Properly Caring for Your Kitchen

Your kitchen is essentially the heart of your restaurant. Without a well-maintained kitchen and a knowledgeable, hardworking staff, no eatery would have a fighting chance. As such, it behooves restaurateurs to keep their kitchens in prime condition. A messy, disorganized, or unhygienic kitchen can result in dissatisfied diners and earn your establishment the ire of the Health Department. When working to maintain a professional kitchen, the following measures are sure to come in handy. 

Be Diligent About Daily Cleaning

In the quest to keep your kitchen as sanitary as possible, daily cleaning is not something you can afford to skimp on. In fact, certain cleaning rituals need to be performed multiple times each day. To ensure that your kitchen remains clean and germ-free, be diligent about disinfecting preparation surfaces, wiping down ranges, grills and fryers, and thoroughly cleaning can openers and meat slicers. In the interest of avoiding pests, make sure the areas around waste receptacles remain squeaky clean. 

Regularly Inspect Your Refrigeration Units

Without functional refrigeration units, you won’t have servable food — and without servable food, you won’t have a restaurant. With this in mind, have your refrigerators and freezers inspected on a regular basis and swap out defective components — like cooler door gaskets — as needed. 

Use Slip-Resistant Cleaners and Coatings

An unexpected slip in the kitchen can have disastrous consequences. Not only can this hamper timely food preparation, it’s liable to put you at the receiving end of a lawsuit. If you’re determined to prevent slips in your restaurant’s kitchen, clean your floors with slip-resistant cleaners and encourage your staff to exercise caution at all times.

Properly maintaining your kitchen is something from which everyone can benefit. Your staff will have an easier time preparing meals, diners will receive their orders in a more expedient fashion and your business will quickly find its way into the health department’s good graces.  

Practical Moneysaving Tips for Fledgling Restaurateurs

Going into the restaurant business represents a tremendous challenge. No matter where your eatery is based, attracting clients, cultivating a favorable reputation and promoting the business can be an uphill battle. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of restaurateurs operate at a loss during their first year in business. That being the case, any moneysaving measures you can enact during this time frame are sure to help out.

Use Social Media to Your Full Advantage

In any locale, promoting a restaurant can be expensive. Buying ad time on local television and radio outlets and purchasing ad space in local newspapers and circulars is liable to cost a pretty penny. Conversely, promoting your eatery on social media can help you connect with thousands of prospective diners without costing you a dime. With this in mind, create accounts for your restaurant on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media mainstays and start posting. 

Keep an Eye out for Discount Equipment

Purchasing used or refurbished equipment for your kitchen can effectively save you tens of thousands of dollars. Furthermore, finding places that sell discounted refrigerator freezer parts can help keep your refrigeration system up and running without putting a strain on your finances. Anyone on the hunt for heavily-discounted refrigerator, freezer, oven, grill, broiler or toaster components would do well to pay a visit to O-Reps.com. 

Limit Freebies

Many restaurants provide diners with assorted freebies, like fresh-baked bread and chips with salsa. While this is a great way to show customers your appreciation, it isn’t exactly conducive to saving money. As such, consider placing limits on these freebies. For example, each customer — or group of customers — should only receive one basket of bread or bowl of chips. You may also consider only offering such freebies to diners who specifically request them. 

Restaurant ownership requires a heightened degree of fortitude and an unwavering passion for your craft. In light of all the money lost during their respective first years, a staggering number of restaurateurs have no choice but to close their doors within the aforementioned time period. To prevent your eatery from becoming just another failed restaurant, put the previously-discussed pointers to good use.   

Maintaining an Energy-Efficient Restaurant Kitchen

Over the last decade, a growing number of businesses have begun rethinking their approach to energy consumption. As the effects of global climate change become increasingly difficult to ignore, businesses of all sizes have started looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Fortunately, going green is much easier for restaurants than other types of establishments. As an added bonus, taking a few eco-conscious measures can save you a considerable sum in energy costs. To help your eatery do its part for the environment, consider the following tips.

Keep Track of Energy Consumption

The first step in whipping your kitchen into shape is keeping track of energy consumption. Use specialized meters to record how much water, gas, and electricity various pieces of equipment consume. After your findings have been recorded, make note of which tools need to be updated and which are consuming acceptable amounts of energy.

