Country club kitchen equipment is not generally considered first among facilities for allocating finance. The principal focus is directed chiefly towards the sports facilities, memberships, or even the dress code. However, since their first appearance in the 1880s, country clubs have attracted more members with the meals.
Additionally, the population profile of the United States is changing rapidly and radically. The Millenials are rising as the largest population group, surpassing the number of the baby boomers, who were the dedicated members of country clubs. As stated by Kelsey Lawrence on Bloomberg, this has a grave impact on the sector profile due to the changing needs and expectations of the Millenials. This also affects country club dining, which urges the clubs to remodel their kitchens and modify country club manus.
This new trend naturally requires the renewal and expansion of country club kitchen equipment. Hence, this post provides a basic list of country club kitchen equipment that is essential for addressing the altering expectations of the incoming generation while maintaining the necessary dining features to meet the needs of the elder members.
What is a Country Club?
The country club is a privately owned organization that offers facilities and benefits for the members who pay an initiation fee and annual dues. They are primarily located on the outskirts of the cities as they need a large property to operate a golf course and additional facilities to attract members.
The Benefits of Country Clubs
Country clubs have specific benefits and advantages provided exclusively to the members as a return for their dues. These are:
- A well-maintained golf course (most clubs offer),
- Professional instructors for golf or other sports,
- Personal service,
- The elegant dining hall and a restaurant serving high-class meals,
- The right to use the Clubhouse for holding events,
- Network of exclusive members.
However, the incoming members of these country clubs have diverse expectations such as more sport and physical activity options, a more comprehensive range of food, and more family-friendly facilities. Hence, the country clubs are now offering tennis or yoga classes. Similarly, they now have changed their approach to dining with additional services that are in line with new trends.
Dining, Food, and Beverage in Country Clubs
Dining has always been a significant part of the country club services. As stated by the National Club Association in their publication Club Trends, 32% of all the revenues of the country clubs are derived from the sale of foods and beverages. Therefore, it is imperative for the club owners to provide a rich menu with delicious meals and a sleek dining hall or country club restaurant to enhance their members’ satisfaction.
Moreover, Millenials do not perceive country clubs solely as golf centers to enjoy their time or gentlemen’s club for chatting and expanding their network to develop business. Instead, they are inclined to visit these places with their families to spend their weekends or hold family events in these facilities. Therefore, they desire to find the common foods and drinks in the country clubs, such as hamburgers, snacks, or sports bar eateries.
As Business Insider and Forbes suggest, burgers and hot dogs, which were once totally out-of-the-country club a la carte menus, are now in demand by the millennials during their time in these facilities. Furthermore, grab-and-go food and home delivery options are becoming a notable source of income as well. Therefore, country clubs who want to maintain their business in the future should maintain a well-equipped kitchen that includes all the necessary country club kitchen equipment, which can be listed as follows:
Country Club Kitchen Equipment List
The country club kitchens should be compatible with the Club’s dining program and must have all the necessary country club kitchen equipment to present top-class meals. Additionally, the club kitchen should be organized to create a flawless, efficient, and functional workflow to rapidly prepare the orders even during the crowded events through a seamless work line starting from food storage to the service.
1. Refrigeration and Storage
Like every commercial kitchen, preserving veggies, fruit, meat, eggs, and other food ingredients requires stable and well-performing commercial refrigeration. Therefore, the first and the primary country club kitchen equipment is commercial refrigeration equipment.
- Walk-in Refrigerators and Freezers: Walk-in refrigerators and freezers serve as the primary cooling/freezing units which are of ample storage space. They are perfect country club kitchen equipment to keep your stocks safe and tasty at the proper temperature levels until you use them in your kitchen.
- Reach-in Refrigerators and Freezers: Reach-in units have smaller designs, and therefore, they are of great use, particularly in the back-of-the-house, to keep the food ingredients and meats fresh and safe during the preparation process. There are various types of reach-in commercial refrigeration as Pass-Through and Roll-Through refrigerators and freezers. They are designed to protect the meals and ready-made meals from spoiling or losing their texture and look by keeping them chilled/frozen. They also help the easy transfer of these food products from the kitchen to the dining hall, increasing the service speed.
- Refrigerated Prep Tables: Perishable food ingredients such as poultry, fish, meat, or veggies require stable cooling to protect their taste, texture, and safety. Therefore, they need to be kept in refrigerated cabinets during the preparation as well. Refrigerated salad and pizza tables are specifically designed for this purpose. They have handy and sturdy steel countertops and storage spaces that offer refrigeration for the food products just before the staff.
