NOLA Kitchen and Restaurant Supplies?

[montuori]

Hi -- I'm in search of a decent local (read: New Orleans) place to buy kitchen and barware. In other places I've had good luck with restaurant supply shops and am wondering if anyone has a recommendation for a decent place in NOLA. Any recommendations for locally owned kitchen places targeting retail consumers would be interesting too. Thanks for any advice!

[cpcooks]

Thanks for good info. Do these places sell used equipment as well as new?

[montuori]

Thanks for all the recommendations!

New Orleans Supply on St. Charles had enough to get us started. Excellent service, reasonable prices, but a little thin on cash 'n' carry stock ... I suspect they're not expecting a lot of walk in traffic. I'm sure we'll end up at the other places mentioned before we're through.

(All that said, I'll make the observation that it's amazing how much mileage you can get out of one Creuset pot and a cast iron skillet.)

[collardman]

Loved your last comment. If restaurants had a pot/pan for every use, like Williams-Sonoma and others would like, they would have no room for grills and ovens! A cast iron skillet and cast iron Dutch oven can get you far.

[uptownlibrarian]

In addition to the two already mentioned there's Lotz on River Road, and a new place on St. Charles just past Lee Circle called New Orleans Restaurant Supply. I like Lotz and they're locally owned, but I haven't been to this new place yet.

[rabeezbabee]

The new place is fairly small but has lots of cool inventory. I noticed that they are selling "the smoking gun" among a few other interesting cooking accessories. It probably isn't of much use to readers on this forum but they also seem to sell chef coats and other restaurant cook staples cheaper than anyone else.

[Hungry Celeste]

Haven't been inside NOLA restaurant supply, but it is the local distributor for Forno Bravo wood fired ovens and they gave me a dynamite price quote. (now to justify spending $2500 on one, LOL)

Caire is another of the long-standing suppliers in NOLA: http://cairesupply.com/

[paz5559]

Doubt it is locally owned, but the place I have seen almost all the local chefs go is Restaurant Depot @ 1111 South Broad

[hazelhurst]

I've seen that place but never been in it. I used to go to Loubat all the time when they were in teh French Quarter. Most recently there were over there at Carrolton and Canal. That was where EVERYONE got their stuff years ago.

[collardman]

Loubat's is still a good local source...4141Bienville, and anyone can go in. Restaurant Depot is a Sam's for the industry and you have to have a membership card to get in.