When you need something for your kitchen or for entertaining in your home, where do you go? Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel? If you would like an affordable alternative place to shop, I recommend your local restaurant supply company. Most of these stores are open to the public and they have a lot of great items that can make your life easier during the holidays or when you are entertaining.
If you need extra wine glasses, silverware or serving pieces, the restaurant supply store has a variety to choose from at reasonable prices. Also, if you are feeding a large number of people, they have big restaurant sized pans, cookie sheets and platters. In addition to having these items on hand for the holidays, in the case of the wine glasses, they usually come in boxes that can be used to store the glasses when you don’t need them. Two things that I have purchased there that help me during the holidays are stainless steel tongs which are about $2.75 and are the best tongs that I own. I also have a large stainess steel sheet pan that I use to pour my homemade caramels in to cool. I think that sheet pan ran me about $9.00, but to me it is priceless.
In addition to having regular kitchen items, these stores carry items that you don’t find in regular kitchen stores but you may find helpful. One of these items is a sign holder. You find these at buffet dinners and they have a small sign telling you what food it is you are about to enjoy. Using sign holders to identify which food has nuts or which punch has alcohol can really make your party go smoothly when entertaining a lot of people. They also have professional grade stainless steel tables, storage racks and bag sealers. Some of the items could be used in your kitchen or in other parts of your home such as your garage or craft room.
The next time that you need an item for your kitchen, think about venturing into your local restaurant supply company. Spend some time looking around at what they have available, you never know what you might find that will make your next holiday party a lot easier on you!