Coffee Shop Start-up Blog

[jdandtracy]

We are just getting started with construction on our new coffee shop in Colorado Springs, CO. We are doing a blog of our whole start up experience. If you are interested, the blog can be seen here:
http://nemoscoffeeshop.blogspot.com/

We are open to any suggestions or advice!
Thanks and take care,
JD Anderson

 

[Jackson]

Congratulations JD,

Good to see you are getting ready to open! I looked at your layout on the blog page, and noticed the sandwich station was not close to the customer ordering area, (the barista station?). How big is your back of house kitchen area? Can your cashier (Barista) talk to the sandwich maker, or is the kitchen in a separate room?

I also noticed that you have a convection oven beside the sandwich oven. You may want to consider an inexpensive impingement oven. You should be able to bake all your pastries in an impingement oven, and it works really well to make sandwiches, pitas, bagels, pizzas and so much more. Certain models do not require hoods either, which will save money. One other option would be to buy a Salamander, or cheese melter, which would heat the toppings on your pitas.

If you want any advice on brands, or models of kitchen equipment, do not hesitate to ask, I would be happy to help you!!!

Jackson

 

[jdandtracy]

Start up Blog

Hello Jackson,
Thanks for taking a look, Jackson!
We put the refrigerated sandwich prep table in the back, as we will be making a couple types of sandwiches a day to offer, as opposed to making sandwiches to order. We want to be a coffee shop, but we've received lots of input from local business people that they are dying for somewhere to grab some lunch. Our location has 18,000 medical and office employees within a one mile radius. There are no coffee shops and no food establishments within two miles of us. We don't want to be a restaurant, but we do want to be responsive to our local customers and offer a couple of sandwich/wrap selections, soup, pizza, etc.
We have two Intellitec campuses close by (one with 350 students in the same building as us, and another directly across the street with 450 students). We expect them to be our biggest lunch customers. We also have a Curves for Women next door (same building, adjacent space) with over 500 members. If it becomes apparent that people want made to order sandwiches, then we will adapt to that. We intentionally made the front of the bar a retail space, which can be converted later to a sandwich bar like Subway if the demand is there.

We had intended to buy a convection oven, as you saw in the layout, but my wife wants to use Otis Spunkmeyer doughs and they provide an oven for free. If it does not meet our needs, or if we decide not to continue to use Otis, then I will check into your suggestions. I'd also be interested in a panini grill at some point.

We have chosen equipment to purchase, consisting mostly of Bev Air refrigeration, but I will run my equipment list by you for input. I'm still finalizing it, but will send it your way when complete. I appreciate your offer to give us advice!

As for how big our kitchen area is, each square in the grid represents one square foot.

Thanks,
JD Anderson

 

[Jackson]

If Otis wants to lend you an oven, take it!! I remember seeing one of their ovens in a yogurt shop a while back, it's about twice the size of a toaster oven. You may be able to put the oven behind your front counter, that way all your customers will smell whatever you are baking. Most food items in a coffee shop are impulse sales, so if your customers smell yummy Otis cookies baking, you may be able to sell them right out of the oven. Not to mention, the smaller the oven, the cheaper it will be to operate. In the summer, you will be happy to have a small oven in your shop instead of a full sized oven blasting hot air everywhere.
How much product do you need to purchase to use the oven for free?

 

[jdandtracy]

My wife spoke with the Otis rep and she stated that we just need to continue to order product from them, no quotas. Tracy said they might require the oven to be visible to the customers, which is where we would like to have it anyway.

The occupancy calcualtions changed in 2007, so we have had to completly change our layout again to meet the criteria. You can check it out in my blog.

Thanks,
JD

If Otis wants to lend you an oven, take it!! I remember seeing one of their ovens in a yogurt shop a while back, it's about twice the size of a toaster oven. You may be able to put the oven behind your front counter, that way all your customers will smell whatever you are baking. Most food items in a coffee shop are impulse sales, so if your customers smell yummy Otis cookies baking, you may be able to sell them right out of the oven. Not to mention, the smaller the oven, the cheaper it will be to operate. In the summer, you will be happy to have a small oven in your shop instead of a full sized oven blasting hot air everywhere.
How much product do you need to purchase to use the oven for free?

 

[La Crema Coffee]

Hi and congrats. I took a look too, and I didn't see a small under counter refer near the espresso machine. Where's the barista going to get the milk ect from? 8)