Taking the Time to Upgrade or Repair Your Kitchen Appliances in 2023 (Updated)

A lot of us have more free time than we might want, especially those of us with empty restaurants to manage and operate. But, here’s another tip and piece of advice for us business owners in the restaurant industry to stay one step ahead of all the others who decide to waste this precious time. If you haven’t already innovated in the regard of offering take-out and food delivery like many restaurants I know have done, you can use this idle time to upgrade and repair your appliances.

working kitchen appliances
How much time would your kitchen save if all your appliances were of the latest technology?

Now, I know what many of you will say right off the bat: “How can I afford to repair and replace my commercial appliances if I can’t even afford to keep my staff employed?” And, the truth is, I can’t answer that for you because government funding and loan services are different from state to state and province to province. I’m hoping this post will be a resource for restaurant owners for many years after the pandemic is over, because in a bit I’ll be talking about the importance of upgrading and repairing your appliances when it comes to beating the competition and staying ahead of the times.

If do, however, have a previous post where I go more into depth about how a restaurant can deal with this pandemic more easily. Now, let’s shift to our main topic.

Preparing for Post-Pandemic Restaurant Business Success by Fixing & Upgrading Appliances

When business is back to normal, there’s no doubt that the restaurants who have used their time wisely during the lock-down will have a major advantage in the economy. Whether you’ve been planning a marketing campaign, have upgraded your tables and chairs, etc, you will attract more customers than the older restaurants who refuse to move with the times. And, so, if you’re expecting a flood of business after restaurants reopen because you planned wisely and carefully, then you must make sure the equipment you have in your kitchen is working in optimal condition and can handle the rush and abuse that a busy restaurant requires. After all, life isn’t an epic fantasy adventure, even though a serial killer might say it is. This is reality, and if you’re stuck using old appliances from the 1980s when young adults are entering the business and drubbing the competition because they have the latest industrial dishwasher that can wash every dish in their inventory in less than 20 minutes while you have to pay someone hourly to wash 20 dishes every ten minutes then sorry but you deserve to lose. Unless, of course, your food is better!

industrial appliance
How optimized is your restaurant kitchen?

To help explain the importance of having the latest appliances and how this will give you a significant advantage in the kitchen, let’s take a look at a domestic kitchen in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. There, I know someone who, for their whole life, had washed dishes by hand. The sad part was that they had a dishwasher in their inherited house the whole time; they just never bothered to repair it. Well, after I berated them over the phone some years ago, they finally got around to calling Appliance Repair Windsor and everything in their life changed. Just like how a restaurant would be able to operate much moire efficiently if they had a sophisticated dish washing machine, my friend in Windsor found himself with much more free time. Not only is he less sparing in the kitchen when it comes to cooking meals because he knows a machine will clean all this dishes for him, he uses all the free time that comes from not having to clean dishes by hand to do other things like take the dog out for a walk or check emails. Life for him has improved noticeably just from repairing one appliance and I know this effect will work wonders in your restaurant if you do the same.

So, if you have an oven that doesn’t heat up fast enough, a freezer that has a warm spot, a fridge that leaks water on the floor or simply an outdated appliance that’s wasting precious time for your busy kitchen, then seriously consider spending this precious time to handle the situation because the benefits will give you that special edge once the economy is on the rise.

And, there’s no doubt about it, the restaurant industry will be on the rise after the pandemic is over because so many people are sick of staying home. Just think of it. Now’s the time to innovate. Success is yours, and upgrading your appliances is just one way to get there.

Opening a Restaurant in Saskatoon, SK

For the most part we’ve tried to keep this blog objective but I have exciting personal news that is worth sharing. I’ve always dreamed of opening a restaurant in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada because that’s where my grandparents live and I have a daughter who is willing to take over the ownership once the business is off the ground. So let me tell you about my plans.

I have much experience in working with hotel restaurants and hotels in general but I’ve never started my own stand-along restaurant before. It’s been a dream of mine for nearly a decade now and I even have a 6 step plan to make it happen.

sask

Here are my 6 Steps for Starting a New Restaurant in Saskatoon!

  1. Find a good location
  2. Come up with a good menu and theme
  3. Move to Saskatoon
  4. Buy a building, get menu printed, theme constructed and staff hired
  5. Get good relations with a local appliance repair company
  6. Turn the open sign on and start marketing

A lot of these steps are straightforward, and I’ve touched on step 5 before (getting good relations with an appliance repair company) in another post, but I want to touch on that and step 3 a little more. These are the hardest steps for me, surprisingly, but I’m making headway. Cheers to that!

