Boston Showcase Becomes an Energy Star Partner

Boston Showcase Company is now an official Energy Star Partner! Every business has a responsibility to "go green," which is why we push Energy Star rated products to our customers. Currently, there are six categories for Energy Star rated commercial foodservice equipment. They are solid door refrigeration, steam cookers, dishwasher, fryers, hot food holding cabinets, and ice machines. Boston Showcase has supplied dozens of Energy Star products in the past couple years and is committed to offering clients as many energy efficient items as possible. 

In an upcoming project, we are working with Captive Aire to supply an exhaust hood with a pollution control unit. Captive Aire states on their website that a pollution control unit is, "designed specifically for the removal of smoke and grease particles from the air stream of commercial exhaust systems and to eliminate or reduce odor to an acceptable level."  Essentially, this system will significantly reduce the amount of toxins released by an exhaust hood into the environment.  This is just one of many commitments by Boston Showcase Company to "go green."

Selecting the Right Tabletop Items

At Boston Showcase Company, we pride ourselves in being the premier resource in New England for tabletop items. This includes glassware, china, flatware, bread baskets, candle holders, and much more. My grandfather, Jason Starr, who served as President for thirty years received numerous awards for his creative tabletop arrangements. His passion for tabletop trickled down through the generations, from my father and uncle to myself.

While some might think that the first thing to consider when selecting tabletop items is price, you would be somewhat wrong. I would say totally wrong, but obviously price is always a concern. The first thing to consider is usage, storage space, and how the items will be transported to the dish room. One of my loyal customers always mulls the possibility of switching from heavy, clunky china to a more elegant, modern pattern. However, their restaurant is extremely high-volume with bussers rushing buckets in and out of the kitchen, quickly scraping leftover food and stashing glasses in racks. If they switched to all high-end items, their tabletop bills would skyrocket because of breakage and loss. It's not that only a small, upscale restaurant can have high-end tabletop items; in fact, hotels often have some of most expensive items, especialy china. This ties into the aforementioned key criteria. The small, upscale restaurant can have high-end tabletop items because they are used infrequently, maybe only one turn each night, and thus, are handled less. And the smaller the restaurant, the smaller the quantity of items, making storage a cinch. While usage is huge in a hotel, they can maintain high-end tabletop items because of their ability to transport and store everything. In a banquet room, hundreds of plates, glasses and flatware hit the tables, but hotels use plate dispensers, poker chip dollies and glass rack dollies, items that can't possibly fit in a normal restaurant, to for storage and transport. 

Now that you have sifted through the first set of criteria, you can start to select the styles that you prefer. More than ninety percent of china in commercial settings is white, but the shapes are becoming increasingly different.  Squares and rectangles all all the rage today, but even funkier shapes with multiple curves and indentations are starting to sell.  Villeroy and Boch, Steelite, and Front of the House, which represent three price points, all push the envelope with innovative new china concepts. Recently, Libbey, a company known for their traditional, durable glassware, released the Quadra line (see below), which has a solid, heavy base and a rounded square body. Walco Stainless, which has dozens of classic patterns, including Pacific Rim, Derby, and Fan Fare, also showcases progressive patterns such as Ironstone, Modernaire (see picture), and Frosted Vogue. 

The hard part is over now and if you and your sales associate have done your homework, there will be two to three options for china, glassware, and flatware.  Now is the time to look at price.  Before making any selections, determine a rough budget for the whole package rather than per item.  Even though you might love the unique shape of a certain pasta bowl, for $30 per bowl, it's probably too expensive.  And if you pass on it, you can buy a higher quality round dinner plate and a customized steak knife.  You can go the other way too and buy cheap glassware because those pasta dishes are your signature.  Buying tabletop is about give and take, but having an overall budget makes this process easier.  

Ranges with Electric Pilot Ignition

Friday afternoons can either be incredibly hectic or just the opposite.  Luckily, all the craziness today occurred prior to three o'clock so I was able to spend some time with Jerry Perkins, a manufacturer's representative for Garland, Intermetro, and Frymaster, amongst others.  I asked him to help me specify a range for a new project and we began discussing ranges with electric pilot ignition. Jerry also helped with some of the content in this post.  

Electric pilot ignition operates similar to the residential gas range.  The user simply pushes in the gas valve, which begins the flow of gas and then presses the electric ignition, which creates a spark that lights the pilot.  Once the pilot is on, the valve is used to increase or decrease the flame just like a standard restaurant range.  Gas will not flow until the user is ready to start cooking, which differs from a standard restaurant range. With a standard range, the pilots are open and gas flows at all times, whether you light them or not.  These open pilots typically operate constantly or if the gas supply is interrupted, someone on the kitchen staff has to manually light them.  Safety pilots supplied with electric ignition are closed and gas will not flow to a pilot or burner unless the operator required it.  

There is no question that a restaurant range with this feature is significantly more expensive than a standard but the benefits are significant.  First, you are not wasting gas that leaks out when the pilots are on as with a standard restaurant range. In today's commercial kitchen, the gas often turns on when the exhaust fans are turned on but users may not light the range for hours. Second, you only need to operate as many burners as required.  If you only need four burners on a six-burner range, simply turn those on and the other two will remain off and not leak any gas through the pilot.  Third, electric ignition ranges are safer to operate because only burners that are operating need gas.  Many school districts are now making this type of range mandatory for safety reasons.  

Boston Showcase Company works with several manufacturers who provide restaurant ranges with electric ignition including Garland, Blodgett, Southbend.  

Part of Being a Sales Associate

As a foodservice equipment and supplies sales associate, I drive around Boston at least three times a week visiting customers and it never ceases to amaze me how little pedestrians care about possibly getting hit by my car.   The light is fully green, the Don't Walk sign is fully orange and not only do people walk right in front of my car, they don't even look.  And when they do, it's the look of disgust that I, the driver, even contemplated interrupting their stroll through the city.  The simple solution is to drive less but I'm carrying countless samples and catalogs in my car that I can't possibly lug around all day.  So until I start riding a Segway or videoconferencing becomes standard, I'll keep finding questionable parking spaces and shaking my head at those unruly street walkers.