We Don’t Like “Liars”…

Sure, your kitchen equipment can handle the day-to-day tasks of a restaurant and the rigors of a fast paced food service operation, but can it handle a true torture test? What do you do with a piece of equipment that simply won’t perform or falls short of your expectations?

Here at Restaurant Equipment World, we pride ourselves on offering the best quality equipment at he lowest possible prices. It sounds a little sales-y, but its absolutely true. We take that same mentality and apply it to the hundreds of pieces of used and consignment restaurant equipment that we currently carry, holding each piece up to the highest of standards for quality, performance, durability, and reliability.

So what exactly happens when we find out that a used piece of equipment doesn’t measure up? Click on the video above and find out for yourself.

We take restaurant equipment sales seriously. Very seriously.

For more information on our standards of quality, email us or check out our website.

Submit your own ideas by sending us a tweet (@REWonline). We’re always looking for cool new ways to punish sub-par equipment.

For reaching yet another lofty sales goal,

the staff of REW was treated to an evening of creativity at All Fired Up in Winter Park, FL. REW employees showed a little of their artistic side as they painted and glazed pottery while unwinding after a very busy month at the office.

While all pieces displayed talent and creativity, the REW staff staged a small competition for best artist in the office. Each piece was closely scrutinized by each member of the REW team as they voted for their favorite.

And The Winner Is…

First place winner Kevin B. was awarded a gift card to Mellow Mushroom for his multi-colored Dragon. Honorable mentions go to Yoly C. and Telma D. for their 2nd and 3rd place finishes.

Thanks to REW’s Patty Nuzzo and the staff of All Fired Up for organizing the event!

Getting traffic in the door…

It may be the most difficult part of the foodservice game, and the ways to make it happen are rapidly changing. While word-of-mouth is still the reigning champion in promoting your business, the forms that it comes in varies greatly. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Blogger, and many others are encroaching on the physical person-to-person discussion of where to eat. The greatest benefit of these new digital communications is that you can often drop in on the conversation.

If you have great food, you’re already in a prime position to tap into this discussion and further promote your business – chances are, plenty of people are talking about you already. The digitized world is big, though, and it might be hard to know where to start. Let’s break it down by service, arranged by how important we think they are to your foodservice operation.

1. Twitter

Twitter is a premier tool to engage with your audiences, and with good reason. With instant responses that can spread through the Twittersphere, your name can be broadcast loud and clear through the internet. It goes without saying that you need to be short and to the point, but being clever and current doesn’t hurt, either. To get people to follow you, you need to follow them first; if they don’t follow back within a few days, unfollow them and try somebody else. A good goal is to have slightly more followers than people you follow, but it takes some work to get there.
It’s easy to get started, just visit Twitter and you just need to provide a name, email, and password.

2. Facebook

The key here is contests and engagement. If you offer a free appetizer coupon for a limited time to people who “like” your page, you’re going to be in for a treat yourself. Ruby Tuesday offered 100,000 free burgers by liking their Facebook page and, as of today, they have over 500,000 followers. That’s a lot of exposure, and even if every single free burger was given away, there’s still money to be made – people tend to bring their friends and will certainly buy some appetizers, sides, and drinks. Make sure you are visiting those who “like” your page and thank them personally. Do this until the volume of likes far exceeds your capacity to personally thank each Facebook friend, and you’re well on your way to creating a viral effect.
Starting a Facebook page is simple. Go to Facebook’s Create A Page portion of their site, choose Local Business or Place, and it’s easy as pie from there on out.

3. YouTube

This is probably the most rewarding outlet in social media; since videos generally have a higher production value compared to the snippets of conversation within other media outlets, they tend to get more attention. Add some behind-the-scenes videos, recipes, or footage from special events. You don’t even need to invest in much; just a Flip camera or similar will do fine, and free editing software such as Windows Movie Maker will do for most operations. If you have the budget, the better your videos are, the more attention they seem to accumulate. Keep adding videos every once in a while to keep your channel fresh and leverage your other social media outlets to drive views and interest.
Signing up is simple: visit YouTube, and you can either sign in with an existing Google account, or just give an email, username, and password and you’re in.

