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by Adam Garrett-Clark
Whether it’s from a restaurant, bodega or supermarket, if you’ve eaten locally there’s a good chance that at some point in the preparation of your meal a little known warehouse buried in east Inwood had something to do with it.
For 23 years Lebron Restaurant Equipment & Supplies on 9th Avenue near W. 207th Street has distributed the stoves, whisks and receipt rolls that keep restaurants in the tri-state area cooking.
In addition to dealing with clients from as far away as Pennsylvania, the uptown warehouse is involved with over 75 percent of the food services establishments in Northern Manhattan. Whether it’s providing the refrigerators, heavy mixers, booth seating and pans for a location or just the silverware, “they all work with us one way or another,” said Omar Lebron, son of the Owner Manuel Lebron.
And with the surge in recent years of new restaurants in the area, Lebron has definitely felt the effects, he said.
Business has gone up about 20 percent, Lebron said, mostly associated with a rising demand for equipment to run bars and lounges. Champagne buckets, cups, bar sinks, bottle coolers and long straws are now hot items. “More people are getting into the bar business than the restaurant business,” Lebron said, recalling that he’s seen a lot more younger potential owners coming in for consultations. “Everybody wants to remodel, you know, make something classy.”
He’s also seeing existing restaurant owners come back for equipment to convert to a bar or lounge.
“I think a lot of businesses weren’t making enough money,” he said.
But the increased interest isn’t making his company rich, Lebron said. Online competitors, without the burden of location costs, are putting a dent in business and owner Manuel Lebron feels that many potential businessmen may now think twice about going into the restaurant business after the recent passage of the letter-grading law, which requires restaurants to display their health inspection ratings in their front windows.
But the mammoth 40,000-square-foot location with multiple showrooms and endless racks of equipment has a few other pans on the burner just in case. In addition to being open to the public for home cookers in need of equipment, the location houses a community center under a nonprofit to support local businesses, it has a kitchen for cooking classes and bartending courses and there is a TV studio with a master editing suite to produce cooking shows.
Chef Carlos of the popular show Despierta America on Univision is now working on a new series in the East Inwood studio called “Que Comemos Hoy.
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