Gordon Food Service Store — Local services in Aurora

Drove by this place a hundred times, always wondered about it. It's fully open to the public and an awesome place to shop if you want really high quality at a wholesale price. I bought raw, breaded, IQF Perch fillets, thick onion rings, they had several sizes and quality, sweet potato fries, calamari, and a $10 gallon of canola oil. I also bought a couple bags of lemonade and hot chocolate powder, they are 2 gal size foil bags, but the price is great ànd the quality is better than the national brand. When I say better quality I basically mean shorter ingredient list and superior taste. The raw pre breaded frozen foods were all deep fried in a half gallon or $5 of canola oil that I can pour off and reuse several times because these High Quality Frozen Foods leave almost no loose breading. Never seen anything like it folks. I fried 2+ pounds of frozen breaded foods and had maybe 1 Tbs of loose breading in the bottom of the cast iron and it was all large pieces I could scoop out with a spoon and also probably my own fault for stirring too much or early, etc. If you fry food get a thermometer, I fry in a huge cast iron pan with a old school thermometer, maybe cost me $10, 15 yrs ago. I cooked everything at 350°f when I dropped it but because I have only 1/2 gal of oil the cooking time on the package has to be extended by maybe 20-50% depending on how much your oil drops in temperature when you add frozen foods. These are for restaurant fryer that holds maybe 5 gallons of oil and automatically controls temperature. None of the fried foods come salted, You must salt them heavily as soon as possible after being fried, or serve unsalted fried foods. This is the difference, most non-national chain restaurants get some or all of their menu from this company. Being able to control doneness and salt/ seasoning while getting wholesale restaurant quality and pricing? They have about 6 different types and prices of frozen onion rings. Makes you realize that when you get soggy limp onion rings they just don't care, because the cost difference is like .20 cents per serving. Walk through this place, but be wary of large containers that " requires refrigeration after opening " unless you have a " walk in " or are prepared to have multiple fridges...

You’d think a “business” would be there to make money and sell products. I needed one more item and when my cashier asked the “boss lady?” she said in a very “too busy” tone.. “You’ll have to give me 5 minutes I have 5 pallets to unload” Ya know what??? What’s the point in unloading pallets if you aren’t willing to sell the product(s)? I said “Never mind, I don’t have 5 minutes.” She did change her tune pretty quickly but forget it. It’s just ridiculous. And they wonder why stores struggle to stay...

Being from Texas I rather enjoyed this quaint store. They actually had some thing I have been looking for in my state and have not been able to find on the shells. A case of V-8 sparkling energy drink! There they were right there for the picking so I grabbed a couple of them and brought them back to Texas. The selection in the store was wonderful and plentiful. In the price was not shocking. I will have to make this a regular stop whenever I come back...