Tips For Choosing The Cooking Range For Your First Restaurant Kitchen

Setting up your first restaurant space is exciting, but it can also be somewhat intimidating. After all, not only do you have to think about how the front of the house is going to look, but you also have to design your kitchen space for optimal work flow and to ensure that you can meet peak service demands. One of the most important choices you'll make is the range top, because most of the kitchen will be designed around it. Here are a few things to consider as you start shopping.

What Kind Of Service Are You Planning?

For smaller restaurants or those who are just getting started, commercial restaurant ranges are usually sufficient. These ranges are designed to hold up to steady service cycles and moderate production volume. They are usually affordable, making them a great choice for new ventures, and you can find them in a variety of dimensions to fit most any floorplan. Contact a local restaurant equipment supplier for further assistance.

If you're expecting to put out more than a couple hundred plates a day, you might decide to invest in heavy duty models. A heavy-duty range top is designed to hold up to high output, including near constant cooking throughout your service cycle. In addition, these range tops usually have larger burners, so you can fit larger cooking pans on the stove. This makes it easier to turn out larger batches of things when necessary to keep up with high demands.

Sometimes it's hard to decide which is best. If you aren't really sure what kind of service you'll expect, consider a combination design. For example, if you'll be serving a lot of pastas or using large stock pots on a regular basis, you can simplify your prep work by installing one range exclusively for these pots. Plumb in a pot-filler line so that you can run water directly into the pots and you'll be able to turn out pastas with ease. You can also opt for induction stoves for the rest of your prep work, because they cook quickly and evenly, reducing the risk of food loss.

How Is The Kitchen Laid Out?

As important as the type of range is to your kitchen, so is the layout. Consider the existing design of the kitchen, including where your power outlets, gas lines and plumbing are. That way, you can ensure that everything will fit properly where it needs to be in order to make use of the fixtures. For example, if you have one plumbing line near a gas line, consider placing your stock-pot surface there so that you can add the pot-filler line easily.