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NYC Metro Area’s HVACR Blog

Restaurant Refrigeration Installation: Get It Right the First Time

by Michael Rosone |

What’s the worst thing you can imagine happening right before the grand opening of a new restaurant:

  • An invasion of ants taking over your kitchen?
  • A sink hole opening up right in front of your restaurant?
  • A freak tornado hitting NYC in December and specifically your block?

Seriously, other than losing your chef to the competition, one of the worst things that can happen is having problems with your refrigeration equipment. After all, if your refrigeration installation goes badly, ALL your cold food storage equipment could be affected and fail to hold the correct temperature. And that could mean you can’t store all the product and ingredients that are being delivered, your staff can’t practice their prep techniques and recipes to get ready for the grand opening, and you can’t prepare any food that’s safe to consume. How are you going to open?

That’s exactly what happened to the owner of a New York City restaurant group when he hired to wrong people to do the refrigeration installation for a new restaurant.

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5 Ways to Stop Negative Reviews of Your Restaurant

by Michael Rosone |

Negative reviews of your restaurant can be a frustrating problem to deal with. Especially when you have gone to the trouble to find a great chef, pay him as much as you can afford, and you know the food is good. From what you see and hear every day, people love the food. Yet there are still people writing negative reviews and giving you only a couple of stars on Yelp.

What’s going on? And how can you put a stop to it?

Here’s the problem that may be behind those negative reviews: many restaurant owners are very conscientious about the quality of the food (and rightly so), yet don’t pay as much attention to the dining atmosphere. This is a mistake, especially in New York City, where there is so much competition; it doesn’t take much for an unhappy customer to choose the restaurant around the corner next time.

The truth is, a great dining experience is not only about the food. There are many additional factors that can make or break a customer’s experience. And they are the kinds of things that it’s easy for an owner to overlook; you spend so much time there that you tend not to notice. But if you want to put a stop to those negative reviews, it pays to fix these issues once and for all.

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Bacteria in Ice: Think Your Restaurant’s Ice Is Safe?

by Michael Rosone |

Have you been regularly cleaning and servicing your ice machine? If not, you’re putting your customers at risk for illness by ingesting bacteria in ice, and your putting your business in jeopardy as well.

In a 2013 study of ice cleanliness at British food service establishments, 6 out of 10 restaurants were found to be serving their customers bacteria in their ice. In 60 percent of those restaurants, researchers found higher levels of bacteria in the ice than in their toilet water. Experts attributed this finding to the likelihood that the toilets were regularly cleaned, whereas the ice machines were not.

This is not an isolated incident. There’s another 2011 study of Las Vegas food establishments that uncovered alarming results about bacteria in ice as well, including the presence of heterotrophic bacteria that exceeded EPA limits, with more than 72% testing positive for “presumptive coliform bacteria presence.”

Related article: Your Ice Machine: the Most Dangerous Item in Your Restaurant.

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One Simple Way to Avoid Industrial Refrigeration System Downtime

by Michael Rosone |

So many aspects of our lives depend on refrigeration: it’s vital for food, medicine and the manufacture of many things we use every day.

Refrigeration is even more vital if you operate any type of food service business: your livelihood depends on its reliable operation.

Restaurants, bakeries, convenience stores, hotels, catering facilities, cold storage facilities, food products manufacturing, supermarkets, and even medical facilities all require a dependable industrial refrigeration system. When a piece of refrigeration equipment goes down, the clock starts ticking, and if the problem is not solved in a matter of hours, you’re going to be throwing out a great deal of valuable product.

Refrigeration downtime is a complicated problem, but there is one simple way to prevent it: regular maintenance of your industrial refrigeration system.

In your home, you’re probably accustomed to doing routine maintenance to keep things working as they should, from servicing your heating and air conditioning system to weeding your garden. Yet we don’t think about maintaining our home refrigerators and freezers beyond cleaning. An industrial refrigeration system is different. Not only because it gets more usage and endures more wear-and-tear, but because there is a lot more at stake when it fails.

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10 Skills an NFL Quarterback and HVAC Service Technician Share

by Michael Rosone |

When you’ve been working with the same heating and air conditioning service company for a while, you may begin to wonder how you can tell if your HVAC service technician is any good. Is he just doing okay servicing your equipment or is he really a top-notch HVAC guy?

Here’s one fun, yet effective way to tell: think about the qualities of a top NFL quarterback. Look for signs of these skills, habits and abilities, and you can be sure your HVAC service technician is someone you can count on to get the job done right.

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Replace Your Old HVAC System to Save $ and Prevent Breakdowns

by Michael C. Rosone |

Facilities Managers have too much to do to risk a breakdown of an old HVAC system

We’ve worked with many, many Facilities Managers over the years, and we know that it’s a demanding job. It seems like more and more responsibility is piled on the shoulders of NYC’s Facilities Managers, demanding an ever-increasing level of time and expertise.

In addition to responsibility for your building’s power, lighting and mechanical systems, Facilities Managers are managing cleaning, maintenance and even landscaping. Every new workplace initiative seems to get added to the FM’s job description, from increasing security to energy-efficient operation. AND you’re expected to do it all with fewer and fewer resources.

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