Restaurant-supply shop in Philadelphia donates proceeds to charity

Backers of fund-raising projects enjoy touting that they donate a percentage to charity.

Old City Galley, a restaurant-supply shop in Old City, sends every dime to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, says owner Catherine Dumoff.

Located at 213 Arch St., down the block from the Betsy Ross House, the shop sells overstock plates, glassware, and equipment from Economy Restaurant & Bar Supply, also in Old City. Economy, one of Philadelphia's largest distributors, has been in the family of Dumoff's husband, Danny, since 1948.

Overstock merchandise is one of the costs of doing business for a supply house. Before restaurants open, owners order plates, silverware, pots, pans, salt shakers, pepper shakers, you name it.

Sometimes restaurateurs order too much and refuse to take all of it. Sometimes they change their minds, opting for china mugs, for example, over porcelain. Sometimes they just back out of the restaurant business altogether.

If the suppliers can't return the merchandise to the manufacturer or broker, the result is overstock, and these odd lots generally clog their back rooms and warehouses.

Catherine Dumoff heard about a woman who was selling restaurant-supply overstock to her friends. That gave her an idea.

"We had all of this stuff," says Dumoff, a petite woman with an easy smile. "Why not do something with it?"

Dumoff, a trial commissioner with the court system in Philadelphia who was diagnosed nine years ago with Parkinson's disease, put out a table last spring during Old City's First Friday festival and began selling Economy's overstock merchandise at less than half of retail.

She sent all the proceeds to Fox's foundation.

Next, Danny Dumoff set her up in a storefront they own on Second Street above Arch Street, across from Economy, and donated his overstock. Restaurateurs got into the spirit, donating never-used equipment. She called that place Seconds on Second, but decided to change the name because it was a misnomer; all her wares are new.

She says she has raised $15,000 so far.

The thrift shop moved last month to 213 Arch St. - Economy's original location - where it shares space with East End Salon. The brew of perm solution perfumes Dumoff's narrow showroom, whose wire racks are full of dinner plates ($2 each), salad plates, coffee mugs, silverware (75 cents per piece), salt-and-pepper shakers, wine glasses ($10 a dozen), aprons, and a bust of Caesar just begging to be placed in the foyer of an Italian restaurant.

"It's like a dollar store for restaurants," says Dumoff, who staffs the store with volunteers and the couple's children, Michael and Ashley.

"One bachelor came in and said, 'I could eat off a different plate every night,' " Dumoff says.

Volunteer Grace Heiser, a friend of Cathy Dumoff's since third grade at St. Leonard's in University City, praises Dumoff for the project.

"She's really taken [the fight against Parkinson's disease] to heart. I mean, if that had been me, I would have been 'boo-hoo-hoo,' at least initially. But look at what she is doing."