About Us

Our company was founded in 1978, as an Ice Vending Machine company, and started in a small residential home.  After one year, the business was incorporated and expanded into a full service restaurant equipment and supply retailer & installion firm - Hawk, Inc.  In 1982, the company relocated to a 4,050 sf facility, which it quickly filled with inventory to serve it's growing customer base.  By 2002, the company grew into a building more than six times the size of its previous location, with freight lines coming in & out every day.  This move opened the door for numerous possibilities in diversification and growth.  In November 2015, after decades of serving a very diversified customer base, mostly across the Southeastern USA, we announced the opening of our 15,000 square foot retail store to the public, at 301 Hawk Pl, Montgomery, AL, in an effort to better serve the restaurant industry in our home city & expanded local area.  We eat locally, and shop locally whenever possible, so we wanted to give back to our local community.

After almost eight years of growing the retail store and working extremely hard to serve our customers well, by battling through the internet pricing wars & navigating extensive consolidation throughout the industry, we decided to expand into the e-commerce arena to serve our customers in more than one way.  In August 2023, CulinaryHotPot.com was borne.  For those who prefer or need the convenience of shopping online, we built this online store for you!  For far too long, our local customers have had to do their online shopping with out-of-state dealers.  The revenue produced by those companies gets spent in their own home states.  A large percentage of that revenue stays in Northern states and does nothing to help our area.  Well, we're very sorry for the delay, but we aim to solve that problem.  This online store is dedicated to benefitting the State of Alabama and, as this segment grows, we have many other plans in mind to benefit our local communities, so we truly hope you'll support our cause.