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Case Study: Story Hill BKC, Milwaukee

Content sponsored by: Alto-Shaam

Pan of Biscuits

Now in its third year, Milwaukee’s Story Hill BKC restaurant has made the most of a limited back of house.

The 4,000-square-foot restaurant opened its doors in August 2014 in Milwaukee. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, the restaurant specializes in European-style breakfast and shareable dishes with high-quality and locally sourced ingredients, along with an extensive wine and beer list.

The three-level kitchen consists of a prep area in the basement, along with the main kitchen area on another level and four stairs that lead to a front kitchen that’s open to the dining room.

“With this type of kitchen, it was necessary to incorporate equipment that serves more than one purpose,” says Joe Muench, Story Hill’s owner/chef.

The workhorses of the restaurant are Alto-Shaam’s CT Express™ Combitherm® combi oven stacked on top of a 500-TH/III Deluxe Control Cook & Hold oven.

Alto-Shaam Combi Therm Oven

The combi oven’s small footprint, about 2 ½ feet wide, fits nicely under a smaller hood, yet the interior is spacious enough to accommodate half sheet pans or hotel pans.

“Instead of having a dedicated smoker, steamer or proofing box, this unit can do it all, so it’s like consolidating four pieces of equipment,” says Muench. “We use it every day until 9 or 10 p.m. and sometimes overnight for smoking; it’s indispensable.”

The Alto-Shaam CT Express™ combines convection and steam in one oven; it is an ideal alternative to a convection oven, kettle, steamer, fryer and smoker. Equipped with the smoker feature, the CT Express is the backbone for many of the dishes served at Story Hill BKC.

Alto-Shaam’s Cook & Hold Oven also is versatile enough to handle traditional cooking methods.

“We use it more creatively, going beyond slow cooking, by incorporating the timers and probes,” says Muench. “Our best crème brulees come out of that oven, and we can make vegetable or meat stock overnight without dealing with an open flame or worrying about boil overs or evaporation.”

The Story Hill chef has created cooking environments and cycles to confidently and consistently make the same products easily time after time.

The Cook & Hold oven’s optional features include easy-to-use technology that allows users to program recipes into their oven, which helps deliver remarkably consistent results at the touch of a button. The oven also automatically switches from cook to hold, cutting down on labor prep costs.

The restaurant’s creativity has been extended with Alto-Shaam warming drawers, which it uses for holding bacon, roasted potatoes and different types of meats.

“With these units, we’ve gone beyond the typical bread warming use,” says Muench. “The drawers can be set at a lower temperature to keep food warm without cooking it.”

In the front of house, Story Hill makes use of Alto-Shaam warming tables. Typically used for meat carving stations, the restaurant utilizes this equipment to highlight its Carve of the Day.

Muench also uses Alto-Shaam equipment in his two other Milwaukee area restaurants, Blue’s Egg and Maxie’s. He is also incorporating Alto-Shaam equipment in a future restaurant. Although it won’t have the space constraints of Story Hill, he will still seek equipment with multiple uses to optimize the kitchen.

“It makes sense from cost, space and efficiency standpoints,” says Muench. “We like to think creatively with our food preparation, and that’s the way Alto-Shaam has designed its newer equipment.”


Looking for ways to make the most out of your kitchen equipment? Join Alto-Shaam for a free A Taste of Alto-Shaam demo event for more equipment tips and tricks.