Restaurant Depot

Their sign says they open today. Anyone been/going? You see the store (it's a chain) a lot on Top Chef when they go to buy non-food stuff.

Their sign says they open today. Anyone been/going? You see the store (it's a chain) a lot on Top Chef when they go to buy non-food stuff.

Opening where?

And not to be misleading, they have food too.

Locust Lane or thereabouts. Off Preston. Actually, pretty much behind Dine.

From their website, wholesale only.

http://www.restaurantdepot.com/Login.aspx

*Restaurant Depot is wholesale only. To qualify for a free membership account, on your first visit you need to show a valid reseller's permit (business license) or tax-exempt certificate (for a non-profit organization) and show proof that you are authorized to purchase for said business or organization.

Is this a version of GFS; except it's closed to the general public?

I just got back from my visit. I must say I was quite impressed with the layout of the place, the quality of the products and most of all the pricing.

Yes, it's true that it is a wholesale operation not open to the general public. Almost all of the items are in bulk food service packs and they also sell equipment. I don't think that it would be hard to get a card though. I just signed up online.

But for those restaurant owners and operators, if you don't mind pulling your own product and hauling it yourself, you can see some real savings of up to 10 to 20% on pretty much everything over other broad-line food service distributors (Sysco, US Foods, GFS etc...). A lot of the stuff was even cheaper than Sam's Club.
They had pretty much anything any food service operation would need equipment and food wise except fresh seafood.

Some of the specials I saw.
Case of Red Bull 8.3 oz cans was only $31.49
8pc CVP Chicken was only $.96 a lb.
Choice B/I Ribeye was $4.76 a lb.
A real nice looking Prosciutto was $4.59 lb.
Pork Tenderloin $1.69 a lb.
Remember all of the meat is whole. I didn't see any portioned meat but there may be some in the frozen section I didn't see. I was kind of overwhelmed with the selection on my first visit. They even had WHOLE frozen goat and lamb! It's like a great big toy store for chefs!
If you are in the business I would definitely recommend checking the place out.

I only need some disposable gloves, but I'm going over just to play and look.

We are very excited about Restaurant Depot and will probably go very soon to get our account set-up and start price matching. I don't mind hauling it if the savings are substantial.

We've been getting peppered with ads and mailers from these guys for a few months now. I must say the most exciting thing about this opening is their hours.. open Saturday 7am-4pm and Sunday 9am- 3pm. Ive been in a pickle a few times scrambling for last minute stuff on the weekends when Dine is closed.

I've been using Restaurant Depot for our BBQ place down here for the past month or so...
While it's essentially like Sysco or US Foods in a store (think GFS on steroids) and doesn't offer much high-end/specialty product, It definately serves it place.
As mentioned, (and despite a cross town trip in Atlanta traffic, that can take me almost an hour round-trip) we do see a significant savings by picking up our own product.



Especially helpful considering our kitchen (and entire restaurant) is very small; it's hard to find room to store product, as it is. Even moreso, we we often buy items by the "each" instead of case, due to spacial restraints of storage.

Another benefit of Restaurant Depot is there is no minimum order. You can go in an buy one item if need be, and almost everything is available individually. This is really helpful if you can't meet some of the minimum orders that the larger purveyors usually require.

Ethan,
Tell us about H. Harper Station. Saw this and it looks very interesting.

http://whatnowatlanta.com/2010/07/27/h-harper-station/

Ethan,
Tell us about H. Harper Station. Saw this and it looks very interesting.

http://whatnowatlanta.com/2010/07/27/h-harper-station/

As stated in the What Now Atlanta link, the restaurant is going to be a "modern watering stop".
We're going to be heavily focused on the notion of enjoying food with drink, and will equally serve as a venue for one or the other, or both.

The space itself is a former railway depot, converted to a restaurant a few years ago by some people in the bar business. The dining room is housed in the original structure, the kitchen (which is huge!) was added on during that renovation.

Jerry's handling the entire FOH operations (quite frankly, this restaurant is his baby - the restaurant is named after his grandfather, who was a railway engineer), and you'll definitely see his mark on that aspect of the operation. Handcrafted cocktails, serious beer line-up, and a small but carefully chosen wine list. Those of you who know him would expect nothing less, I'm sure.



Food wise: you're looking at small to medium size plates, and a price-point maxing out in the high teens. I mean, there's going to be bar-snack type dishes, a bunch of tapa-sized plates, some really fun sandwiches, a couple smaller-sized "entrees"... you get the idea. It's really geared to be food you can try a whole bunch of things without breaking your wallet, and enjoying some really awesome libations.

We're still hashing out final details menu-wise... though Cuisine-wise, I'm not sure (right now) we could pick out a specific "genre" to classify it - and could probably just get lumped into the whole "modern American" thing to be on the safe side- but we've definitely have a bit of leanings to southern-inspired elements, with classic and global influences juxtaposed in. There's likely to be some plays on comfort-food type dishes, "reinvented", if you will. The words "Oakroom-lite" initially came up as a comparative reference before I moved down here. Whether or not that will be the end result depends on varying factors. For now; we're going to start, and build from there.

The space kind of has a "modern-rustic" feel to it if that makes any sense at all.

Comparatively, the entire project echoes similarities to a number of restaurants I can think of:
Gus & Gabriel, NYC
Avec, Chicago
Momofuku, NYC
The Breslin, NYC
the Publican, Chicago

To a certain extent, you could find similarities to 732 Social in Louisville... except in a much much larger space, and in a more rustic setting.

Hope that gives you a vague glimpse of what we're working on...


I'm incredibly excited about this project, and honored to be working with this team again.




It won't go live until we open, by our website is http://www.hharperstation.com

Oh, and we're tentatively (of course) hoping to open in early October.

We are very excited about Restaurant Depot and will probably go very soon to get our account set-up and start price matching. I don't mind hauling it if the savings are substantial.

One of the things I noticed was parbolied rice was only 16 bucks for a 50# box! I'm sure you guys will be taking advantage of that deal

We are very excited about Restaurant Depot and will probably go very soon to get our account set-up and start price matching. I don't mind hauling it if the savings are substantial.

One of the things I noticed was parbolied rice was only 16 bucks for a 50# box! I'm sure you guys will be taking advantage of that deal

Si. That is a ridiculous price and one that will be greatly taken advantage of!