Operations Management
Hotel Pans 101: Understanding the Basics and Beyond
Learn what a hotel pan is and how you can use them in your food service business to streamline food prep, storage, and serving.
Choosing the Right Food Truck Equipment
Food trucks are essentially restaurants on wheels. They need all the same areas that a restaurant does, but in a very compact space. Since they’re mobile, food trucks also have to be self-contained and carry their own water supply, utilities, and infrastructure. This is why the right food truck equipment and layout are so crucial to ensure an efficient and profitable operation.
10 Tips for a Great Concession Stand
If you’re wondering how to build a concession stand that’s successful, you’re in luck! We’ve compiled 10 tips for operating a booming concession business, from planning your menu to buying the right concession stand equipment.
What is Liftgate Service and Do You Need It?
Typically, heavy equipment is shipped on a pallet and arrives on a semi-truck. If you have access to a loading dock, that’s great! The truck will pull up, and you should be good to go. However, what if your business doesn’t have access to a dock? That’s where liftgate service comes into play.
What to Know About Front of House Layout and Design
Set the stage for an engaging front of house aesthetic for an unbeatable dining experience, covering key principles such as lighting and decor, furniture, flatware, glassware, dinnerware, and tabletop accessories.
The Six Principles of Back of House Layout and Design
Before opening your dream restaurant, to ensure efficient operation, you must factor in these six principles into your back of house, commercial kitchen design.
Clean, Sanitize, or Disinfect: Which Do I Do?
Keep every area of your commercial kitchen, restaurant, or home safe. What is the difference between cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting? Let’s review.
Grab-N-Go: School Solutions for Safe Serving, Portable Meal Programs, and A-La-Carte Upsells
The right grab-n-go solution can resolve many obstacles school meal programs have faced as a result of COVID-19. These include safely delivering meals to students, alleviating menu fatigue, and softening the financial blow by promoting a-la-carte upsells.
How Holding Cabinets Have Been Helping Foodservices Adapt to the New Normal
Holding cabinets keep food at safe temperatures and limit contact before service. We discuss benefits of holding cabinets.
10 Ways to Optimize Your Restaurant Delivery
With more restaurants turning to delivery services, we discuss how to optimize for short waits and fresh food.
Restaurant Cleaning Checklist & Kitchen Procedures
A lot happens in the kitchen. Keep up with regular cleaning and maintenance for a clean safe environment that will also keep your equipment lasting longer while performing better.
Improve Sustainability in The Kitchen
With increases in the millennial generation’s spending share, there is also an observable demand for sustainable offerings. Nielsen reports approximately 75% of millennials are willing to pay more for products and services that make an effort to positively impact and preserve the environment. Likewise, more than half of the Baby Boomer generation are also willing to support companies in this endeavor.
How to Make a Profit Selling Juice
There’s a lot to cover when it comes to making and selling fresh juice. A juice business is nothing new, but it’s something that you should consider if you haven’t yet. In the United States, juice businesses can be profitable because of the popularity among customers for the convenience in getting required nutrients, making the juice business a natural pair.
How to Properly Disinfect Your Stainless Steel Equipment
The COVID-19 coronavirus can live on a stainless steel work surface for up to three days. Cleaning and polishing aren’t enough. Step by step instructions for thoroughly killing bacteria and viruses on stainless steel work surfaces.
Shared Kitchens: What They Are and How They Can Help Your Operation
Shared kitchens are rising in popularity, providing sanitary commercial spaces to expand your operation, great for catering and delivery services.
How to Start a Food Truck Business
Before you run out and buy a food truck, you need to give your idea all the careful scrutiny you’d give a restaurant or any other business. That means doing some research and making a plan.
How to Open a Restaurant: Your Complete Guide
Many dream of opening their own restaurant. If you’re interested in making your dream a reality, we’re here to help with this definitvie guide to opening a restaurant, which explores restaurant concept development, seeking expert advice, writing a business plan, securing funding, site selection, operations and staffing up, and training and startup.
How to Open a Bar: Everything You Should Know
Opening a bar can sometimes be easier than opening a restaurant, but only if you have a smart plan. Learn how much it costs to open a bar, the benefits, rules and regulations, how to develop a concept and open a successful bar.
10 Common Mistakes Bar Owners Make
Running an efficient bar takes hard work, and mistakes are inevitable. However, certain pitfalls can be avoided by learning about the common mistakes many bar owners make.
