Sample cafe set-up. What equipment should not be missing in your café?
THE COST OF OPENING A CAFÉ
Thetotal cost of fitting out a café is related to thelayout and size of the space, its design, concept and offer. The more space, the more chairs and the bigger the purchase. Equally, it means that the bigger your café, the more staff you need to run it, and each of your staff members needs a specific space of their own, for example to store their outerwear or personal belongings.
Inaddition to the back of house, storage, toilets and the actual seating area for guests, you need to equip your bar and kitchen (if you intend to prepare your own snacks). Kitchen equipment depends on health regulations and standards and also depends on what you want to produce. For any café you will certainly need a coffee machine, the choice of which should not be underestimated. Apart from being the visual centrepiece of your bar, the coffee you will be making on it is the very reason why most customers will come to you.
WHAT NOT TO FORGET WHEN BUILDING A COFFEE BAR
Before I get into the individual pieces of equipment and accessories, let's talk about what not to forget before you shop for equipment. Given the expected traffic of a coffee shop, think about incorporating a pot washer to speed up the barista's job of rinsing the pots. What can't be avoided when building a café bar is a double sink and, of course, a dishwasher in larger operations. Of the larger appliances, you'll especially appreciate anice maker for iced drinks on warm days . You won't just use the ice for drinks and lemonades, but of course also for coffee.
ONLY FILTERED WATER IN THE COFFEE MACHINE
I'm going to stick with water, because although it is something that is not visible at first glance, we must not forget about water filtrationbefore building a bar . Have you thought: 'I clean my coffee machine regularly, whyuse filtered water?' Taking care of grinders and coffee machines by cleaning them is undoubtedly important, but to avoid limescale problems and to avoid ruining the potential of your coffee, it is also a good idea to invest inwater filtration. Moreover, the composition of the water contributes to the extraction of the coffee.
You need to think about the water outlets, not only at the bar. As well as bringing water to the customer for their coffee, it's also a nice gesture to have a jug of water and a couple of glasses available at a certain point in the café, or a tap straight out.
NECESSARY EQUIPMENT FOR A SMALL CAFÉ
First I'll start with a small café, by which I mean a coffee shop or rather a coffee stand that sellsup to 50 coffeesa day prepared on an espresso machine. Apart from small espresso bars in smaller towns, we can also include some larger operations here, but where coffee sales are not the primary source of income, such as food stalls. For these , aprofessional automatic coffee machine is probably more suitable than a lever coffee machine .
WHICH ESPRESSO MACHINE TO CHOOSE FOR YOUR COFFEE SHOP?
I'll start with the most important thing, the mechanical heart of your café, the coffee machine. Espresso is the base drink for many coffee drinks. Unless you intend to open a brew bar, a café that only brews filter coffee, you'll need aprofessional lever espresso machine. Such a coffee machine is often the most expensive thing on the bar, so think carefully about buying one. Which coffee machine to choose also depends on the size of your café.
If you only have a small espresso bar or an establishment where coffee is not the main reason customers visit. You primarily serve ice cream, for example, or you're more of a bar than a café, then a smaller single-serve coffee machine will do.
For example , theNuova Simonelli Oscar IIprofessional lever coffee maker can be a great choice for the office or home. You can choose from three colours to match the design of your café. You will also find a cup warmer on the coffee machine. Next to the lever, there is also a high production coffee nozzle that will make sure you can treat your customers to milky coffee drinks as well .
The other tip might be the Nuova Simonelli Musica Standard. We love the Nuova Simonelli brand at Spa. The Musica features a heat-stabilised head - just like professional coffee machines - and a hot water dispenser, which you can use, for example, when making tea.It's simply a big professional coffee machine in a small body.
In addition, you'll need a quality tamper to make espresso, and you can't do without a pad. Tamper varies mainly in diameter, so you need to find one that is compatible with your lever. Many coffee machine manufacturers also offer tamper pads, and you can find a wide range of them in our e-shop, including from the Czech brand Heavy Tamper.
WHICH ELECTRIC COFFEE GRINDER TO CHOOSE FOR A SMALL COFFEE SHOP
Next to the coffee machine, the grinder is the second most important piece of equipment in your café. You will need a different grinder for espresso and another for filter coffee. While you can find universal grinders on the market that will grind both espresso and filter coffee, the last thing you'll have time for is adjusting the grinder to just what you need to brew. Universal grinders are more practical for the home, where you have plenty of time.
