Smart & Final
The store you write about when you’re not feeling super inspired because it’s been a long year
There isn’t anything special about Smart & Final. Although a lot of chefs secretly seem to love shopping there.
It’s not that they have the best gourmet ingredients, but they sell many items in bulk. When you first walk in, the produce section looks like any other grocery store’s, but the middle aisles are filled with wholesale sizes of pantry staples. It’s the type of store that I assume families who set up street taco stands on weekends shop at to stock up on inventory. It’s probably where people who run micro-bakeries out of their bungalow homes pick up their 25-pound bags of flour and 1-pound vacuum sealed packages of yeast. It’s probably where night owls peddling bacon-wrapped hot dogs to bar hoppers go for butane canister refills to heat their jerry-rigged griddle on wheels. You name any guerilla-style street vendor set up, they probably shop at Smart & Final.
The several aisles filled top to bottom with a variety of to-go containers is a street vendor’s dream. Everything you’d possibly need and stuff you wouldn’t think to get is offered: styrofoam boxes, paper plates, plastic utensils, disposable coffee cups, yard-long rolls of aluminum foil, and those little wax paper squares that donut shops use to grab your pastries. It’s also a great place to stock up on less disposable equipment: whisks, tongs, squeeze bottles, trays, food pans, etc. All this and more without even having to set up a wholesale account, which you’d need a business license for and not all street vendors are privileged to have.
Restaurant cooking equipment is something I grew accustomed to (and fell in love with) quite quickly. Smart & Final sells all sizes and depths of metal hotel pans, all the way down to nine pans. Sheet trays, too, the sturdy aluminum kind that restaurants love to beat up and are excellent if you’re a home chef who gets a lot of cooking mileage in. The sizes and dimensions of the storage containers and trays please the logical part of my brain. “Full sheet trays” fit exactly on to one rack of an industrial oven. Then they also make “half sheet trays” and “quarter sheet trays” that are exactly–you guessed it–a half and a quarter of the area of a full sheet tray, respectively. You can nest exactly 3 “third pans” inside a full “hotel pan” and exactly 3 “sixth pans” inside one “third pan,” and so forth. You get the picture.
After discovering the durability and reliability of restaurant equipment, I may never go back to pining over the fancy stuff from Sur La Table again. There is an argument for investing in good kitchen equipment and not shelling out fifty bucks for a very cheap pot and pan set on Amazon like I did when I was unemployed fresh out of college. But the standard restaurant equipment is both long-lasting and relatively cheap. And that beat up scratched up aesthetic is one I am personally obsessed with. You know when your sheet pans develop that nice splotchy patina and all you need to do is throw down some brown parchment paper to let your tomahawk steak or whole grilled fish take center stage? Just rustic enough to signal you’re not taking this too seriously but not rustic to the point that it’s giving renovated barn. That worn in look is way more aesthetically pleasing to me than any luxury cookware brand or Smeg appliance.
TL;DR
Come here for: supplies for throwing a big backyard cookout or block party, generic brand pantry goods in bulk, ingredients for your new pop up that you’re still market testing for, and equipment and utensil upgrades or to replace in a pinch the tongs your roommate broke last night.
Don’t come here for: produce (it’s just ok and isn’t usually sold in bulk or at wholesale price), high quality meat (no butcher counter), the fanciest organic or gourmet stuff (you’re definitely not in the right place and if that’s your shopping preference I’m surprised you’ve made it to the bottom of this newsletter).
What I Bought
Rice Vinegar (unseasoned!!!) - Gallon Sized >:)
You like pickles? Obviously yes, who doesn’t like pickles? Rice vinegar is best for an all-purpose pickle in my opinion because it doesn’t have quite as sharp a bite as white vinegar or a distinctly apple-y taste like apple cider vinegar. I made a shit ton of various pickles for several Sandita’s pop ups and the gallon size would run out in just a few days. We served them as part of the whole fish plate, but honestly having a few crazy pickles on the table will add a lot of fun to any meal. The pickle brine ratio I use is the same one that we used at Phenakite, 2-1-1 vinegar-water-sugar, a big pinch of salt that may need adjusting depending on how sweet your produce is, and a few aromatics of your choice, one of which is almost always garlic. Bring the brine up to a simmer and pour over veggies, let them cool before munching on them. Chef Minh is known for her pickles, so trust me on this that you will get a delicious pickle out of anything with this customizable recipe.
Make sure to get the unseasoned rice vinegar instead of the seasoned, “seasoned” I believe means sugar and salt are added to the vinegar. Even if you prefer the taste of the seasoned vinegar, I would still recommend buying unseasoned because you can always add sugar or salt to the dish on your own and in just the quantities you desire.
Cane sugar - 4 pound bag >:)
In my household, my roommate does a lot of baking and I make a lot of kombucha. Every time I stock up on sugar I buy it in larger quantities because you never know when the urge to bake cookies will hit. Plus kombucha needs a lot of sugar. If I’m making a full batch, which for me is maybe 4 quarts of tea, I’m adding a full 4 cups of sugar to feed the little scoby critters. Those little scoby critters turn what on day 1 tastes like sweet tea into what by day 7 is a tart and bubbly beverage. So no, kombucha won’t taste like concentrated simple syrup if fermented for long enough. Does the sugar actually disappear entirely though? Is it still in there but it just tastes more tart? Now I’m not sure about that at all.
Last Newsletter: Wisconsin Grocery Stores
My mom has a very important update for me in regards to the Pick N Save vs Econo Foods feud:
Just an interesting fact to share. Grammy has branched out to shopping at Econofoods now as well! So she goes to both places.
And another interesting fact about Econo foods is the Local scone guy you like only sells his stuff wholesale now and you can get them at Econo.
The “local scone guy” she’s talking about is a family-run bakery called Sunflour Bakery. I loved their creative flavors and how big the chunks of fruit were. But honestly buying the 4-pack of frozen scones to bake at home is almost better because you get to eat them fresh and hot out of the oven.
My mom also went out of her way to track down a video on YouTube that displays the cheese aisle of Woodman’s in all it’s glory. Apparently my photo didn’t quite capture its awesomeness to the full extent.
Thanks Mom!!