4. Google+

The new kid on the block is quickly becoming the gorilla in the room. Since, as of right now, Google+ is an invite-only platform, and they don’t have any tools for business, you’re best hope is to use your operation’s Google account to engage users as an unbranded “friend,” and hope that they add you to some well-populated circles. The flip-side of the Google+ coin is the user-generated promotion of your site through what Google calls their “+1 Button.” Similar to Facebook’s “like” button, it generates interest and puts your restaurant’s site nearer to the top of the list when people search for places to eat on Google.
Signing up for Google+ is as easy as finding someone who will email you an invite. To do this, appeal to friends, family, and customer’s to see if any of them have invites. To add the +1 button to you’re website, go to Google’s site to get the code. If you’re still new to site development and coding, have your website’s team do it for you, or your neighbor’s kid.

5. LinkedIn

Often viewed as a site to boost your resume, LinkedIn actually has useful tools to keep you connected with colleagues and other business owners. If you’re in the foodservice industry, you know there is plenty of healthy competition, but plenty of friendships as well. As you foster these relationships, you may find strength in numbers.
Visit Linked In and put in your first and last name, your email, and a password and you’re well on your way.

6. Your Own Site

This is an oft-overlooked tool in your arsenal. The most important part reason for having your own site is that you ultimately determine the content and how it is formatted. Put up your menu, daily deals, and push your Facebook and Twitter. Just having a website adds legitimacy to your business and makes customer’s who are looking to try something new visit you in-person; however, having a well-designed and often-updated website can really sway a customer’s decision to choose you over the competition.
You can make your own site, even if you are not a web guru. If you visit a hosting platform such as GoDaddy, you can buy a domain, get hosting, and design a basic site all in one day. If you don’t have the time to make your own site, there are plenty of web design companies who will take care of all the nerdy tech stuff for you. Do a search to find reputable ones in your area.

7. Groupon

Groupon offers daily deals to a rich database of consumers; they might offer a coupon for $30 worth of product at your establishment for as little as $10. That $10 profit is then split between your business and Groupon. It’s much pricier than many of the other social media tools, but the turnout is hard to beat. Just make sure you’re ready for the rush, and you can financially support such a loss-leader. The Groupon folks will push you to drive your prices down to nearly nothing, so go into negotiations with a set percentage off that you are willing to settle for. Also, be honest about your chances that this will result in repeat business – will folks come back for more after the initial coupons are used?
Visit Groupon Works for more information about how it works, and then go to the Get Featured section of Groupon’s site to apply as a business. The bar to get featured is actually pretty high, you’ll need to provide information about your business such as your reviews on Yelp! and City Search (if any).

8. Business Review Sites

We decided to lump these all together. This includes City Search and Merchant Circle, among others. Usually, these sites will allow users to add business themselves, so chances are, you’re already on there. Job well done, right? Not quite. Often, you will want to provide additional information that reviewers have not added yet – your menu, average price of food, business hours, additional pictures. The best part about these sites are that people on them are generally genuinely looking for a place to eat; it’s free advertising! The downside is that even a few negative reviews can affect your restaurant’s business. Often, you are able to respond to customer complaints on these sites, so it is good form to professionally apologize for any inconveniences caused by your establishment and offer for them to try you again (and you may entice them with a free drink or similar). For every customer that puts the effort into adding a review, there are often hundreds who are just looking – it’s important to keep up appearances for those potential customers.
As noted before, you are probably already listed. Visit Google Places, Yelp!, Yahoo, Urban Spoon, and the others to make sure you are listed and reviewed well.

9. Blogging

Though we nearly ironically made a blog post about this in the past, it’s important enough of a point to be made again. If you feel as though you have the time and the content to update a blog on daily basis, you need to start one. If you have your own website (and you should), WordPress offers an easy way to start blogging once it’s installed. In all reality, it’s the only way to go as far as blogging is concerned. It’s free, updated constantly to keep pace with current technology, it’s simple to use, and versatile.
Just visit WordPress’s site and check out their Famous Five Minute install. If you have any questions, visit our past blog about the subject for more info.

