I discovered Kesco years ago while looking for an electronics supply co. I've shopped there every other month or so, since then. Everyone is welcome, not just restaurant people. The store is small, with narrow aisles and packed shelves holding many types of utensils, cooking tools & vessels.
This place simulates creativity, or at least ingenuity, and the staff are helpful and friendly. I find huge 18" steel tongs, grates & aluminum pizza screens for my BBQ/smoker, restaurant style chef's & boning knives, sharpeners & steels, sieves & sifters, spatulas & turners,..., all better quality than Wal-Mart/Target counterparts if offered, and for the most part unavailable in retail stores at those sizes & specifications. For instance, you can't find those huge tongs anywhere else in B/CS. They keep my hands away from the coals/wood chunks in my smoker, especially when getting them started. I haven't seen similarly fine sieves or large food turners elsewhere in town. Some items there are cheaper than inferior products sold in discount/grocery stores.
I would give this place 5 stars, but I've been to Ace and to Northwest in Houston, both of which offer greater variety, and are many times larger, with showrooms full of the large equipment that Kesco has to back-order. But even restaurant managers I know order these through Kesco, rather blowing an entire afternoon in Houston traffic. And the rest of us can find cool utensils & implements here, sometimes cheaper than elsewhere. read more