Buying A New Range For Your Restaurant Kitchen

When you're choosing the equipment for your brand new restaurant, you'll want to be particularly selective about the range that you invest in. This is especially true if it's your first restaurant, because there are some things you should consider that you might not understand. Here are some of the things you need to evaluate when you're looking at the range models available to you.

Know What You'll Need

The first thing that you should consider is the type of demand placed by your menu. After all, if you have a large number of dishes on the menu that are griddle-cooked, you are going to need a large griddle space on the range top. Otherwise, you risk running out of space on the cooktop, slowing order turnarounds on busy days. This is a serious consideration if you plan on offering things like burgers, pancakes and the like. Also, think about choosing a model that includes a salamander so that you'll be able to keep things warm while you're waiting for servers to collect the plates.

Consider the Model

You'll have to think about the floorplan of your kitchen and the space that you're going to have available when you start looking at range models. You'll also want to think about how many dishes you're going to have cooking at any given time. Some of the model types to evaluate include:

Heavy Duty Ranges - These are the best option for restaurants that expect to turn out several hundred plates a day or more. They have a high output rating, making them durable enough to withstand high-volume cooking on a regular basis. While this may be an extravagant investment for a new restaurant, consider allowing some space in your floor plan to accommodate larger ranges like this in case the business grows significantly.

Restaurant Ranges - Restaurant ranges are the standard appliances in most commercial kitchens. They have sufficient power for keeping up with the expected meal demands of a traditional service. These ranges are usually priced a bit more affordably than heavy duty models and come in many different widths and styles, with griddles and burners.

Custom Specialty Ranges - If you're trying to meet varied needs, you may decide that you need a custom unit. For example, you may want to have a single range installed that's designed for stock pots if you serve a lot of pasta. You can even have a pot-filling faucet installed next to that range to simplify the process. That way, you can fill the pots directly on the range.

As you can see, there are many things to consider when it comes to choosing a range for your restaurant kitchen. Talk with a local kitchen supply store—like Louis Wohl & Sons Inc or another location—for more information about your options.