10. Email

Email may be on the back burner in the minds of social media gurus, but it is still a force to be reckoned with. Nearly everyone with access to the internet has an email account. Even if all of the other ways of contacting your customers over the internet fail, if you have an in-store sign asking customer’s to sign up for your email marketing campaign in exchange for a free dessert, you are sure to pick up some of the less technically savvy customers you miss with your other online marketing campaigns.
While you can run an email campaign all by yourself, it can become tiresome coming up with new ideas and adhering to good formatting rules. Companies like Constant Contact will help lighten the load for campaigns such as these, for a small monthly fee.

It looks like you have some homework to do! Keeping up on all of these communication outlets can prove time consuming, but if you want to improve foot traffic, they can be a boon to your restaurant business.

Ask an employee or family member…

“What do you put into a toaster?” and nine times out of ten, their gut reaction is going to be to say “Toast.” Unfortunately, the truth is that you have to put bread into a toaster, and somewhere in the internals of the machine, the bread has to dry out, absorb heat, and get some nice toasty color. Because toasters take money, time, energy, and space to do their job, choosing the most efficient toaster for your operation that takes all of these areas into account can be difficult.

There isn’t a cure-all, but the process can be broken down. There are three basic types of toasters used in foodservice operations; pop-ups, contact toasters, and conveyor toasters. Each is fundamentally different, and none are perfect for every operation. Proper application is the single-most important thing to consider when purchasing a toaster.

So, if how you use your toaster determines which you should buy…how do you use your toaster? Pop-up toasters are great for smaller breakfast operations that get the occasional toast or bagel order, or for full-service operations where toasted items aren’t a main attraction. If you are running a larger operation, especially one that experiences a substantial rush, conveyor-type toasters may be right for you.

Thankfully, there is more choice within each of those categories – pop-up toasters generally come in 2 and 4 slot configurations (like Hatco’s TPT series), and typical conveyor toasters can range from 300 to 1,800 pieces of toast an hour (like Hatco’s conveyor toasters). Generally speaking, you want to overestimate your operations needs if you plan on expanding in the future.

So, what about contact toasters? Whereas the heating elements on radiant toasters (as both conveyor and pop-up toasters are) do not touch the product, on a contact toaster, it is all about convection heat. This is generally beneficial when toasting buns and other products that cook equally well on the griddle.

Once you choose a toaster that fits your needs, turning bread into toast becomes a piece of cake. Or, toast.

Ok, so I admit it…

We’re a little late to the game. The Orlando Food Truck craze has been going on for quite some time now and we’re just starting to notice. As the member of REW’s web-development team who keeps us connected with social media and local trends, I hope REW didn’t miss the boat on this one.

I’ve been following the Food Truck phenomena for a little while now on Twitter and have been reading everything there is on the subject at EatLocalOrlando and TheDailyCity. I’ve got to say that both sites are great resources for anyone who wants to know more about the food-truck craze that’s sweeping over Orlando. Yes, I was one one of those ignorant people that thought food-trucks were reserved for larger cities like D.C., New York, or Los Angeles. I was wrong, and have come to realize that Orlando has just as much-if not more- to offer in terms of delicious street fare.

Last Friday…

I decided stop by and visit a food-truck on my way home from work. You know, just to see what all the fuss was about. I checked twitter to see who would be the most convenient and saw that the Korean BBQ Taco Box (@koreanbbq_2011) was just up the street. All I can say is holy crap it was delicious. Just check out the pic above. The price was right and the food was cooked to order and amazing. I’m now a true believer in Food Trucks.

While I haven’t been yet, I fully plan on attending the next event on TheDailyCity.com’s Food Truck Bazaar Summer Series schedule as well as the weekly Food pod at Lake Lily in Maitland. I’m on a mission to eat at every food truck in the city.

If you own or operate a food truck in Orlando and you’re reading this, get with me on twitter (@REWonline). In the very near future, I would love to come out and talk to you about your food truck operation. We can make a quick video and upload it to youtube, or I can write up an article about your food/story for our blog. No sales pitches, I promise.

