the stoves and ovens will quickly make the restaurant kitchen somewhere you don’t want to be. How do you keep cool in the kitchen? We have brought together some of the...
How and Why to Make Your Restaurant Lead-Free
If you own a restaurant, then you already know how important water is to your operations, and that poor water quality can adversely impact the success of your business. That is why you should ensure a restaurant lead-free environment. Water is an integral part of all...
Can You Handle These 5 Types of Difficult Restaurant Customers?
No matter how much you love it, running a restaurant certainly has its challenges. It is time-consuming, hectic, labor-intensive and competitive. And to cap it all, there are the difficult restaurant customers you often have to deal with. It’s impossible to please...
5 Unique Restaurant Concepts Guaranteed to Thrill Diners
With restaurants on almost every block, having a unique restaurant concept can help set you apart, making your establishment stand out. These concepts may have taken a bit to catch on, but they have quickly become popular sellers. Here are 5 unique restaurant concepts...
How to Run an Energy-Efficient Restaurant
You probably don’t need to be reminded of the high cost of electricity in running a restaurant compared to an energy-efficient restaurant. Right now, many establishments, including restaurants, are going green and adopting eco-friendly strategies to conserve...
Tipping: A Restaurant Controversy
When it comes to tipping or no-tipping policies in restaurants, there are strong feelings on both sides. While many restaurants have implemented no tipping policies, others are strong proponents for tipping. Still others aren’t sure which policy is right for their...