Green Restaurants Are Here to Stay

Green restaurants are sprouting up all over the place, as they should be. Restaurant patrons have a growing daily concern for the health of their environment and the health of their families. They are making their homes, apartments, offices, cars and lives more green; why wouldn’t they want their favorite dining spot to do the same thing. Fortunately for commercial kitchens everywhere, restaurant equipment manufacturers are helping out.

Green Restaurant Equipment

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy have united to form the Energy Star movement. Currently, five categories of commercial restaurant equipment have established Energy Star guidelines. They are fryers, hot food holding cabinets, refrigerators/freezers, dishwashers, and steam cookers. These certified units can save over 40% in energy costs compared to non-Energy Star models.

Some examples of Energy Star rated equipment are the Vulcan VPX3 Counter Boilerless/Connectionless Electric Steamer, the Hobart LXi Undercounter High Temp Dishwasher, and the Frymaster H55 High-Efficieny Gas Fryer.

We care about the environment at ShortOrder.com; so if you have questions about Energy Star rated equipment that we carry, just give us a shout and we will be happy to help.

Green Restaurant Tips

You don’t need to buy all new equipment at one time to become a greener restaurant. There are several other things that you can do to start you down the green path.

• You can use low-flow pre-rinse spray nozzles at the dish machines.
• Use compact fluorescent lamps instead of light bulbs in break rooms, storage rooms, offices, walk-in refrigerators, etc.
• Use take-out containers that can be recycled (#1 and #2 plastics and aluminum) instead of Styrofoam.
• Use organic foods in the kitchen.
• Make sure to use recycled paper products whenever possible (i.e. napkins, office paper, menus)
• Install occupancy sensors in the restrooms, storage rooms and any other low-traffic rooms. Lights will turn off automatically when the rooms are unoccupied.

Here’s to greener restaurants and a greener future!

Manitowoc, WI, Is a Town of 35,000 People Who Can Go with the Flow

Manitowoc ice machines used to be all we knew about Manitowoc. In fact, we didn’t even know that Manitowoc ice machines were built in a place called Manitowoc. Then we took the time to find out more about this small town in eastern Wisconsin. It’s not just the epicenter of the commercial ice machine world; it’s the pride of the Manitowoc River and the county seat of - you guessed it - Manitowoc County. Located in Brett Farve’s back pocket, just a half-hour from Green Bay, Manitowoc sits at the mouth of the Manitowoc River where it enters Lake Michigan.

Manitowoc History

Manitowoc’s humble origins date back to 1820 and the family of Matthew Stanley, the original settlers. Given its geographical advantages as a gateway to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, Manitowoc unsurprisingly has been closely tied to seafaring, trading, fishing and shipbuilding. During World War II, Manitowoc iced its share of the Axis military machine by building tankers, subs and landing craft.

Manitowoc Attractions

Today, this powerhouse of commercial icemaker manufacturing is the site of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, one of the largest museums in the U.S. dedicated to ships and seafarers. Originally the Manitowoc Submarine Memorial Association, the museum is the current home of the mothballed WWII submarine Cobia and boasts over 60,000 square feet of displays. The quality and quantity of the Manitowoc museum’s efforts have been rewarded with Smithsonian Museum affiliation.

Other Manitowoc Features

For a small town that doesn’t even have its own TV station, Manitowoc is associated with a good number of fun features and facts:

• the mother house of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity is in Manitowoc.
• this city of some 35,000 residents also is home to about 23,000 Roman Catholics.
• Manitowoc has sent several favorite sons to the NFL, including Don Davey, Doug Free and Mike Lorenz.
• In the movie The Prince and Me, Julia Stiles plays a farm girl from Manitowoc, the ice machine mecca of the country.

And Manitowoc Ice Machines

Of course, on our little restaurant equipment blog, no mention of Manitowoc, WI, is going to pass without us pontificating a little about best-of-breed Manitowoc ice machines like the Manitowoc SY-0504, an easy-to-clean and typically reliable Manitowoc icemaker that generates 540 pounds of half-dice sized ice cubes every day. Manitowoc ice machines are made by the Manitowoc Foodservice Group, a three-division corporation that features the brands Manitowoc Ice, Kolpak, McCall, Hartford, Servend and Multiplex.

