By Lee Davis, CFSP

 

Last week I was talking with the good folks at Chef Specialties, a family owned U.S. manufacturer of high quality commercial Pepper Mills for over 75 years. They showed me a new product that made me think: “Wow, why didn’t I think of that…about 30 years ago when I was a server?” It’s called the Quick Draw Pepper Mill Holster, a nifty little accessory that makes serving fresh ground black pepper both simple and expeditious.

 

Years ago, I worked in a shoreline restaurant and tourist hotspot known for upscale-casual dining, and New England style clam chowder. As quickly as I served the steaming bowls of soup, I’d dash to the sideboard to retrieve one of the restaurant’s oversized pepper mills.

 

Invariably, they’d be missing and I’d scan the dining room to see who had them, or where they’d been left. Spotting one, I’d make a beeline to it, only to have it snatched away by a coworker with a table of eight. By the time I got my hands on the grinder, and returned to my table, the chowder had been consumed, or worse, had started to cool and skin over. “Oh well,” I’d tell myself, “maybe I’ll do better on the salad course.”

 

The Quick Draw Pepper Mill Holster may sound like it belongs in a cowboy themed restaurant, but in reality, it's the perfect solution for any venue that wants to add a bit of flavor, personal service, and tableside pizzazz to the customer experience. The inconspicuous Velcro collar and sturdy clip attach to almost any pepper mill. The clip then hooks on the server’s belt, and can be retrieved and brought to bear using a “one hand draw.”

 

In the effort to get fresh ground pepper to the customer, I’ve not only observed the “dash for the pepper mill,” I’ve seen servers tuck a pepper mill under one arm (fine if your servers never sweat), slip the pepper mill into an apron pocket (along with pens, lint, bread crumbs, cash tips, and the random dirty fork retrieved from the floor), or balance pepper mills on a serving tray where, I can attest, they inevitably topple over into a bowl of soup, salad, or pasta.

 

The Quick Draw Pepper Mill Holster from Chef Specialties solves all these potential problems, eliminates customer waiting, and helps the server get onto their next task with fewer trips to each table. Priced right, if your menu features ground pepper at tableside, then The Quick Draw Pepper Mill Holster, along with a sidearm-sized Chef Specialties pepper mill, should be a part of every server’s uniform.

Quick Draw Pepper Mill Holster