Guadalajara Restaurant Equipment

My experience with Restaurant Equipment Denver (their new name, apparently:
) started pretty good, actually; I got a walk-​in cooler installed at my business quickly and cheaply.
But then Oscar Perez said he knew a guy who could install the compressor for me. I shouldn’t have taken the bait. Oscar subcontracted a guy named Lloyd Sibley from Denver Cutlery to do the work and, honestly, Lloyd did a good job. The problem is neither Lloyd nor Oscar pulled permits for the work.
The onus is ultimately on me but I did say EXPLICITLY to Oscar that he MUST pull his permits, we have inspectors walking around the construction site all the time. When I asked for a copy of the permit, I got the run-​around. «Yeah, yeah, I got it right here; I’ll drop it off in the mailbox right now.»
Weeks passed. At this point, I didn’t even know the name of Lloyd or his contact info, I just knew him as the guy Oscar hired. Since Oscar eventually stopped returning calls and e-​mails, I did a little investigative work and finally got in touch with Lloyd. He was the one who said he didn’t pull the permit, he assumed he was covered by my general contracor’s permit. Why he thought that I do not know, he was obviously hired by Oscar, not me or my GC. And, again, I reminded Oscar several times: «make sure you pull a permit.» I guess that would also make Oscar a liar, too, since, before he stopped returning calls, he insisted he had the permit in his possession. I don’t see how that’s possible when the permit was never pulled.
So, now we have to spend more time, money, and effort correcting Oscar’s mistakes. He hasn’t returned any more messages and he’s never there when I drop by the offices for a surprise visit. It’s a shame; they were doing so well until they blew it in the end.
EDIT: I’m raising the stars from 1 to 3. They did finally fix their mistake and they got their permit and inspection. It wasn’t without much hassling on my part but they did it. If you hire these folks for any permitted work, remind and remind them again they NEED to pull that permit. They learned a lot about how to properly conduct business by having to deal with me; I paved the way for the rest of you.

Shady shady shady people. This is my first review on Unilocal because I felt strongly enough that these guys are so SHADY. I bought a refurbished wolf stove from them a year ago and the oven won’t work. Not a big deal, these things happen, and it’s probably just the thermostat. Called 3 times last week to have them come take a look at it. Twice I was told they would call me back and be out later in the afternoon. Didn’t happen. So, this past Monday I physically showed up to their location (FYI they are now called Denver Restaurant Equipment — probably because of the bad reviews on other websites). I was told the tech would be in on Wednesday (today) and I was promised they’d call me first thing in the morning. Well, that didn’t happen. Tried calling them — no answer. Went there again this morning and asked what the deal was. I was told that the tech didn’t show up (I got the feeling it was a lie — but no matter). I asked why they didn’t call me and he said he was too busy. I then proceeded to go off (separate story altogether).
Three brothers own the place. All 3 are shady — one will tell you one thing and the other brother will tell you something completely different. I have other stories to tell about these guys, and I’ve never heard a good word about them. Granted, I share a tiny bit of responsibility for trying to deal with them after knowing just how unreliable they are. Parents, pay attention. If you don’t raise your kids right they just might turn out like these untrustworthy characters.

What a joke… tried doing business with them and they never returned my phone calls, texts or voice mail messages. Not very professional!!! Guess I will take my business elsewhere…

We found out about this used restaurant equipment shop while browsing craiglist for used ovens and range hoods from closed businesses. This video (not mine) gives you a tour:
. They also sell some new equipment especially smaller items and appliances like espresso makers and stock pots. We were hunting for a 6-​burner gas stove and oven and there were many to look at, all priced $ 900-​$ 1200. There was an amazing 6-​burner stove with double ovens and a large raised griddle surface for $ 2000 which is a huge steal, seeing as earlier in the day we saw a regular 6-​burner gas oven at IKEA (Whirlpool is their in-​house brand, though unlabeled) for $ 2000. You can find many stand-​alone griddles, huge floor-​mounted mixers, racks, islands, shelving, refrigerators and freezers, drink dispensers, soda fountains, pans of all shapes and sizes, glasses, silverware, dishes, mugs, trays, chairs and about a million other food prep/​service items. It’s a little chaotic wandering around (pretty obvious from the video tour!) because it’s crammed full of merchandise, but fun if you are in the mood and know what you’re getting into. Plus, there were multiple people there to answer questions and help direct toward specific items of interest. Chances are good that we will purchase our oven and range hood from here because they are so highly discounted but also high quality due to their previous commercial life. While this type of appliance doesn’t appeal to all consumers’ needs, restaurants come and go fairly quickly sometimes and that means many of the items sold here are in fabulous condition but may not have a brand name on the front like we are used to. So not only was I psyched about that (they give a discount if you buy the oven and range hood together), but there is a small room up front that was full of food items like spices, herbs, gum, candy, dried pastas, bouillon and stuff like that. Most of the spices came in many different sizes and all were super cheap. I bought a big bag of super fresh cumin (17 oz) for $ 2. They even had dried jalapenos! Also oregano, dried onions, dried garlic, garlic powder, chile powder in many varieties, crushed red pepper, cumin seeds, big bags of whole dried peppers, a dozen types of hot sauces and other hallmarks of Mexican cuisine. Fun stuff to browse and very friendly people working made me excited to return and make more dirt cheap purchases.