When choosing a heat lamp for your quick-serve or to-go operation, there is much to consider. Here’s one more to add to the list: how you wrap or contain what you put under the lamp can make a huge difference on hold times, as well. Should you use paper wrappers, aluminum foil, or boxes? If your desired hold time is only a few minutes, you can decide on looks or cost. However, if there is a possibility of holding your food under a heat lamp for more than that, the wrapping material makes a huge difference.

As it turns out, paper is the reigning champion of wrapping material – that is, if you are using a heat lamp (like Hatco’s decorative heat lamps,) and if it is practical for your restaurant’s fare (I’ve never seen paper-wrapped soup in a successful operation.)

So what were the other contender’s downfalls? Foil reflects radiant heat, so putting the food under a heat lamp is much less effective. Boxes contain heat and moisture, which is great, but a heat lamp will not contribute to this very much. If your food requires a box or aluminum foil, convection heating is the best method to keep it warm.

In short, if you use a heat lamp, try wrapping your food in paper whenever possible.

June 2011 Hatco Training in Sturgeon Bay, WI

Ok, so the weather in Green Bay isn’t that great right now. I guess that’s just our sense of “weather superiority” as Floridians coming through a little. This image of the sacred ground that is know as Lambeau Field was sent to us by a REW employee that was lucky enough to get away from the office for a little while and attend some great training sessions in Sturgeon Bay, WI put on by our friends at Hatco.

Keep checking back with us for more photos of the excursion and some great information on the extensive line of Hatco products.

Last night, members of the REW team went to Hard Knocks Laser Tag in Oviedo, FL to blow off a little steam and celebrate their hard work as they recently reached some company goals.

We would like to extend a very special thank you to the management and staff of Hard Knocks as well as our very own Vice President, Patty Nuzzo for setting up the event.

This is absolutely amazing. While I can see this having more successful application in a research lab where mixtures need to be moved from one surface to another in the pursuit of science, it is cool to think of equipping your busboy with one of these in the pursuit of clean tables. I know that a wet rag is more user friendly- and probably more effective- but the wow factor of scooping up a ketchup spill without disturbing its shape is enough for me to consider the more high-tech option.

A side note: if your restaurant is serving processed meat that looks like a pink folded towel (in the production line portion of the video) you may have bigger problems than ketchup spills that need to be cleaned in a fancy, technological way.

Or at least they have been for a little while now….

Restaurant Equipment World, a proud sponsor of the 2011 Orlando Magazine Best Dining Awards and the BEST restaurants in Orlando, wants to congratulate all winners on their achievements.

Once a year, the very best restaurants that call The City Beautiful home come together and compete for coveted titles in many different categories. While only the top restaurants in each category will win, many Orlando establishments and their delicious fare will receive honorable mention.

This year’s winners represent the very best that Orlando has to offer in terms of food and culture. Many visitors to our area rarely get a glimpse of what life in Orlando is like beyond the borders of The Mouse, leaving much of our local flavor unnoticed and untouched. Those of us who are lucky enough to call Central Florida home have access to fine restaurants and unbelievable food that embody our way of life year-round.

If you’re one of the fortunate few who can be called a “local,” pick up a copy of Orlando Magazine and rediscover our great city, one dish at a time.

Here’s a short release from REW’s Vice President Patty Nuzzo:

On Sunday, May 15th, Orlando Magazine’s 2011 dining awards were
held at the historic ballroom at Dubsdread Country Club in Orlando. REW was a proud sponsor of this event for the 2nd year in a row. Our President Brad Pierce and Vice President Patty Nuzzo and their spouses attended the event to show their support of all of the winners and runners up.  Winners were chosen by readers of Orlando Magazine who voted on their top dining choices in 60 categories. Many REW customers were among the winners. In addition, Orlando Magazine honored several 2011 Hall of Fame winners during the event.

For a complete list of this year’s winners, check out Orlando Magazine’s webpage.

For more information on this year’s sponsors, visit their pages listed below:

Restaurant Equipment World

FreshPoint

The Tap Room at Dubsdread

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