While I was watching a chef prepare my lunch in the cafeteria last week, I asked him if there was a restaurant supply store nearby. I was thinking along the lines of the Seattle Restaurant Store, which we haven’t been to yet, but sounds intriguing. He directed me to United Grocers’ Cash & Carry in Bellevue. It’s more a wholesale grocery than a restaurant equipment supplier, but we had a fun time going through the aisles. It can be a little off-putting to see vast quantities of the processed foodstuffs that go into the majority of average restaurant dishes (gallons of lemon pie filling, bags of MSG). But there are many raw ingredients as well, and very cold deli and vegetable rooms. Normal folks planning to feed a large gathering may do better here than Costco, and there are normal supermarket-sized quantities of many products. They carry some restaurant equipment, so we picked up a few plastic storage containers.

This Cash & Carry is part of Smart & Final which also operates Costco-like warehouse stores, marketing to the public as well as foodservice. The company has its roots in Los Angeles, from a grocery business founded in 1871. They pioneered “cash-and-carry” in L.A. in the 1920s; previously customers were served by a clerk who collected their items.