Remember that lawn party soiree you hosted last spring? We know: you’d rather not. All was going so charmingly. Quail eggs with celery salt. Wild mushroom and celeriac chaussons. Cornish crab salad on lemon blini: the canapes were perfect. And then, just as the guests were gathering about the lovely gâteau opera and framboise financier desserts, you overheard Mrs. Argent-Vielle say to Mrs. Gefortuneerd, over by the margarita station:
“Can you believe it? Why, she’s using a dinner plate to salt the rims!”
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Très mortifying, we know. You could have just melted into the ground.
Too bad you didn’t know about Meridian Supply. If you had, you’d have been in there picking up, for a price so low we can’t even tell you about it, a professional quality glass rimmer. And that’s not just any glass rimmer, my friend. Oh, no. It’s a three-compartment Glass Rimmer/Margarita Salter. With a nifty, folding, spill-proof design, capable of holding your margarita salt, sugar, or even lime juice. Wouldn’t that have put the proper pucker to those two catty mesdames?
Out on Page Av., in Overland, Meridian hasn’t spent a lot of money on exteriors. It looks like a place you’d go to have your car bumper re-chromed. Inside, though, if it’s an implement, machine, or object used to cook food or to eat it, chances are pretty damned good they’ve got it.
Need a four-basket Fryolator for the kitchen? Hell, who doesn’t? The only question you’ll be asking here is “Propane or gas?” From ice-making machines big enough to churn out quantities that could threaten the Titanic all the way down to delicate cordial glasses, the place is stocked with more food-related items than a ten-year subscription to Martha Stewart’s Living.
China, cutlery, ladles, tongs, chafing dishes, steam tables, highball glasses: Meridian is to cooks and kitchen communicants what Home Depot is to the do-it-yourselfer. It’s impossible to walk in and spend more than five minutes without thinking “Man, I could really use that.” “That,” if you happen to be standing in front of a dozen-gross box of those little red and white-checkered paper boats that hold corn dogs at county fairs, may not be the best idea you’ve ever had. If, on the other hand, it’s an immersion blender that looks like a shoulder-mounted anti-tank gun, well…Come on. And look at that price!
Meridian is the sort of place that fosters within yourself conversations you had previously not considered having.
“Do I really need a Nemco 8027 commercial hot dog roller capable of broiling 27 dogs at once?”
“Well, no. But for that matter, I don’t really need shoes, either.”
Personally, we had a long internal argument over a “Senior Salsa” blender. And we’re still not entirely convinced we made the right choice in walking away from that bad boy, with its 1 ½ HP motor and metal-reinforced rubber drive coupling. We did get a neat plastic shaker for our BBQ dry rub, a nice metal whisk, and a stainless steel omelet pan, again, all at prices you won’t find in any department store or run-of-the-mall cookery shop.
Even if you aren’t in the market for anything kitchen- or cooking-wise, it’s still worth a trip. Over there is a deli-type, rotary blade meat slicer that looks frighteningly powerful enough to turn a moose ham into delicious, papery slices of Bullwinkle prosciutto. Over here, a Chinoise—excuse us: that should be Asian-oise—strainer that is perfect for straining stock, or pureeing fruits and sauces.
Big sheet metal hotel pans with wire cooling racks are easy to store and they can be used for everything from drying bread for Thanksgiving stuffing to cooling peanut brittle to serving as a sled. (Note to the youngsters: hotel pan+1 spacious, Oriental rug-carpeted living room+sufficient attached hallway space to get up a good run = a whole afternoon of rainy day fun as you hang ten surfing on those Bokhara-napped waves right past great-grandmama’s Queen Anne highboy.)
Those red and yellow plastic squeeze bottles decorated with the zaftig waitress that appear on the table of every burger joint and diner from Bayonne to Bakersfield? This is the place to get ‘em. Just a set or by the gross, your call.
To say that Meridian has pots and pans is to say that NASCAR has advertising. Everything from a dainty poêle à poisson up to a stockpot that could double as a kiddie pool.
Your pizza-making needs, from grated Parmesan shakers to peels (with one wooden model that can multi-task as a card table), are totally covered. Cardboard delivery boxes and those flat, white cardboard disks, along with pizza baking tins and stones (at less than half the cost of what you’d pay elsewhere). And if you’ve ever suffered the heartbreak of sliding your bubbling hot pizza out of the artisan-constructed, stone, wood-fired oven out in the yard, only to have it be cold by the time you make it to the dining room, well, the delivery guy’s not the only one who could use one of those insulated carriers, right?
Chances are you have—or know somebody who does—a kid who’s moving out of his or her college dorm into an apartment or rented house this fall. Or a young couple about to be married. Meridian is the perfect place to get gifts—not the stupid toast cutters, avocado presses, or blender cozies culinary boutiques sell—that will be used and used again in kitchens and on dining room tables. And while you’re there, remember that Christmas is coming. Go ahead and get them a set of plastic menu covers.
Meridian Supply 9950 Page 314-423-2727 meridianrs.com Mon-Fri: 8 - 5 Sat: 8:30 - 2
