Vienna specific questions - Input needed

I'm ready to place my first order of Vienna product through a local food distributor.

I'm ordering:
2G Vienna relish
2G Vienna Sport Peppers
5G Vienna Kosher Spears
10lbs Vienna skinless 8/1 dogs
120 Vienna Poppy Seed Buns

I have a couple of questions.
1. Do the relish, peppers, spears need refrigerated after opening?Not the serving portions, the unused portions in the big containers?

2. Are the buns from Vienna partially baked or fully cooked? Will they freeze and for how long?

I appreciate everyone's help. I want to do some dry runs with the family on my cart. I need to learn how to steam the buns and serve up a pretty CSD.

Thanks

May I ask about what you paid?

Yes ALL of it needs to be refidgerated and make sure it is all sealed tight.

the buns should be fully cooked and will freeze nicely for 1-3 months.

hope this helps

Vienna's buns are par-baked. Once thawed, they will also last a long time refrigerated. I get buns every 2 weeks and don't even bother to put them in the freezer. I put them right in the refrigerator. To steam buns, support them on a pan lid with a towel underneath the box. I open the top cellophane and shuffle the buns around in the box, so the bottoms are not all on the bottom of the box. They can overheat and get hard if you don't. Some others will perforate the cellophane or the box or both. Experiment with whatever system works best on your cart.

Ken - I'm not picturing what you mean by supporting them on the pan lid. Can you clarify please? -Thanks

Spud - 8/1 skinless .56 - buns .26 I'm a long ways from Chicago so I imagine I will pay a premium. I may shop around for different brands if my local Vienna rep doesn't want to support me with marketing materials/signs/. It is a very good dog and bun + I love the condiments. We'll see, I hope he helps me out. It will also help them in this area. Vienna has no presence around here.

Ken- One more thing, won't a fridge remove the moisture from the buns and dry them out? Just wondering. Thanks for everyone's help. I am going to get another fridge here soon and if they can be stored for a while that would be sweet.

You put the moisture in them when you steam them. I don't have any problems with them drying out in the refrigerator.

I assume you will have a pan in your cart to either fill with water and heat the dogs in, or a perforated insert pan atop the main pan to steam the dogs. Either way, you're making steam. Get a 1/3 pan cover and place it across the width of the pan. This leaves 2/3 of the pan open to access your dogs. Put your towel and bun box on top of the lid. You can use a larger lid, depending on how many pan wells your cart has, usually from one to three. To steam buns like this, you'll have to have a roll-top cover if you don't have one on your cart.

Vienna is very good with signage and posters. Go directly to the factory though. I've heard that some reps drop the ball. They have a separate art department at Vienna.

Thanks Ken - I get it now!

Talked to the local Vienna rep and he said he's sending out some goodies to me.

2G Vienna relish
2G Vienna Sport Peppers
5G Vienna Kosher Spears
10lbs Vienna skinless 8/1 dogs
120 Vienna Poppy Seed Buns

i buy the casing hotdogs 8-1, the whole purpose of using vienna is to have the casing dog. its about $10 more per case, but its such a good hotdog.

i dont know how or what your purchasing it for (cart or restaurant) or if you have ever purchased vienna stuff before. i started the same way (cart owner). the kosher spears are gunna come to you in a big yellow painters bucket, so you need room to store them. the relish is in a small white bucket and fits ok in a fridge.

i have decided recently to stop using the vienna buns. i pay $33 per case (120 buns) and it just wasn't worth it for me, my customers all like the regular buns better because the seeds. you will get a lot of customers saying plain bun. they dont care about the black seed bun, even if your making a chicago dog. so IMO dont waste your money on the black seed buns. try to find a real good, fresh store, either a restaurant service store or a costco maybe and buy the packs of 24 buns for like $2.50, that will be a better buy for you probably, unless your sold completely on the vienna bun, which is good, just not needed. you can do a trial on it and see what people prefer, i have been doing this a month now and i have wasted about 2 boxes of buns because customers rather have the plain, especially kids.

i keep forgetting to buy the sport peppers so i dont even know what they are like. i have been using regular chili's from restaurant depot and the customers seem to like them. i do use the vienna pickles and love those, just the container is so damn big, so if you dont have storage space, your going to need it for those pickles thats for sure. i didnt know how much i was getting till i saw the container. i bought some real nice looking plastic jars that look like barrels at my local Ralphs and i store the pickles in there. they were like 8.99 each, kinda pricey, but it gets the job done.

is this ur first order with vienna?

Yes , my first order. I have everything in a dedicated fridge.

I'm still working on my permits but hope to be up and running on the weekends soon. My first order was just to learn my cart and figure out to make these things.

Thanks for the input.

I agree with GoTTi. Poppy Seed Buns are more "Eye Appealing" for those from Chi Town but do not effect taste and the kids don't like those little black "things" there unless they were brought up eating them. You still may want some for the traditional HD eaters but IMHO I would find a local source for regular buns and save a lot's of Money! Costco or Sams or a local bakery. They may also be able to supply the PS ones also.

It's a trade off these days not only with buns but kids want Ketchup on their dogs! Arggggg. I guess you needed to grow up in Chi Town to know what is best on a dog and it is not Ketchup.

"Sport peppers" should be also easy to find in the Market. Key is slender, crunchy, and "Hot". Save $ also.

My 2 cents.

Don

I'm 60 miles west of San Antonio and this is farm and ranch country. There aren't too many folks who know what a Chicago style hot dog is anyway. I am waiting for a local bakery to call me back with prices on locally produced buns. Besides, I'm paying .26 cents per bun for these authentic Chicago buns and I'm thinking I'd rather sell a local made bun anyway because the bakery I'm talking to is known and loved by everyone around these parts. That can be a selling point! +, I can have a little control over the taste/recipe. They should be able to tweak a bun my/my customers tasts.

We'll see. I'm still tweaking my menus, sourcing my product, and trying to learn my cart.

Thanks

Arnie

see if the bakery has black seed buns, you might be able to get them cheaper from them if they make it to sub out the vienna buns.