A specific tip for a small coffee shop, then, might be to add a grinder of the same brand to the Nuova Simonelli coffee machine as well. Thequiet, powerful Nuova Simonelli MDXS. Themicrometer setting ensures a superbly ground coffee, which the grinder pours straight into your lever. The LCD display lets you set the grind time, making it easy to maintain the same quality from cup to cup.
FILTERED COFFEE BELONGS IN SMALL CAFES TOO
Did you think an espresso machine was enough in a small café? Wrong. There are more and more fans of filter coffee, so you won't go wrong with a drip coffee machine. Preparing filtered coffee using alternative methods is more time consuming, so for smaller cafes you'll be fine with theMoccamaster, which you'll find in many smaller and medium-sized cafes.
There aredifferent types on offer, but if your café is smaller and you already know in advance that you won't sell that much filtered coffee it's best to look around for types where youcan adjust the amount of coffee you prepare. With the Moccamaster KBG Select Technivorm, you can choose to brew either the full amount, which is 1.25l, or half the amount. If you'd like an even more flexible drip coffee machine, then be sure to check out the Wilfa WSPL-3B. This is because you can set up completely any amount of coffee, from one cup to 1.25l of filter coffee. You can make coffee in both drip machines in about 5 minutes.
COFFEE GRINDER FOR DRIP COFFEE
Ifyour café is small and you only need to grind coffee for the drip machine a few times a day, theWilfa Svart CGWS-130B or Baratza Encore will probablybe enough . These are primarily designed for home use, but they can handle grinding coffee for a dripper a few times a day. Plus, they're relatively tiny, so they won't take up too much space on your bar.
A BARISTA SCALE FOR A SMALL CAFÉ
Which barista scale is ideal for your business? Since a small cafe can be a small espresso bar as well as a snack stand, here are two tips.
In the case of an espresso bar, you or your baristas will probably play a lot with the coffee, so a scale with an app where you can track your espresso process would be a good choice. One of these is the Acaia Lunar, which is small enough to fit under a cup in a coffee machine.
For a small operation that needs a scale primarily to set up espresso but doesn't want to invest that much, the Timemore Black Mirror Basicwill be ideal , offering great value for money.
EQUIPMENT FOR A MEDIUM-SIZED COFFEE SHOP
Now I'm going to review with you what is needed for a medium sized operation where we expect to sell roughly 50-150 coffees per day.
A PROFESSIONAL ESPRESSO MACHINE FOR A MEDIUM-SIZED CAFÉ
A larger coffee shop asks for more leverage at the espresso machine. A two-lever coffee machine is ideal for a bistro, where customers enjoy their coffee especially when they choose something sweet to eat. And of course also for medium-sized coffee shops, which are probably the most common among coffee shops.
Nuova Simonelli and its Appia Life Compact 2GR professional coffee machine will again be a safe bet . Would you like a white, black or red version? The controls are a no-brainer, and the new buttons are much more pleasant to press. The compact size will please you if you have trouble with the size of the bar. In addition, Nuova Simonelli has managed to reduce the consumption of the new range by 13%. The environmental impact has been reduced by 20% thanks to the new materials.
Theperfect espresso can also be prepared thanks to the high quality tamper. If you prepare one espresso after another and want to save time and, above all, maintain a consistent quality of tamping, you should not miss thePugpress automatic tamper. TheQ2 version tamp your coffee in both classic and naked portafilters.
THE MEDIUM COFFEE SHOP DESERVES A MORE POWERFUL COFFEE GRINDER
What espresso grinder to get for a medium-sized coffee shop? The popularity of the Nuova Simonelli brand here at Spa Favorite is confirmed by another tip, which falls on the MDJmodel . The grinding stones made of special steel will give you a long life of the grinder. In addition, they are designed so that the coffee does not heat up and burn already in the grinder. With this very quiet grinder, you can grind up to 13 kg of coffee per hour.
THE DRIP COFFEE MACHINE FOR FILTER COFFEE IS NOT TO BE MISSED
Batch brew or also drip coffee is standard in most coffee shops. So if you too want to keep up with thedrip coffee machine, you can't forget about it and having one in your café is definitely worthwhile. Just brew your coffee in it in the morning or even a few times during the day and you'll ensure a few happy customers and save yourself a lot of time too. If you're going to combine batch brew with coffee prepared using alternative brews, the smaller Wilfa WSPL-3B will probably do the trick , brewing up to six 200ml cups.
If filtered coffee is your thing, look for professional drip brewers that can brew up to ten litres of coffee per hour.
HARIO V60, AEROPRESS OR CHEMEX? WHICH ALTERNATIVES TO CHOOSE FOR YOUR COFFEE SHOP?