2. Cooking Equipment
Country clubs should keep principal commercial cooking equipment at hand to offer a rich menu. Besides, additional cooking equipment units can also be added to the country club kitchen equipment list to diversify their menu with varying tastes.
- Commercial Ovens: The residential ovens will not be enough to cope with the high volume needs of country clubs, and thus, commercial ovens can be cited as a must-have country club kitchen equipment. These units can handle a high volume of meat, pastry, and other food cooking and withstand the increased traffic for more extended periods.
- Commercial Ranges: Commercial ranges offer a versatile use in your country club kitchen with the features to steam, simmer, grill, and fry the food products. They provide more place and more powerful cooking equipment to accelerate your food preparation and cooking.
- Commercial Grills: Whether you serve a burger or an omelet, or bacon, commercial grills will always provide enough space to cook and prepare the orders on time with their large cooking top and consistent heating.
- Commercial Fryers: These cooking utilities will facilitate frying with a large well of cooking, and their commercial-grade heaters will keep the oil ready all the time to allow you to serve different types of fried meals, sides, and chips.
3. Serving Equipment
Country clubs should also act as eateries and offer various tastes and meals during the day, where the members can have common foods to grab a bite. So, it is better to prepare and showcase fast-food-type snacks to your members during their time in the clubhouse.
- Tortilla Machines: Tortillas are now very common throughout the country, and they are preferred as good snacks between meals. Therefore, having a tortilla machine will help you serve tortillas all the time.
- Hot Dog Grills: These commercial grills enable large-volume cooking of sausages to serve as hot dogs, and your members with our without their families and children will enjoy having a bite.
- Pizza and Bakery Display Cases: Country club bakery products such as delis, cookies, or pizzas will be a nice addition to your outdoor events as presented in suitable bakery and pizza display cases to offer an elegant appearance and clean storage.
- Food Packaging: As grab-and-go food products are popular also in the country clubs, country club kitchen equipment should also be expanded with food packaging tools. Therefore, a warp station or a food sealing machine will allow you to pack foods for take-aways.
- Beverages: During the meals, beverages and drinks are already served to the members. You can also offer fresh fruit juice before and after members spend time playing tennis or doing yoga by installing a commercial juicer on your floor. This will provide easy-reach refreshment to the members and increase their satisfaction by giving them a chance to follow their routine.
- Coffee Machines and Dispensers: They will also provide suitable country club kitchen equipment to serve fresh coffee during and after meals. The new generation of country club members considers the country clubs also as a center for improving their productivity and creativity. Therefore, some country clubs provide large conversation halls to enhance sharing with other members or private working spaces to enable members to work there in silence. And you can allow them to have their coffee with you by serving coffee all day long with a commercial coffee dispenser.
4. Sanitation and Ventilation
Particularly after the COVID pandemics, ventilation and sanitation have gained more importance to sustain the healthy environment in these clubs. Therefore, country club kitchen equipment for sanitation should also be organized to meet these sanitation requirements.
- Commercial dishwashers: Tableware and silverware are in direct contact with the members and their families. Therefore, they must be cleaned for perfect customer satisfaction and sanitized to prevent cross-contamination. Commercial dishwashers are designed for use in commercial kitchens and offer remarkably shorter cleaning and sanitation cycles while applying efficient high-temp or low-temp (chemical) sanitation.
- Restaurant Hood Systems: Clubs must have fresh air even during crowded events, which can host hundreds of people at a time. Thus, the ventilation and air conditioning systems should be organized accordingly. Additionally, the kitchen must be equipped with necessary country club kitchen equipment such as commercial kitchen hoods to circulate and freshen the interior air for an airy atmosphere.
5. Country Club Bar Equipment
Bars are an essential facility for the members in the country clubs to spend their time. Therefore, they should be well-equipped to address the varying expectations of the members. For instance, it can be an attractive option to serve local or self-made microbrews through the kegerators to enhance customer satisfaction and joy. You can also install wine coolers to display your diversified wine inventory to encourage your members to taste these at their time at night in the club. Commercial ice makers will be of great use in these bars by providing instant cooling and refreshing with ice cubes which will be freshly made in large volumes by these ice makers.
Conclusion
Although country clubs are of several other facilities and remarkably different goals to attract members, they are also principally food caterers. Therefore, a country club must have a fully equipped kitchen by obtaining all the necessary country club kitchen equipment to facilitate their workflow and ensure the safety of foods and members.
In addition, the club and resort business is also in a changing trend, and therefore, country club projects should be modified to meet these new standards and trends. As for the existing country and golf clubs should renew their kitchen and banquet layout with the necessary country club kitchen equipment.