Needless to say, Manitowoc ice machines are pretty darned important to the small town of Manitowoc, WI. Without them - and the good people of Manitowoc who make them - our glasses would be a lot lonelier during long, hot, ice-cube-less summer nights.

Announcing ShortOrder 2.0! ShortOrder.com, the online price leader for commercial restaurant equipment, announces version 2 of our great website. So, come on in, take a look around, and browse through all the great brands we carry, such as:

Restaurant equipment purchases and capital expenditure are on the rise, according to the National Restaurant Association. Fifty-nine percent of restaurant operators reported planning to make a capital expenditure such as purchasing new restaurant equipment, expanding or remodeling in the coming months. Also, Fifty-three percent reported purchasing restaurant equipment or making other capital expenditures in the month of May.

This news comes as the National Restaurant Association reports increased restaurant performance for the third straight month, with increases in same store sales and traffic.

Just last month, the 2007 National Restaurant Association Hotel-Motel Show hit the Windy City. In its 88th year, the National Restaurant Association held events at the show including trans-fat free cooking, green products, and other restaurant industry trends and hot topics. Tons of restaurant industry workers attended the show.

Not only did the National Restaurant Association show feature cooking trends, but it also had fantastic technology displays and vendors on hand. Companies like Micros, Pitco and Digital Dining showed onlookers what they could do for their restaurants, featuring point-of-sale technology and other efficient business solutions.

Many attendants of the NRA show noticed that there were quite a few more technology vendors at the event this year than previous years. Some felt that it’s telling of the times — with so many advancements in technology, restaurants need to keep up in order to keep customers satisfied and provide optimum levels of service. With new products and solutions, it’s made easy for restaurant industry professionals to do just that.

Keeping up with customer demands can often be tough, but great restaurant equipment can make things easier. Check out ShortOrder.com’s great inventory of commercial restaurant equipment.

As more and more people are watching what they eat, things are changing in the restaurant industry to meet the demands of health-conscious consumers. Trans fats have been banned at New York City restaurants, and now a popular food festival is requiring its vendors to meet standards on fat, cholesterol, and salt.

It’s the Taste of Buffalo festival in Buffalo, New York. Attracting tens of thousands of food-lovers, Taste of Buffalo is a two-day event that’s been going on for 23 years. The idea behind the change in the festival, according to its organizers, is to show people that healthy dishes are just as good. And some of the participants in the festival even noted that nobody could tell the difference when they changed their recipes to make them healthier. To read more about the changes in the Taste of Buffalo food fest, just go here.

At Short Order, we realize that healthy eating habits are very important. Cooking healthy meals may be made easier with the right equipment, and you’ll find everything you need at ShortOrder.com. From commercial ovens to commercial refrigerators, we have what you need to make that perfect meal.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Celebrities opening restaurants isn’t a new thing. Sandra Bullock recently opened Bess Bistro in Austin, Texas, and Jennifer Lopez owns Madre’s in Pasadena, California. So who’s the latest celeb to open up an eatery? Legendary rocker Carlos Santana.

(more…)

According to USA Today, the fast-food industry is gearing up for a war.

On breakfast.

Yep, the breakfast market is said to be worth $77.6 billion, which makes it very appealing to the fast-food giants, who believe staking a piece of that market “can mean the difference between growth and stagnation.”

Since people generally don’t venture much when it comes to breakfast foods, this means that fast-food companies are going to have to really push their new breakfast menus to consumers. And that means getting people to try fast-food breakfasts other than at McDonald’s, which is the fast-food breakfast leader.

(more…)

Meet Chef Santo Bruno, the U.S. Pizza Team culinary coach. If you’re like us, you had no idea that the United States had its very own pizza team. But according to the U.S. Pizza Team’s website, they are “a group of pizza makers and dough acrobats whose goal is to bring the world’s attention to the talent and camaraderie of the pizza industry.”

(more…)

Shopping Online for a Restaurant Refrigerator

Restaurant refrigerators couldn’t be more important to the functionality of a restaurant. At Short Order, you’ll find many different types of restaurant refrigeration: Reach-in restaurant refrigerators, sandwich prep, pizza prep, undercounter refrigerators, worktop refrigerators, chef base refrigerators and display refrigerators.

(more…)