The Hood

The hood’s the big deal in the kitchen. It’s like fan above your stove at home–on steroids.

It’s big, stainless steel. It sucks out all the exhaust from the kitchen. It’s so big that it would suck out the air conditioning as well. So you have to have “make-up” or “return” air, as well.

Since it’s placed above the cooking elements–range, griddle, char-broiler and fryer–it’s the place where fire control is necessary. The hood is spendy. The return air is spendy. The fire suppression is spendy. And all specialized work. The labor is spendy. Used ones are tough to track down.

Until you deal with this stuff, you don’t know much about it. It’s one thing to have spent years cooking in a commercial kitchen; it’s another to outfit one. I’ve learned a lot in the last week or two. Since it’s not often that a new restaurant starts up in these parts, it’s been a struggle to get intel on this subject at the local level.

But there are breakthroughs. Yesterday brought unexpected, tangible progress. Today, I’m meeting with a guy who’ll do my install. With any luck, soon. But it could be as much as three weeks down the road. Today will tell. Cross your fingers, so we can get opened up sooner than later. My hopes of April 30 have vanished because of reality, but shortly thereafter is possible, depending on today’s meeting.