Good reads

Gear Shift
© Lydia Walshin (Rhode Island Monthly, October 2003)

Writing can be difficult (dare I say dangerous?) work, and this was one tough assignment. The mission: To seek out local restaurant outfitters who would sell real professional kitchen gear to home cooks.

I steeled myself for chaotic warehouses, gruff salespeople, and prices marked, if at all, in some kind of mysterious code only wholesale buyers could decipher. Without a tax resale number, I wondered, could I even get in the door? And — here's the dangerous bit — could I get out with my bank balance intact?

Clearly, I needed a plan. I recruited two mission specialists: Molly, an experienced restaurant supply shopper who'd worked in a restaurant for 25 years; and first-timer Cathy, a former head of a consulting firm. We would pretend to be home cooks —oh, wait...we actually are home cooks — and we'd try to score a few hard-to-find items, including a heavy-duty boning knife, the perfect punch-bowl ladle, a small scoop for cookie dough, a large bucket for compost, and a quarter-sheet pan to fit my half-size oven.

WALKING INTO JACOB LICHT, INC. in Providence, we feel like Lily Tomlin's Edith Ann. We are small, and everything around us is big: giant reach-in refrigerators, huge pizza peels, cutting boards the size of my desk. No dingy, dusty warehouse, Jacob Licht's industrial chic showroom dates from the 1940s, but it's bright, well organized, and stocked with friendly and helpful customer service reps Nathan Hintz and Mike Fortier.

We've stumbled onto the holy grail of kitchen goodies — a dazzling array of frying pans, whisks, stockpots and cake pans, mixing bowls, knives and tongs. As we venture farther into the showroom, we discover treasures large and small: old-fashioned salt and pepper shakers (only $12.25 for a dozen), stainless steel sinks with overhead sprayers, wire racks, powerful stoves and deep fryers, bar towels, serving trays, coffee pots, toques (hats) and China caps (strainers). How about a dishwasher that cleans a full load in less than three minutes?

Forget All-Clad, Cuisinart and other "professional style" brands of cookware you get in the chain stores. At restaurant supply, you'll find good, solid, commercial-quality cookware made to withstand the rigors of a busy industrial kitchen. For the price of my incredibly heavy Calphalon 12-inch-nonstick-designer-frying-pan-that-requires-two-hands-to-lift, I bought four pans (two nonstick), in a range of sizes. They'll last for years, but are light enough that I can do that one-handed sauté flip maneuver just like a chef.

At Jacob Licht, most everything on the showroom floor has a price tag; if you buy one item, you pay the marked price. If a restaurant buys a case of the same item, the price usually will be lower. Understand how restaurant supply works, and you can find the deals; the difference between you and a wholesale customer may simply be a matter of quantity. "One day a woman came in and wanted to buy two dinner forks," Fortier said. "I told her they come twelve to a case, and we can't break a case. She didn't understand why", he added, but that's the thing about shopping at restaurant supply. Retail customers may be welcome, but the rules are made for wholesale.

In one corner piled high with baking supplies, Molly and I met three women halfway through a full day of restaurant supply shopping. Lisa Bazzle, Colleen Goyette and Janeen Dalrymple were classmates at Johnson & Wales. Bazzle, who graduated in May, hopes to open a bakery/café; Goyette is a senior majoring in pastry; and Dalrymple, a New Hampshire state representative and registered nurse, will complete her continuing education degree this year. They're honing their pastry skills by doing dessert catering for friends and relatives, bridal showers and parties.

Earlier that morning, they'd stopped at Winkler Store Fixture and Bakery Supply, where they were turned away at the door because they did not have a resale number. "We were so disappointed," explained Goyette. "There aren't many places that have the specialized baking supplies we're looking for."

At Jacob Licht the three stocked up on cake pans and cookie sheets. "They're really nice here," Bazzle whispered on the way out. "We told them we're Johnson & Wales students, and they gave us a discount."

Molly left happy, too, with a new boning knife. On a rack of food storage containers, I spied a 22-quart translucent bucket, with a tight-fitting lid and handle, perfect for kitchen waste en route to the compost pile. No resale number necessary; my credit card worked just fine.

Be sure to ask for Jacob Licht's 350-page catalog — part reference book, part daydreamer's fantasy guide — filled with product descriptions and photos, plus pages of practical information on adjusting portion sizes, storing food, calculating glassware and dishes for a party, and cleaning stainless steel tableware. Customer service manager Kathea Sias promises, "Whatever you want, even if it's not in the catalog, if someone makes it, we can find it."

SPECIAL ORDERS DON'T UPSET TRIMARK UNITED EAST, either. The customer showroom is open to the public, and there's no trace of that Edith Ann feeling here; in fact, it looks a bit upscale-boutique-y. Cathy was impressed. "It's the best of both worlds," she remarked, "a wholesale place that feels like a retail store. Everything is laid out so it's easy to see. There are beautiful dishes and glasses in the front, and then there¹s all the great restaurant stuff in the back."

Founded in 1947 as United Restaurant Equipment, Trimark United East provides full-service commercial kitchen design, equipment and supplies. Molly remembers shopping at United when it was a small warehouse in North Smithfield with open cartons of merchandise sitting on the floor. "I used to buy absolutely everything for my kitchen there," she recalls. "It was fun, but frenetic. There was a large circular desk area, usually with two or three men, all very busy, on the phone, tapping into computers, looking things up, not paying much attention to the walk-in customers. You felt like 'oh, dear, I've come at the wrong time.' If you knew exactly what you wanted, they would help you. But if you needed help finding something, they might tell you to come back later."

In 2000, after acquisitions and consolidations, the company moved into new digs in South Attleboro. We found Sherry DaRocha holding down the fort at a fancy L-shaped front desk with multiple computer terminals and neat shelves of product catalogs. Cheerful and extremely helpful, she fielded phone inquiries and filled requests from several commercial customers who came in, all the while checking single-item prices from our list and processing Cathy's special order for three pastry tongs ($9.61 each).

We asked whether wholesale customers pay less. "It's the same for everyone," DaRocha explained. "You'll get a better price if you buy in quantity, but if a restaurant comes in and buys one ladle, and you buy one ladle, you'll both pay the same price. Of course the restaurant will usually buy more than one." Check with DaRocha if you're looking for a single item; occasionally there will be an open case in the warehouse, and you'll luck into a better price.

Trimark also offers custom printing — I recognized the take-out containers from my favorite clam shack — and they carry most of the same brands of food service supplies and equipment as Jacob Licht. We found the small quick-release scoop, properly called a #40 disher, at both showrooms: $7.25 on sale at Jacob Licht, $8.99 at Trimark.

Cathy did snag the perfect four-ounce punch-bowl ladle ($3). The elusive quarter-sheet pans ($11.45) were in stock. And those special-order tongs, which we were told to expect in five weeks, arrived in just ten days.

Mission accomplished. So, what's the bottom line on shopping at restaurant supply? Great prices, especially if you buy multiples and check for sales. Great selection, in all price ranges. Great quality, absolutely. If you want to cook like a pro, buy where the restaurants buy.

[Jacob Licht, Inc., 765 Westminster Street, Providence, 331-9555; Trimark United East, 505 Collins Street, South Attleboro, 1-800-755-5580. Both open Monday-Friday. VISA and Mastercard accepted.]

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