For a medium-sized café, you should consider buying one of the alternatives. However, it is also important that all your baristas have the alternatives in the palm of their hand, if they don't, it will be easy for customers to leave disappointed.
In coffee shops, you can usually find a dripper Hario V60 or Chemex. Why? The reason is simple, compared to the Aeropress, they allow us to prepare more than one cup of coffee at a time. In the V60 you will usually prepare sweeter coffee, so it is often the primary choice. If you want to give coffee drinkers a unique experience, in addition to your own original recipe for one of the aforementioned alternatives, you can also go the route of non-traditional accessories such as the Vacuum Pot.
If you're going to get an alternative for your coffee shop, you shouldn't forget about all the additional accessories, such as a quality barista pot or the appropriate filters. To minimise waste, which is often a lot in a coffee shop, I can recommend that you consider buying reusable filters.
WHICH GRINDER TO CHOOSE FOR FILTER COFFEE
As I mentioned earlier preparing filter coffee will require a separate grinder. Itwill probably take you a bit of time to reconfigure it for a drip coffee machine and alternative, but it's not as big a difference as between a filter and an espresso machine.
In a larger operation, crumbs like the Baratza Encore or Wilfa Svart certainly won't be enough for you. A good choice would be the Eureka Atom Promulti-function grinder , which is made foralternative brews.
WHAT IS THE RIGHT BARISTA SCALE FOR A MEDIUM-SIZED CAFÉ?
You shouldn't forget about a good quality barista scale, it's needed for both alternative preparations and espresso. For drip coffee preparation you might also be interested in the Timemore Black Dual Sensor with drip holder. Acaia scales are very popular among baristas . The barista standard with the scales is the timekeeping function in addition to the accuracy of weighing to tenths of a gram. In operation, you will also appreciate the possibility of charging and a battery that lasts for example 40 hours or a waterproof surface. In addition, Acaia scales and some Timemore models offer preparation tracking through amobile app. This makes the journey to your unique recipe even easier.
WHAT EQUIPMENT SHOULD I BUY FOR A LARGE CAFÉ?
You really shouldn't underestimate the equipment of a large café. You'll need a grinder and coffee machine powerful enough to prepare more than 150 espressos a day.
FOR A LARGE CAFÉ, YOU NEED A LARGE THREE-LEVER ESPRESSO MACHINE.
If your café is a place that has a large capacity and where your baristas hardly stop to prepare one espresso, cappuccino or latte after another, you will definitely need an adequate coffee machine.
If you want a not-so-ordinary coffee maker you might be interested in theVictoria Arduino Athena Leva 3GR. This coffee maker will definitely be the jewel of your coffee shop. And a golden one at that . The company has applied heat exchangers for this coffee maker, so you can regulate the temperature of the water and thus optimize the quality of the extracted coffee. A special pressure reducing valve reduces the water pressure, which is usually 4 to 6 bar. By influencing the temperature, you achieve preinfusion, making the coffee beautifully creamy and unburnt.
A great choice would also be the Victoria Arduino 388 Black Eagle T3 3GR, which has been the official coffee machine of the Barista Championship for several years. With this machine, making espresso will be fun. Thanks to the T3 technology, you can have control overthe temperature of all the heads of the machine and thus influence the coffee you prepare. Different extraction temperatures will be reflected in the final flavour profile of the espresso.
WHEN VICTORIA ARDUINO COFFEE MAKER, SO DOES THE COFFEE GRINDER
TheMythos 2grinder is quite a revolutionary piece, thanks to its patented gravimetric technology. The Mythos 2 thus controls the weight of the ground coffee and doses it according to a preset value. TheClima Pro 2.0 function ensures that the grinder does not overheat , which is undoubtedly useful in continuous operation. In addition, the touch screen offers preset functions to make operation quicker and easier.
FILTERED COFFEE IS AT HOME IN A LARGE CAFÉ
A large coffee shop that prepares more than 150 cups of espresso should lack virtually nothing in terms of preparation methods. That is, neither a drip coffee machine nor alternative brewing accessories.
As far asdrip coffee machines are concerned, you will need to reach for one of the professional drip machines. AMelitta XT180 will give you a lot of music for little money, up to 125 cups of coffee per hour . Then there are the Fetco drip coffee makers and the CBS-2111-XTS model, for example, which are an even greater option .
For alternative brewing accessories, you can't miss the Hario V60. Because your café will have a lot of people coming in, it will often have more demanding requirements, so you shouldn't just stick with the V60. You can also prepare coffee easily in a Chemex. With this extra preparation you will get different flavours.
