Helping Foodservice Businesses Enhance Front-of-House Presence
while Improving their Operations, Brand, and Profits

Okay, dealer sales reps out there, tell us if you’ve heard this one before: I can’t use melamine plates in my restaurant because my guests expect – demand – china.

A thousand times? A million? Probably more than you can count. 

In reality, however, these operators are wrong. Most restaurant guests do not care whether they’re served on china or melamine, most notably because they dont notice the difference in material or even pick up the dinner plate. 

To be clear, guests care about many things regarding their dining experience, including certain aspects of dinnerware, but what it’s made from isn’t among their concerns. 

We’re here to help you break through the misconception of diners preferring china to melamine, show you what they do care about in terms of dinnerware, and highlight the benefits of using melamine plates: the most operationally friendly choice on the market.

As a seasoned sales rep helping restaurant operators put their best tabletop forward, you’ve likely heard the same excuses time and again from restaurant clients reluctant to upgrade their tableware. Many operators mistakenly think doing so is either too expensive or nota critical factor to their overall success.

We get it. Battle-wounded chain operators are fighting through the toughest year for restaurant sales since the recession, which doesn’t exactly make your job as a sales rep a walk down Easy Street.

But there you are, staring at dingy, chipped, cracked, or just plain tired tableware and you know it’s time for an upgrade – or even to simply replenish existing dinnerware with clean, bright plates from the same collection your clients are already using. 

So how do you move the conversation forward when you know it’s time for an upgrade but your client doesn’t see the light?

We’ve put together a few tips to help you guide your clients through the decision-making process and gain an understanding of how their tabletop is a fundamental component of their operation’s success.

As a foodservice operator, understanding your long-term investments (e.g., equipment, smallwares, etc.) can help your overall budget planning. Here at G.E.T., we're experts in alternative material dinnerware, so let's focus on that part of your operation. Many operators invest in dinnerware made from melamine because it’s one of the most durable food-safe materials on the market. 

But how long will your melamine dinnerware actually last before you need to replace it?

The truth is that a few factors play into this answer. And you actually have quite a bit of control over how long your pieces last. We'll tell you why.

Consumers' demand for healthy dining options isn't likely to go anywhere anytime soon. When there's demand, supply is typically not far behind, hence the proliferation of salad concepts, including self-serve salad bars. 

While you may earn repeat customers with salad bars, operators often find them expensive with low returns. As a veteran restaurateur with more than 2 decades of experience with salad bars, I've put together my own list of 8 Ways to Increase Profits at Your Salad Bar that will keep you guests coming back for more. Any operator can benefit from these tips whether you're installing your first salad bar or enhancing a legacy system. 

All foodservice establishments need drinkware for guests, regardless of the style or volume of service. If you’re a foodservice operator, you may have been faced with the decision of whether to purchase glass or plastic drinkware. But with so many options, the choice can be difficult to navigate or even know where to start.

You have your bottom line to consider, as always, but what other areas of operation might be impacted by the material you choose? Most importantly, how will your decision impact your bottom line beyond the initial investment?

Here at G.E.T., we’re big fans of our customers getting the best bang for their buck, but also finding the perfect product to fit brand and service style needs. We’ve put together some key cost points to consider when deciding between plastic or glass drinkware.

Whether you're a first-time foodservice operator opening your premier location, or you're a 30-year veteran  who's interested in overhauling your drinkware program, taking a few key attributes into consideration can help you make the best drinkware purchase for your establishment. Generally, knowing what you want in terms of ounce capacity, material (PC, SAN, or Tritan™ plastics, or glass), and segment use cases will help guide you to the best products for your needs. 

You’ve smartly decided to invest in resin-coated aluminum serve ware and cold bar systems for your foodservice operation. Now when your guests look at your cold bar, they're greeted with clean lines, sophistication, and bold vessels drawing them into their dining experience. Your old stainless setup could never attract the crowd you’re winning with resin-coated aluminum, especially if you're using G.E.T.'s Bugambilia® collections, Classic and Fit Perfect™.

To keep your pieces looking out-of-the-box new, you’ll want to follow some basic care and maintenance. Here at G.E.T., we’re huge fans of our customers getting the very best out of their investments, so we’ve assembled a resin-coated aluminum care and maintenance guide just for you.
 

We first heard the now-iconic phrase, "You don't win friends with salad," borne of a The Simpsons episode, nearly 22 years ago. But we're willing to bet that a modern-day rewriting of the phrase would be just the opposite.

Today's diners are more health-conscious than ever. The restaurant industry has responded by adding salads to their menus, in turn leading to more salad bars. Recently, Ruby Tuesday touted their salad bar, and Sizzler upgraded their look in the last few years. Restaurants aren't the only ones incorporating salad bars. College, university, and corporate dining campuses, casinos, and hotels all embrace the healthy self-serve option.

Indeed, you do win friends with salad.

Salad bars, ice cream bars, and frozen yogurt bars may occupy different ends of the health food spectrum, but they all have one thing in common: Ingredients need to be kept below at or below 40°F to stay within the temperature safety zone. Bar-style service often goes hand in hand with refrigerated cold wells. Cold wells allow you to use different sized food pans to get just the right configuration of your products depending on what you're serving. 

Foodservice operators have a few options regarding systems that hold food pans in place on cold wells. Two popular options made by Bugambilia® are the Tile and Fit Perfect™ systems, which feature unique, resin-coated aluminum food pans. We're going to compare these two systems to give you an idea of which one might be best for your cold well service because here at G.E.T., we always want our customers to know their options. 

Plenty of foodservice operators know cold bars (aka cold wells) are wonderful tools for accommodating salad, ice cream, frozen yogurt bars, and pretty much any kind of cold food you'd want to mix and match to delight your guests. They're especially popular and useful in high-volume foodservice at college, university, and corporate dining facilities because guests often serve themselves. 

But what if you want to rearrange your cold bar setup? Historically, this has been  cost - and time-prohibitive for operators due to the restrictive nature of commonly used tile systems for housing food pans.