Invest in Energy-Efficient Parts

Replacing every piece of equipment that consumes too much energy isn’t exactly economical, nor does it help your financial bottom line. For example, stove apparatuses and walk-in refrigeration units are often easier to retrofit than outright replace. This entails keeping old equipment but outfitting it with new components, such as energy-efficient cooler door gaskets.   

Get Behind Eco-Friendly Dishwashers

Although updating your dishwashers may strike you as a large expense, it can save you a tremendous amount in both water and power costs down the line. Dishwashers equipped with heat-recovery condensers and smaller wash-tanks eat up less energy and clean dishes more expediently than their bulky old-school counterparts. 

A push for increased environmental awareness has swept the globe in recent years. Rather than remain mired in the past, it’s in your best interest to get with the times — and see that your restaurant does the same. If you’re determined to bring your kitchen up to snuff, keep an eye on energy consumption levels, engage in retrofitting as needed and invest in eco-friendly dishwashers.  

Why Walk-in Coolers Are Important for a Commercial Kitchen: Part II

 As mentioned in a previous post, maintaining standards for your walk-in cooler parts can be cost effective, as well as necessary for health and safety standards. Keeping up to date with repairs and maintenance can help you lower costs over time by staying away from urgent services on your appliances which can be more costly. Here is one more tip for keeping up with your commercial kitchen and your walk-in professional cooler.

·         You Need to Save Floor Space - One of the great things about walk-in coolers is that they don't have to take up precious space in your kitchen. They can actually be installed outside the restaurant's main kitchen space, located outside the back door. This is an ideal arrangement for smaller restaurants that need refrigeration but have limited kitchen floor space.

Are you looking for walk-in cooler parts? Check out O-Reps to shop a great selection of parts for many different makes and models of walk-in coolers. O-Reps also carries other items for your professional kitchen such as fryer parts and fryer baskets, as well as other hot-side replacement pieces. O-Reps has a great reputation for having a large selection of reliable replacement parts for your profession kitchen. Check out the assortment, today!

Why Walk-in Coolers Are Important for a Commercial Kitchen

If you're running a commercial kitchen, a walk-in cooler might seem like one more item to maintenance. However, if you want to stay in compliance with FDA standards, a walk-in cooler is a must. The good news is quality walk-in cooler parts are easy to find and well worth the investment. A properly maintained walk-in cooler will serve you well for years to come. Read on to discover more reasons why you need a walk-in cooler.

·         You Need to Keep Food Stored at a Constant Temperature - Food handling safety guidelines dictate certain foods must be kept at certain temperatures on a consistent basis. This is because refrigeration preserves freshness, quality, and appeal. Not only that, it also helps reduce food spoilage and associated expenses.

·         You Need a Large Space to Store Refrigerated Food - In addition to foods with FDA guidelines for refrigeration, other foods can benefit from refrigeration as well. For instance, baked goods, fruit, and vegetables all stay fresher longer when refrigerated. Also, pre-work items such as raw meat and sliced produce can be safely stored in a walk-in cooler in preparation for lunch and dinner rushes later on in the day.

Finally, you might own a small restaurant now but if you're planning on growing at all, you're going to need the space to do so. A walk-in cooler allows you the refrigerated space you need when you need it.

Welcome to the O-Reps.net Blog!

Welcome to the O-Reps.net blog! We’re excited to share news, tips, and product updates with you regarding our food service equipment and replacement parts! We are a proud Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSM) that was founded in 2006. Here at O-Reps.net we’ve made it our mission to provide our customers with the best products and services at the most affordable prices.  We offer same day shipping on all in-stock items for orders placed before 4 pm, as well as a free shopping guarantee by Norton.

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From refrigerator freezer parts to Hot side oven, range and broiler parts, we carry equipment parts and hardware from a variety of name brands including Kason, Frymaster, True MFG, Traulsen and many more! If you can’t seem to find what you’re looking for, email us at sales@o-reps.com or call us at 855-804-6477; and someone will help you.  We look forward to hearing from you!