Best Practices for Running a Bar
Operating a successful bar takes long hours and hard work. However, these tried and true tips can make all that hard work pay off in big ways.
Deciding What Type of Bar to Open
Opening a bar first begins with deciding which type of bar to open. The type of bar that’s right for you needs to fit with your personality as well as customer needs. Learn all about the various types of bars here.
Equipping A Sandwich Shop
Serving the perfect sandwich starts with more than just the ingredients. Having the right equipment and supplies sets up your sandwich shop for success.
Catering Equipment and Supplies: List of Most Important Items
What equipment and supplies are needed to run a catering business? Let’s review the most important items operators need to be successful.
The Right Equipment to Build a Better Bar
The fewer steps a bartender has to take, the more drinks per hour they can make. Here are some tried and true tips for enhancing service and efficiencies in your bar.
Customer Spotlight – Fundae’s Ice Cream & Sweets
“We kept waiting for an ice cream shop to open up, and nothing opened, so finally, we were like, ‘let’s just try it,’ so that’s what we did,”
Buying Guide for School Kitchens | Printable
School kitchens are different from your standard commercial restaurant kitchen. Specific supplies are needed to serve multiple meals a day to large groups of students, all the while keeping their vulnerable immune systems and food sensitivities top of mind. While a school only operates in certain months of the year, the cafeteria needs to be well prepared for high volume cooking and serving during these months.
What to Consider Before Opening an Ice Cream Shop
Ice cream is a universally loved treat, providing, a cool, creamy respite from the heat of summer. In addition, it’s also an enticing business option for the budding entrepreneur.
The 8 Steps to Designing a Restaurant Concept
Designing a restaurant concept isn’t simply a matter of constructing an attractive dining space or an effective food production kitchen. It’s a fine balance of accomplishing your objectives within a manageable budget. Because restaurants are subject to so many regulations, the design must not only be efficient and aesthetically pleasing, but also keep food and customer safety top of mind.
The Soft Opening: Planning for a Smooth Restaurant Opening
Opening a restaurant is a complex ballet of moving parts. Somehow it all comes together, but are you really ready to open?
Selecting Your Equipment Dealer
Price is only one factor to consider when choosing a commercial equipment dealer. Other considerations include reach, ease of ordering, and follow through post-purchase.
Having a Plan: The Importance of Planned Maintenance
Planned maintenance is not the same thing as preventive maintenance. It’s important to schedule regular service to best maintain your commercial equipment, instead of just reacting when something goes down.
Lessons Learned: Equipment Solutions for School Budgets
Few budgets are tighter than those of K-12 schools. For these operators, once they start working with Central Restaurant Products, many quickly discover why it’s smart to make Central Restaurant Products (CRP) their primary source for foodservice equipment purchases.
Supply List for School Kitchens and Cafeterias
School kitchens are different from your standard commercial restaurant kitchen. Specific supplies are needed to serve multiple meals a day to large groups of students, all the while keeping their vulnerable immune systems and food sensitivities top of mind. While a school only operates in certain months of the year, the cafeteria needs to be well prepared for high volume cooking and serving during these months.
7 Secrets to a Successful Foodservice Equipment Installation
Following a few best practices when it comes to installing commercial equipment helps ensure the job is not only done right, but goes as smoothly as possible. You can avoid equipment install nightmares by using common sense, good communication and professional installer. Check out these 7 best practices to help your install and operation run smoothly.
Restaurant Hood Cleaning Made Easy
With today’s technology, kitchen exhaust systems are very good at doing their jobs. But over time, grease and effluent can build up in the hood, plenum, ductwork, exhaust fan and even the roof itself, becoming a hazard of its own. And if you think all you have to do is clean the grease baffles or filters in the hood once in a while, think again.
Understanding Shipping and Delivery
Your answers to understanding costs, timing, damage control and more behind shipping and delivery.
Rising Labor Costs: 10 Tips to Balance Expenses & Productivity
Minimum wages are rising, and as the economy adds jobs good help is getting harder to find.
Implementing a Point-of-Sale System
Today’s business operations are moving faster than ever. Keep up, keep organized, and let technology do most of the work for you by implementing a point-of-sale (POS) system. Learn all about the perks.
Sustainable Restaurant Practices Outside the Kitchen
We lay out a few ways your foodservice establishment can enhance its environmental preservation efforts in the dining room.