I already have a menu ready, a menu of my own recipes, many of them gleaned from my experience working with hotels. I already have a theme in mind. I have family and friends there I can hire for staff, but so far the only things holding me back is the BIG MOVE and starting local connections.

The reason why I’m having trouble moving is because I’m anchored to where I am by business ties. I think if I work harder than I usually do for the next few months I can get those anchors untied but that’s only a maybe. And when it comes to finding a company that does emergency appliance repairs, which is important for a restaurant to have for obvious reasons, I’m at a loss because I don’t live there yet and I like to meet people face to face. There’s some good luck in this matter though because I chatted a bit with Appliance Repair Saskatoon and they said they’d be willing to do what I’m looking for. I’ll have to give an update on that in the future.

So now I know that this dream is in progress and will soon be a reality. It’s only a matter of time. This is so exciting for me and I can’t wait. I’ll miss everyone here in my hometown but they understand how much this means to me and won’t hold me back.

I wanted to share this because I know many of you out there have similar dreams and I thought seeing someone else pursuing theirs might help you get motivated to pursue yours a little harder. I’m thankful you cared enough to read this and if you want to stay up-to-date with this story then come back on my blog in a few months to see where things are. Cheers to dreams coming true!

The Glory of Electric Appliances in Hotel Restaurants & Our Homes

Imagine how hard it would be to run an establishment like a hotel restaurant without having modern electric appliances. Sure, we could use old-fashioned gas appliances to cook food and keep our kitchen and dining areas lit, but then what about the washing machine, the fridge, etc. Surely hotel restaurants existed before wide-spread electricity hit our cities and if history had happened differently I’m sure someone would have invented a steam powered industrial dishwasher but that’s beside the point.

stove top

If it wasn’t for all the major appliance brands we have today we wouldn’t have all the diversity of technology, the competition to keep our appliances evolving and so on. We’d all be using the ice box still and this potentially means the quality of food we enjoy in hotel restaurants today wouldn’t be the same. I’m sure food was still of good quality back when hotels were using ice boxes, hand dishwashers and gas stoves, but with modern appliances we have the time to work the extra mile and make sure our food is of the best quality possible.

Can you imagine a world without modern appliances? Forget hotel restaurants, imagine how this would impact the home. I can think of a list of 8 things that would be so strange to us if we didn’t get to benefit from the glory of electric appliances:

  1. Doing laundry by hand, taking up our whole weekend.
  2. Not able to keep perishable goods in our kitchen for more than a few days.
  3. Having to rely on smoked and salted meats instead of frozen meats.
  4. Doing all our dishes by hand, although some households still do this.
  5. Not having readily available ice for our drinks when we need it most.
  6. Not being able to set the time on the coffee maker for 6 AM!
  7. Not having good lighting to cook at night.
  8. Every house using gas ovens could be dangerous for fires.
electricity power

And if you gave me another hour I could think of 100 more things. But I think you get the point. That’s why I speak of the “glory” of electric appliances. We rely on them so much today and take them for granted. In the future we may take them for granted even more, unless more people read this post. Then, if we speak of this truth, perhaps we’ll begin to be grateful and cheerful when we’re otherwise upset and depressed. Even if you live in a slum, I bet you still have access to electric appliances and you should be happy about this. You can microwave your food, enjoy a baked chicken breast on holidays, etc.

In a previous post we talked about the importance of a laundry room in your hotel. This would not be possible without electric washers and dryers. The whole hotel industry wouldn’t be the same, and we might not have clean sheets every time we rent a room. In history I know some stories that my grandparents told me of renting hotel rooms that had fleas in the bed! I could not live in a world like this, so I praise electric appliances and speak of their glory for a reason.

I hope I opened your mind to this subject and altered your perspective for the better! After all, without electricity you wouldn’t even be able to read this…

The History and Foundation of Our Blog About Commercial Appliances

refrigerator

As a group of friends who work in the hotel restaurant business and love the latest technology, we came up with the idea of having a blog for other people like us to read about how we feel about certain appliances like industrial dishwashers and refrigeration systems and what are the pros and cons of each one. Knowing this will make it easier for new people in the business to succeed. This is because making mistakes that could be avoided slows you down. Knowing ahead of time what the best commercial appliances are for your hotel restaurant will save you from stress and hassle.

The Story of Our Foundation

Our history, as you have just read, is simple. We own hotels and have free time to share. We love technology, and the foundation of our blog is our want to share our knowledge to other like-minded people. Here we talk about tips and tricks for repairing appliances yourself so you don’t need to hire technicians. We talk about what you can do to boost your business if you’re a commercial appliance repair expert. That is because we have insider info for what hotel owners like to see in an appliance repairman. We have lots to say and hope you’ll join us for the adventure.

Until our next post, adios!