Built For Restaurant Operators

Yes, Bluestem covers every type of commercial kitchen - from single-unit restaurants, hotels, churches, even stadiums and arenas - and we cover all types and sizes of grease interceptors - from small indoor units to 5,000-gallon outdoor units.

The restaurant grease-line includes all of the floor drains and piping in the food preparation area, the piping leading to the grease interceptor, and all piping after the grease interceptor up to the connection to the city sewer main. It does not include any piping in non-food-service areas, including bathrooms and dining areas.

We accept all major credit cards.

Our goal is to get your existing equipment functioning at its peak efficiency 100% of the time. However, sometimes an existing grease interceptor can be so corroded, damaged or undersized that it must be replaced. If that is the case, Bluestem can expertly size and install a new grease interceptor and cover it with the industry’s only lifetime warranty. The cost of the new interceptor can be billed separately or, if you choose, it can be broken-down and added to your monthly fee.

Over the last 20 years, Bluestem’s parent company, Schier, has established deep relationships with the 16,000+ Sewer Jurisdictions in the U.S. These sewer jurisdictions are the local authority that enforces wastewater quality limits and sewer codes, including the limits and codes associated with restaurant grease discharging to the sewer.

In this same time frame, we have meticulously and methodically captured each jurisdiction's requirements into a proprietary database that is checked and updated daily. Bluestem taps these relationships and data to customize the (PEAK/100™) grease-line management plan for each of our restaurant customers, ensuring you meet local requirements for Fats, Oil, Grease, Suspended Solids, and pH. If a compliance issue were to happen while Bluestem is managing your grease-line, we work directly with your local sewer authority to solve it at no additional cost to you.

In a perfect world, each restaurant would have a grease-line (which includes the grease interceptor and all associated piping) that is correctly sized to catch and store the grease and food scraps before entering (and clogging) the city sewer. In this perfect world, the grease interceptor would have enough capacity for about 90 days of operation before needing to be pumped out.

In the real world, restaurants, their menus, and the number of people they serve changes, but the installed grease-line equipment does not. The result is that grease-line capacity is often out-of-sync with the current nature of the restaurant it serves. It is not feasible to rip-out and install a new grease-line due to cost and business interruption. The only viable strategy is to get the existing equipment operating at it’s peak efficiency as often as possible, with the target being 100% of the time. A grease-line operating at PEAK/100™ is free of clogs, smells, overflows, and keeps your restaurant in compliance.

Getting your grease-line to PEAK/100™ is easier and less costly with Bluestem.

Bluestem starts with what your local sewer authority requires, factors in your menu type, meal count, and the capacity of your existing equipment, and harmonizes those variables to create an individualized management plan that achieves guaranteed compliance. In the rare occasion that we cannot achieve compliance with your existing equipment, we can expertly replace your existing grease interceptor with our exclusive Lifetime Warranted interceptors.

No, Bluestem is a “brown grease” management service (grease-line and grease trap waste). Fryer oil is “yellow grease” and is commonly recycled and handled by separate service providers.

Bluestem usually represents a savings over in-house grease-line management. In some cases, Bluestem’s full-featured service is less expensive than pump-out costs alone.

Our proactive management model targets and eliminates the root causes of grease-line clogs, smells, overflows, and compliance issues. The result is a smoothly operating grease-line. In addition, our proactive approach and flat monthly pricing model means you will not have unplanned and unbudgeted plumber and pumper costs, and you will never be shut-down for sewer compliance reasons.

Bluestem is different from any grease interceptor/kitchen plumbing service currently on the market in that (1) we offer a flat monthly fee, (2) we are a single point of contact for all kitchen wastewater needs, (3) we cover all 3 components of the grease-line, and (4) we offer a 100% compliance guarantee with city sewer codes.