1. How important is knowing your menu during the temporary kitchen rental period?
The first step in planning a commercial kitchen operation starts with the menu. The menu is the single most important part of the planning stage. If customers are on a budget and they need to save money on the size of equipment needed, they will need to reduce the number of items on the menu. The more items that are prepared during a shift, the more staff and space are required. The same goes with scratch cooking. Scratch cooking requires more space. Some bulk foods can be prepared off site by a food distributor; consult with your food provider for options.
2. What type of cooking will you be doing?
Scratch cooking requires more room. There will be more people in the kitchen.
Bulk cooking equipment is designed to cook more food using less cooking space.
3. How many meals will you be cooking?
The number of meals and the type of cooking your company will be doing will determine the size of the kitchen you will need. A scratch cooking operation of 100-150 meals per serving will require a 28ft mobile kitchen. A scratch cooking operation of 150-225 meals per serving will require a 40ft mobile kitchen. These are conservative estimations, and equipment can be changed to achieve maximum efficiency. If there is little preparation involved, a bulk cooking operation for 200 meals per serving can use 28 feet. A 40ft bulk kitchen may be able to handle 200-500 meals per serving. Customers have achieved up to 700 meals per serving out of a single kitchen 40ft bulk kitchen with the assistance of their food distributors prepared food options and limited menus. Customers that have budget limitations may look to add more feeding times to maximize cooking capacity.
Food service operations that require maintaining the same level of plated or upscale service during renovation will need to rent our dishwashing trailers. Medium grade facilities may opt to use disposables during temporary construction.
5. Will your operation need a ramp set up?
This is a question that depends on the customer’s needs. For additional fees, we rent and install ramps or stairs. Our ramp setups are ADA compliant. The ramp setups are labor intensive, and most customers only rent ramps for jobs that last longer than 2 months.
6. What are the power requirements for mobile kitchens, dishwashing, and refrigeration trailers ?
All trailers operate on 208-230v single phase power and range from 30 amps to 200 amps. The dishwashing trailer runs on 80 to 150 amps, the mobile kitchens run on 100 amps to 200 amps, and our refrigeration trailers are 30 amps. Single phase power is very common.
7. What kinds of plumbing connections are required for the mobile kitchens and dishwashing trailers?
The freshwater connection is a white food grade water house or a hard plumbing connection. The waste connection, or gray water connection, is 1 ½ “ to 3“. Plumbers can easily provide adapters. The exact size is not known because some operations require grease traps or grease interceptors. Grease traps or grease interceptors can be rented as an accessory to the rental.
8. Do we provide health permit assistance services for our customers?
We provide Health Permit Services for our customers only. We have a dedicated full service Auto Cad department. We can make a complete submission of health permit requirements which includes: plot plans, sectional drawings, floor plans, equipment schedules, SOP examples, and more.
9. How much does it cost to rent equipment?
Mobile kitchens range from $6,995 and up. Refrigeration trailers are $1,495 and up. Dishwashing Trailers, $5,995 and up. The lower price ranges are based on the size of the equipment and the duration of the rental. The longer the rental, the lower the price.
