Milwaukee’s Superior Supplier of Kitchenware for Home & Restaurants

At Superior Equipment & Supply, the retail area for kitchenwares spans 20,000 square feet of the 50,000 square foot facility that sits on seven acres of land. While certainly large in size, Superior Equipment & Supply covers a lot of ground in terms of services as well. The business originally started out in commercial refrigeration and has evolved to now offer customers wholesale prices on professional kitchen supplies.

“If we had to plan this from day one, it would be difficult to plan it the way it has come out,” says Mahmood. Throughout the 31 years of business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Superior has gradually grown into what it is today. On the commercial side of things, Mahmood can help customers with everything from restaurant layout, to planning for equipment and implementation. On the retail side, there is a Culinary Center that offers cooking classes to the general public, a large outdoor patio with a kitchen area and a commercial kitchen that can be rented.

After being in business supplying commercial refrigeration solutions for some years, items like disposable packaging and smallwares were brought in to round out the food service options. Mahmood’s wife, Sammy, had joined the business in 1989 and the two of them thought that if the items were good enough for use in their own home, why not offer them to the general public as well? This led to the addition of retail items that were still commercial quality but could cross over to the home cook. Stainless steel cookware, flatware, and tools were a hit among retail customers seeking the same products they saw in restaurants.

“We seem to have struck a chord with the retail folks because they love the quality of commercial,” says Mahmood. “We always figured that we don’t mind at all if the home cook would come in to shop because we would use this at our house, and we just loved the way it actually performs for us. So we decided that it would be great to just have it available to the retail public as well.”

Commercial lines like Vollrath, Carlisle, and Winco make up the majority of the cookware offerings. Cast iron pieces from Lodge are also available, and the store sees both commercial and home cooks picking those out, with the Lodge Enameled Dutch Ovens doing particularly well. Mercer, WUSTHOF, and Victorinox supply cutlery; Mercer being the top-seller thanks in part to its role in the Culinary Center where customers can touch and see the knives first hand. Restaurant suppliers American Metalcraft and Tablecraft provide additional smallwares, along with Winco. Ateco is popular for professional cake decorating tools.

“When we’re bringing in things, as we think about the retail consumers in mind, we think about things that make their life a whole lot easier,” says Mahmood. “We really don’t do the Walmart items, if you will; we do do the higher quality items.”

There are some gadgets, from brands like Harold Import Co., since the home cooks like to pick them up, but mostly the product selection focuses much more on products with strict functionality. Cookware and cutlery are the biggest crossover categories, although customers are also drawn to the food packaging supplies that are intended for use in the deli, bakery, or grocery sections from foodservice brands like Cambro and Fineline. Superior allows customers to purchases by the sleeve or single item rather than by the case, so a home cook throwing a party might come in for large disposable foil pans, or a home baker might purchase just a few half-sheet cake boxes.

Sandra Doran is the retail store manager at Superior and says that the store sees a variety of customers coming in, from the curious who see the large building from the freeway with its “Open to the Public” banner beckoning them in, to the recent college grad looking to outfit a first kitchen, to the retired couples seeking to upgrade their cookware now that the kids are out of the home. Superior’s own commercial customers can also make referrals. Doran gives the example of a local independent butcher who does nothing but poultry and gets his supplies from Superior. When the frequent customer question arises of which knife is the best for deboning a chicken, he informs them that it is a Mercer flexible boning knife he got from Superior.

Superior does offer some products that are intended solely for home use as commercial manufacturers have begun appealing to the home cook by presenting small impulse items in countertop point of purchase displays. Mahmood says this is one of the ways he has seen the industry change since he first began in the ’80s, and the increasing awareness of fresh home cooking, aided by the Food Network in the mid ’90s, surely made things easier when Superior fully introduced the retail side of the business around that time.

Gourmet foods are also part of the offerings at Superior, and Sammy has even started a private label line: Caravan Spices, Tea & Coffee. Retail customers pick up items like olives and gourmet spreads for parties and gatherings, but the commercial customers find specialty food items that suit their needs too. Doran says she aims to keep the gourmet foods section stocked with difficult-to-find products such as capers packed in salt and French cornichons.

The Culinary Center in the store enhances the shopping experience for customers because they can try out cutlery and cookware before purchasing. This also translates to the commercial customers because Superior will reach out to large equipment reps for demos if a customer is unfamiliar with the piece and would like to try before they buy. There are also some large equipment pieces that are always available to try in the store.

Cooking classes are offered at the Culinary Center and cover a variety of topics. There is a kids camp during the summer and regular date night cooking classes too.

“The adult classes are all based on learning some kitchen skills, but, more important, you’ll learn how to put a dinner on the table in probably about 40 minutes and we’re talking appetizer, entrée, dessert,” says Doran. “We have a liquor license, so we can talk to them about wine pairing and beer pairing, things along that line too.”

The Culinary Center is headed by Superior’s in-house chef, Thomas Schultz, with help from Doran as well. Classes accommodate eight couples or 16 to 20 participants for hands-on classes. Demonstration-style sessions can accommodate 100 people, and the kitchen is equipped with two TVs that focus on the stove to view cooking in progress and the prep area. Schultz also leads the catering offered by Superior for occasions both on and off property.

The outdoor patio and kitchen that was completed this year allows for on-site catering for events like business gatherings, and potentially weddings and larger events soon. With tents put up, the outdoor area could accommodate 300 to 500 people. In July the patio was opened up to the public to come and enjoy the air show taking place nearby at the airport. Burgers, beer and brats were sold and drew in customers that had never been to Superior before. The outdoor patio is just the latest evolution for Superior Equipment & Supply over the last 31 years.

“It’s just happened to take a life of its own, like the culinary center is a great example,” says Mahmood. “It’s parallel stuff that we do. It’s related to what we do, and so it just seems to have so much potential of all the possibilities that actually extend beyond the core. It’s just been a fun time doing all these things.”

This story was originally published in the September 2015 issue of Kitchenware News, a publication of Oser Communications Group.