Toledo, Ohio, “is an adventure in eating,” according to an online restaurant reservation service. It goes on to extol the city’s all-American hamburgers, Hungarian hot dogs, Lebanese stuffed grape leaves, Mexican tacos and Italian meatballs.

It doesn’t say a word about all that grease going down the drain in commercial kitchens throughout the city. That’s where Joel George and his company Drain Doctor come into the picture. George’s technicians are working hard to stay ahead of the pipe clogging caused by chefs cooking up that fine cuisine.

Toledo boasts more than 70 eat-out businesses and Drain Doctor services at least half of them, according to George. Here’s the best part: Many of his restaurant customers have opted to contract with George to routinely clear drains, rather than waiting until the grease thickens and a potential backup threatens. 

“Maintenance contracts are common in the drain clearing industry, but I took it to a new level,” George says.

It usually goes down like this: Called to unclog a line, George brings in his Electric Eel unit and US Jetting 4,000 psi jetter and unclogs it. Called a second time after a few months of grease dumping, George calmly points out that the cost of the two emergency service calls would have paid for an entire year of routine maintenance — plus eliminated all the drama for the kitchen’s sous-chef.

Furthermore, kitchen managers learn from George that future shuttering of the restaurant because of fouled drainpipes will be completely avoided because a Drain Doctor crew can do its maintenance work while the chefs continue to do theirs.

“You develop trust with the restaurant managers and they’ll listen to you,” George says. “I put the paperwork for my quarterly maintenance plan on their desk, tell them what I can do and they just sign on the dotted line.”

And Toledo’s adventure in eating continues.

Read more about Drain Doctor in the November 2019 issue of Cleaner magazine.