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January 14th, 2012

by Total Food Service

Madison Square Garden Renovates

For over 30 years, the Sher family business, Day and Nite Refrigeration, has served the New York metro area, providing commercial clients with top-quality service for their cooking, refrigeration, and HVAC equipment.

2011 saw them take on one of their biggest jobs ever: installing new concession equipment at Madison Square Garden, as part of the arena’s full renovation. This is the largest arena renovation in the world. It comes on the heels of Day and Nite’s successful completion of a similar project at Citi Field, the new Mets’ stadium in Queens.

At Madison Square Garden, Day and Nite installed beer and soda serving lines, along with cooking equipment and a refrigeration system. “The job kept on evolving over the course of the contract,” says Day and Nite co-founder Ken Sher. “The Perlick system we installed was the largest one they’ve ever built. The size of the system, and the fact that we had to work around the existing arena infrastructure, meant we had to connect the dots left by all the other contractors.”

The project illustrated Day and Nite’s ability to work as part of a team. Day and Nite worked closely with MSG Director of Foodservice, Charles Troccoli as well as the project’s equipment and supply dealer Stafford Smith. Day and Nite coordinated much of the installation with BSE who represented many of the project’s specified lines.

As part of the project, Day and Nite installed room-size gear boxes. “There are multiple distribution points in the building,” says Sher. “The primary boxes for the beer and the soda syrup are both on the fifth floor, but there are another set of soda syrup boxes for the concessions on the sixth, seventh, and eighth floors. On top of that, we’ll be installing another set of boxes next year, to serve beer concessions on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors.”
Sher has nothing but great things to say about the entire MSG renovation. He says,

“The place came out amazing. If you’re a season ticket holder, your mouth is going to drop open when you see this place. You won’t even recognize it.” Sher points to new marble floors and tile walls as particular places of improvement.

Since its founding in 1977, Day and Nite has developed a sterling reputation based on its top-notch service of commercial kitchen equipment. Founded by brothers Ken and Irwin Sher, the duo has since brought on the next generation, Matt, Rick, and Brett. Day and Nite’s commitment to its customers has not changed even as it has expanded the breadth and reach of its services in recent years. Day and Nite now operates in the Carolinas and Florida, as well as New York, and now offers food service plumbing installation, along with an addition to its food service hardware division that expands its ability to help restaurateurs meet New York City’s grading system requirements.

In the coming year, Day and Nite looks forward to installing concession equipment at the Barclays Center, the new Nets’ arena rising in Downtown Brooklyn. Sher says, “The expertise we’ve gained from the Madison Square Garden project will ensure that our work on the Brooklyn project will continue to be top quality.”