So, you’ve got your café concept ready to go. What’s next?
You’ve sorted your premises, you’ve sorted your marketing, and you’ve got your budgets and finances in order. Being in the café biz, you will of course know what coffee machine you want to invest in.
The next step is perhaps the trickiest – getting your kitchen fitout right. Ensuring you have the correct fitout in order to fulfill your menu, meet safety regulations, and allow for a good workflow in your kitchen is increasingly difficult for café owners who may be well up-to-speed with coffee machines, but have never planned or designed a kitchen and food menu before.
Luckily for you, we at Comcater have 40 years’ experience fitting out commercial café kitchens and have compiled our three F’s to finding your perfect cafe fitout.
FOOD
Unsurprisingly, what food you intend on making plays an integral role in what fitout your kitchen requires. You don’t need to know the ins and outs of your entire menu, but knowing your cuisine type, anticipated covers and amounts of chefs you will be employing is crucial in getting the right fitout for your venue. You may not know every item you plan on serving, but knowing your “top sellers” or focal points if your menu will certainly help in ensuring your fitout is fully maximised, with areas being evenly utilised to avoid slower service times.
For example, if you plan on making protein your staple, your best to ensure your fitout contains a standalone charbroiler / barbecue whilst also including an additional grill in your range configuration. This means that if your barbecue is being completely utilised, you can still use the grill on your range whilst simultaneously serving up items prepared on those remaining burners and in the oven. Finding brands that offer flexible configuration types will ensure that you are fully utilising your fitout whilst saving space in your kitchen.
WATCH: The Trueheat RC Series offers mix and match configurations with range matched fryers, pasta cookers, barbecues and infill benches to ensure you get the right fitout for your unique needs
FINANCE
Once you know what pieces of equipment you are likely to require for your cafe fitout, the next question you need to ask is how much have to actually spend on your dream fitout. Unless you are a large operation pumping out 100+ covers per service, a light duty range would be most suited to a café operation. In addition to being the most affordable on the market, light duty ranges also come with lower gas / electricity ratings meaning you’ll save big when it comes to your ongoing utility costs.
Another tip for ensuring your finances matches up with your fitout requirements is to purchase all of your equipment from the one foodservice equipment dealer. This means they are able to bundle all of your commercial cooking equipment and deliver you the best possible price. This also means you have one point of contact for any questions regarding warranty, training, servicing or anything else you may need assistance with during the lifetime of your cafe.
FUTURE
Finally, it’s important to think about what the future may hold when it comes to planning your café fitout. Sure, a second-hand cooking lineup might seem like a good idea to get yourself off the ground and stay within budget, but what happens when it breaks down? How much will it cost your business if you have any service downtime when one of your commercial deep fryers stops working? Will your fitout not only support your needs for the first year of operation but what about in three? Will it cover your online delivery market as well as your anticipated in-store covers? Does your equipment come with a great warranty to ensure you aren’t stuck with unexpected costs if something does require servicing? These are all crucial questions to be asking to ensure that you won’t outgrow your fitout within the first year of operation.
OUR RECOMMENDATION
Australian owned and designed and backed by a one year parts and labour warranty, the Trueheat RC Series has been tailor made for smaller restaurants and cafes who want culinary muscle at an affordable price. To help ensure your fitout is correctly setup and performing at its best, Trueheat also offer free start up commissioning. You can learn more about the Trueheat RC Series at Trueheat.com.au or fill in the form on this page.
“When it comes to fitting out our new kitchen we needed a lineup that was durable, powerful yet affordable. The Trueheat RC Series is unbelievable value for money”.
James & Shelley Nelson, Jamieson Brewery & Grill, VIC.