During the summer, cold filter coffee should not be missing from your menu. You can also reduce your ice consumption by preparing coffee straight from the cold. Inaddition to a chilled batch brew, you can also prepare acold brew, which is a very popular drink during the summer. Toddy, designed for home brewing, probably won't be enough for you. It would take a lot of time to prepare. For a larger café, it's definitely worth getting the Brewista Cold Pro, with which you can brew up to 13 litres of filtered cold macerated coffee at a time.
A GRINDER FOR LOTS OF FILTER COFFEE
To prepare filter coffee in a drip coffee machine and for alternative preparations, you will need to grind a lot of beans. In this case, the Mahlkönig EK43will not be a step too far . In addition to consistent grinding, it will also offer you easy and precise adjustment. The speed of the grinding process will definitely not let you down either.
A BARISTA SCALE FOR A LARGE CAFÉ
In a large cafe, you definitely won't be satisfied with just one scale and will rather use every scale for something. Therefore, for espresso preparation, buy a small one that fits under the cup in the coffee maker and you can also have several espresso recipes on it. An example ofthis is the Acaia Pearl. Alever holder will probably also come in handy . For perfect drip brewing, there is no other scale we can recommend than the Timemore Black Mirror Dual Sensor with removable filter holder.
BARISTA ESSENTIALS FOR EVERY COFFEE SHOP
The choice of grinder or coffee machine varies according to the size of the café, but then there are a few little things you need whether your café is 25m² or 200 m². What makes them different is the quantity.
CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE OF THE COFFEE MACHINE AND GRINDER
Aswell as the actual preparation of the coffee, the daily routine of a café is to keep the operation clean and hygienic. The barista must clean his tools and machines properly after each shift. For this purpose, suitable cleaning chemicals for coffee machines, grinders and the milk paths and nozzles of coffee machines are used . Don't forget a toothbrush for cleaning the coffee machine heads and barista wipes for wiping the steam nozzle.
Coffee stripperswill help you to clean the levers from used coffee more easily . It' s then up to you and the space and layout of your bar whether you decide to buy a solitary, bar, drawer or built-in knock-off that you plug into a cut-out hole in the countertop. The used coffee then falls through this hole directly into the bin or garbage bag.
WHISK, WHISK, WHISK, WHISK
Preparing cappuccinos and caffe lattes can't be done without abarista pot. Your fridge should not be without at least one type of plant milk in addition to the best quality cow's milk. This is appreciated not only by vegans, but also by people with milk intolerance or allergy.
BEAUTIFUL AND GOOD COFFEE IN A NICE COFFEE SERVICE
You prepare a cappuccino for your customer with beautiful latte art, and yet it's not spoiled by an old, scratched cup. The choice of service is very important, it is one of the elements that creates the atmosphere of the café. An excellent choice is quality porcelain from G.Benedikt. Do you go for pure white porcelain or do you go forsomething more colourful. Some cafes choose to go the route of a different mug each time, this too has its charm.
Don't forget the customers who want to take their coffee to go. In addition to paper cups, you can follow the trend of returnable cups like the flip cup or GOCUP. Some customers may also enjoy the option to buy their own thermos. A bet on quality is definitely the Australian brand Frank Green or Kinto thermoses .
Various coasters, trays or cutlery are also part of the service. If you want to put the finishing touches on your serving, you can have personalised coasterscreated with your own logo.
SUGAR, COFFEE, LEMON, TEA and RUM
Coffee and what to go with it? Some people like to sweeten their coffee or tea, so you can't do withoutquality sugar. Moreover, it should be standard when serving. And speaking of tea, I'll stick to it for a while. Not every visitor to your café has to be a coffee drinker, so it's important to have other beverages on the menu as well as quality tea, preferably loose-leaf. It can also be complemented by achai latte or yerba mate.
Young customers will definitely enjoy thehot chocolateon the menu. Adults, on the other hand, will enjoy the selection of quality alcohol. In addition, some hard liquor can be mixed into various coffee drinks. Beer from a small local brewery or quality wine is also almost standard in larger cafes, especially if your opening hours end later than 6pm. Cold soft drinks should not be forgotten either. Making your own homemade lemonade is sure to win you many customers.
Sugar doesn't just have to be loose. Yes, I'm talking about desserts. Many customers will have something good to eat with their coffee, so don't neglect this part either.
A CLEAR MENU OFFER
As the last thing I would like to mention here, the menu. Besides what it contains, it should also be clear and good looking, of course. You can also think about creating a larger and more concise menu, especially the drink menu, located above the bar. It will be especially appreciated by customers who come for a takeaway coffee.