Thanks for the bump reminder - I haven't been in the Depot for a few years! Forgot all about it.

used to be if you knew someone in the restaurant business, you could tell them the restaurant name/info when you go in and they will look it up in their system. not sure if that's still the case.

Restaurant Depot on Pulaski opened today and I stopped in for a look-see. I am a once in a while shopper at RD on Division, mostly when we are out of something on a Sunday morning at the restaurant, and the new Pulaski store is larger with wider aisles and well laid out.

Like most smart businesses they were over staffed for the grand opening and to a person everyone I spoke to was polite and well informed. Lots of food samples, and free Vienna hot dogs and polish at the entrance.

I don't live far from the Pulaski RD and am happy to have them in the neighborhood.

PSA:
Restaurant Depot is open to the public for the short term. RD Pulaski was about 50% of stock today, meat, cheese, dairy.

G Wiv wrote:PSA:
Restaurant Depot is open to the public for the short term. RD Pulaski was about 50% of stock today, meat, cheese, dairy.

Pulaski is your preferred?

I may check it out next week.

pairs4life wrote:Pulaski is your preferred?

Pulaski RD is (much) closer to my house. Plus, Pulaski is a newer more modern store than RD Division Street. Wider aisles, less crowding etc. RD Division probably has a deeper selection of items, fresh fish in particular, micro greens etc.

Restaurant Depot is national, maybe international, with 5-6 locations in the Chicagoland area.
https://www.restaurantdepot.com/

Has anyone ever been to the Des Plaines (or is that Rosemont?) one on Mannheim?

Many moons ago, when Burt Katz & I were neighbors in Skokie, he & I would have breakfast early Saturday mornings and then I'd accompany him on his weekly run to Restaurant Depot on Mannheim.

I admired their one-stop shop approach, and despite their perfunctory stocking of produce--which except for staples like potatoes & onions was less than satisfactory--was a perfect kind of place for a small store like his that couldn't afford filling up a Sysco truck.

Only thing I asked to buy in his name occasionally was a tub of ranch dressing, the same kind he used. The brand name escapes me but it came in a 3 lb vat, and was pretty damn good. And back in those days my kids would bathe in ranch dressing if it were socially acceptable.

It's almost worth a trip to check it out.

jnm123 wrote:And back in those days my kids would bathe in ranch dressing if it were socially acceptable.

It's not?

6.11.20
Decent stock of Royal Oak lump at Restaurant Depot Pulaski today. Ok price, not great, not bad, just ok. At least they had it in stock.

Home Depot was out of Royal Oak. Kingsford and and Frontier, yes, neither one to my liking. Online showed Morton Grove Menards out of Royal Oak so I did not try and went right to RD.




Royal Oak lump, count me a Fan!

does anyone know if they are still open to public as they were earlier in the shutdown?

I know we don't have a lot of Walmart fans here, but Walmart does have Royal Oak in stock for $7.99. All of the Chicago Walmart stores are still closed, but the other stores that were only open 9:00-5:00 because they were worried about looting, are back open until 8:30, and there was no line to get in when I went to the Touhy Ave. store last night. The store was not packed, but not everyone was social distancing. Hope this helps, Nancy

annak wrote:does anyone know if they are still open to public as they were earlier in the shutdown?

Curious I called Restaurant Depot and asked.

Still open to the public, just stop at the desk and get a day pass. No limit on days of day pass, you could go 7/days a week as a non member long as you stop at the desk.

The person I spoke to said Restaurant Depot wants to be able to tell members from non members.

A buddy asked me to pick up a few bags of Royal Oak for him at Restaurant Depot Pulaski. I went yesterday, 6.14.20, late morning. None, nada, zero, zilch. Actually, not entirely true, there was one ripped bag left.

The clerk said they would, hopefully, resupply by end of week. She then added a woman in a Culinary Historians tee-shirt came and wiped them out of Royal Oak the day before.

Yeah, right! LOL!

How do you manage those carts? Initially, I pushed them until a friend noticed everyone else was pulling them around. Easier, but such a heavy cart. It was joked I probably got my exercise in for the week.

I did follow your footsteps and bought some burrata. Thanks for the tip. I also bought a 12-inch pizza pan and plastic container for watching dough rise.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:Y I also bought a 12-inch pizza pan and plastic container for watching dough rise.

Regards,
Cathy2

A watched dough never rises.

A doughed watch never ticks.

I just ordered from them for the first time on Instacart last week, as my asthmatic self doesn't plan to set foot in a grocery store for a loooong time. We now have 20 lbs. of Barilla spaghetti and 20 lbs. of rotini. That ought to hold the two of us for a while! And holy cow, was it cheap - I will totally do that for nonperishables that we use with any regularity as long as we have storage space in the basement. And there were some things in reasonable quantities for a small household; we blew right through the 2 lbs. of Persian cucumbers, which were very handy with the insane amount of lettuce in the garden right now, given that our own cucumbers won't be coming in for a while yet.

Also, I guess we're about to find out how well grated Parmesan freezes.