floor plans for coffee house

[Ellie]

Getting ready to come up with some ideas for floor plans in preparation for building a sit-down coffee house with a drive-thru window, to include roasting in the future. Any design ideas that have worked really well for folks?

Would also like to hear from those who would have designed things differently if they had to do it over again.

Thanks,
Ellie

 

[Ellie]

a reply to my own post

Ah well, as you can see, I must lead a really exciting life if I can't find anything better to do on a Sat night than reply to my own post. :-D

Hey, I saw a coffeehouse in Gainesville that did a very nice job of converting an old Dairy Queen. They used the vestibule to post notices of college and other community events. They painted the inside dark colors (forest green and burgandy), and the ceiling tiles brown, put some neat looking window treatments on all those windows, hung some samples of local artwork, brought in tables, chairs, and upholstered furniture, and voila! An excellent-looking coffehouse.

Any other success stories?

Ellie

 

[dirtyrice]

I'm also planning a Coffee House/Cafe.

I, too, have no floor plans.

Right now I'm going from shop to shop looking at what they have done and making mental notes of what I like and what I hate :evil: .

Trial and error works if you have an unlimited bank account....I do not have that bank account so here I am new to your forum.

I am trying to learn from the "big boys" and indi's who have successful shops already open.

*$'s sells coffee and seem to stay open (so far). So perhaps you should study their layouts. I'll bet that business schools all over the world are looking at them.

Don't look at the "Wall Street Successes" only............ Big money fails as often as the small shops. Small shops can use "sweat equity" and the big corp.'s can provide an economy of scale volume. Use what you have and learn from what "the others" are using and doing.

I am hoping to get a feel in my shop that would scare off executives for & investors in McD's and W-mart.............of course, things could change and I might see the day that McD's and W-mart are places I would want to hang out in. Personally, I am not waiting for that day.

So who has those floor plans?

David

 

[drrule]

I may be able to help you with designing/layout. Drop me a line and I will send you some of the work I have done on a couple of occasions. If you give me the dimensions of what you have, I can design something to scale as well as show virtual walk thru pictures.

Here is an example.

http://www.coffeerules.com/index.asp?documentID=670

Let me know if you have any questions.

This is a pretty simple layout, but should give you an idea of what I am talking about.

Jason
785-650-1759

 

[liquidbrain]

coffee house designs

hey...my first post here.

when it comes to a design (in my experiance as both customer and manager) ask yourself a question:

Do i want a high volume? or do i want comfortable?

I personally believe a caffe should be an extension of ones own living room where you open your doors to distant friends and reletives you actually would like to see more often.

I am not of the archtectual mind more of the philosophy.

hope that helps :grin:

 

[ElPugDiablo]

I would pay close attention to

1) get an architect who knows coffeehouse, AND local building code. I worked with a moron with lots of restaurants under his belt, but he didn't know hespresso machine needs water line, nor roaster needs gas line. Even though I gave him all of the machine specification, he totally blew it. I guess I shouldn't complain, he did put sewer lines down for toilets. Learn to read blue print and question everything.
2) storage space, especially if you plan to roast later on. those burlap bags take awful lot of room.
3) counter space, make sure you have enough working space for current and future needs. If I were to do over again, I would have make sure I have enough counter space for two espresso machines.
4) traffic flow, you need to make sure when there is a line, it does not clog the traffic for people to come in or get out, and for employees to clean tables and restock stations. You also don't want the line for spill into the seating area.
5) make sure you have lots of electrical outlets.
6) How much build out is your landlord building for you? It can save you a lot of money.

 

[nzroaster]

Here is a link to my blog where there is a layout plan for the cafe/roastery.
It is situated in a "tourist spot" hence it is a little different.



http://coffeeroastery.blogspot.com