Fun with forklifts

Every once in a while, we stumble across something entertaining in the world of material handling equipment. Yes, you read that right: It is indeed possible for "entertaining" and "material handling equipment" to appear in the same sentence. Here are two examples we came across recently:

• Meet me for lunch at the Forklift Café. According to their website, sisters Dorothy and Karen, proprietors of the three-year-old Forklift Café in Rochester, N.Y., learned how to cook for crowds while growing up in a family of 11 children. When Dorothy, who has worked as a chef and caterer, and Karen, a former small-business owner, had the chance to take over an old guard shack in front of the busy 1600 Lexington warehouse complex, they seized the opportunity to turn it into a breakfast and lunch spot that caters to warehouse workers and truck drivers, among others. (The website invites potential customers to "roll on in.")
  Given its location in front of a former Kodak DC that's now home to several warehouse and distribution operations, the name Forklift Café was a natural. Equally fitting is the diner's forklift-themed décor and its logo: a coffee cup balanced on the tines of a retro-looking lift truck, above the tongue-in-cheek slogan "A treat for your palate." Check it out at www.forklift-cafe.com.
• How many candles can you fit on a forklift? The website hasn't been updated in a couple of years, but www.eatsleepforklift.com offers a mix of educational material ("A Healthy Dose of Planned Forklift Maintenance") and fun. Our favorite: "It's a Forklift Party!" This 2012 blog post by Joyce Schwob features photos of forklift-themed items for a birthday or retirement party. They include invitations, safety cone-shaped candles, and even cakes topped with a lift truck made of icing.
  Schwob is president and general manager of JIT Toyota-Lift, a Toyota Industrial Equipment dealer that serves Western New York.