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SouthernVelvetCafe
02-27-2015, 03:10 PM
Sorry for another post so soon, but I'm trying to decide on some equipment and I'm having a little trouble deciphering the legalese as pertains to this question.
I couldn't find anything in the health code that was specifically about whether I could use residential equipment in a commercial restaurant setting.
I remember when I did some research in the past on cottage laws that equipment couldn't move back and forth between your home and commercial kitchens (which I wouldn't be doing, obviously), but I don't know if that implicit permission to use residential equipment was specific to cottage laws.
Specifically, I don't need the world's fanciest coffee grinder for my drip coffees. I want a separate grinder for each kind of bean to prevent cross contamination of the flavors and oils, and dropping two grand on the espresso grinder makes sense, but I don't need something that fancy for my drip coffees, since they're at a coarser grind.
Does anyone have experience with this? Non-commercial equipment bought specifically for a commercial purpose?

Harold Mansfield
02-27-2015, 03:25 PM
Coffee grinders are probably not that big of a deal.
You are going to get your best answers from your local licensing agency. What flies here in NV where I have 20 years experience, doesn't mean beans (pun intended) where you are.
If you can't find the information online, call them. They are likely open M-F 9-5 and odds are they probably have an entire library of regulations and helpful answers to all of your questions about starting a restaurant that they can refer you to.

Freelancier
02-27-2015, 03:49 PM
Cottage laws are all about selling food out of your home, so that's not quite what you're looking for.

Because commercial equipment isn't that different from consumer equipment -- a microwave really is a microwave -- except it might be "hardened" for industrial use, much larger, or be built with better quality parts, I can't imagine that the inspectors are sitting there saying "you got this in Best Buy instead of Restaurant Depot!". In fact, I've been in Restaurant Depot in Florida and found many of the same items I'd see in Bed/Bath/Beyond for preparing food, and they sell to restaurants almost exclusively.

So, my limited education says "you don't have to worry about it." But I'm also with Harold: all it takes is a phone call to get the best answer from the source (and they're likely local to you).