J.E.S. Restaurant Equipment is always supplying an array of equipment for various foodservice restaurants, which also includes the fast food industry. One of our primary manufacturers, Prince Castle, was founded in 1955 and has been a pioneer and innovator in introducing new technologies to thousands of restaurants. Over the years, Prince Castle has worked globally with many foodservice leaders to help improve their kitchens. They are dedicated to making the foodservice industry fast and efficient with innovative products that make employee productivity easier.
Here are a few examples of just how innovative Prince Castle is with developing their own products:
A bagel consultant was searching for a way to help bagel shops increase their sales by selling sandwiches. Most bagel shops have trouble keeping their sandwiches fresh for extended periods of time without wasting unused bagels. This same consultant discovered the Prince Castle Holding Bins, which allowed him to extend the hold times of eggs, sausage, and bacon to 60 minutes. The consultant discovered that he was able to reduce the service time from three minutes to one minute. Now all of the bagel shops he consulted are able to keep both freshly made bagels as well as other food products without letting any food go to waste.
Most gas stations and convenience store chains find that premium brewed coffee is a great commodity for their customers. The only drawback is that clerks usually have a difficult time monitoring the coffee bar to ensure that the best coffee is always served. These convenience store chains and gas stations decided to install Prince Castle timers to monitor the coffee’s hold time. Not only did this alert the clerk when the coffee was finished brewing, but it also reassured customers of how much pride the store took in their coffee.
A chicken restaurant chain wanted to introduce its new char-grilled chicken sandwich to the public and was very finicky about the flavor of the chicken. They had to find a toaster that would fit into their tiny kitchens and not increase service time. The solution to all this was the Prince Castle contact bun toaster. This toaster was slim enough to fit into their kitchens and was able to keep up with a national chain store that required hundreds of chicken sandwiches to be made in each store on a daily basis. By contact toasting the bun, it prevented the condiments from soaking into the bun and making the sandwich fall apart. Now, the customer could focus on enjoying the new sandwiches, which is still one of the top products for the chain.
Another chicken restaurant chain wanted to improve the holding and merchandising of their fried chicken and finger foods. They were using calrods and heat lamps to keep their food warm but found that this reduced the moisture levels in their chicken. They also found a solution in using Prince Castle products. Prince Castle had a holding bin that used infrared energy and were able to hold biscuits and mashed potatoes longer while maintaining the desired product quality. They wanted to find a way to hold their entire menu longer with better results.
Their technology involved calrods and heat lamps that helped generate heat which blankets only the product’s surface. This prevents the heat from reaching the entire product and can lead to product’s easily drying out. Infrared heat is not initially heat, but it turns into heat when energy is absorbed into the product. This allows for not only more thorough heat throughout the entire product but also better moisture retention. This technology was put to the test and after a thorough evaluation, it was decided that Prince Castle was able to develop a multitude of solutions to accommodate all of their restaurants. They ultimately developed holding solutions to maximize merchandising and holding capabilities and thus developed technology that would work perfectly in this configuration. They discovered they could make fried foods that were longer lasting at more consistently safe temperatures. All products tasted crispy on the outside yet the inside retained moisture and juices. Regardless of what they bought, restaurant owners could always guarantee their foods were moist and juicy regardless of what kind of equipment they had.
