barb
New member
I'm starting my own coffee shop and still researching equipment - found this machine is used by starbucks - any other ideas suggestions? :?
La Marzocco Espresso machine
- Thread starter barb
- Start date
everydaygourmet
New member
barb said:
You just found the lifeblood & soul of your business....now move onto the 3,000 other things you need to do and worry about....
your La Marzocco will take care of you and your customers for a long time to come. :grin: :-D
everydaygourmet
New member
Re: Ideas & suggestions
OK, 3000 things might be an exageration, but when you open a shop (any business) there is always 10 times the work you plan on, and it always cost me twice as much as I planned.
:-D
coffee, roasters, syrups, equipment, leases, contractors, paper supples, advertising, signage, licenses, etc. etc..
each of these has 5 - 200 options/decisions you need to decide on.
the list is endless...just make yourself a good plan, and do lots of research.
bottom line- the La Marzocco is a great choice, and really helps eliminate a lot of variables in making great coffee.
If I could suggest you looking into the same grinder we are using....it is awesome. (not well known....but awesome)
http://www.espresso.com/capriccio.html
good luck!
barb said:
OK, 3000 things might be an exageration, but when you open a shop (any business) there is always 10 times the work you plan on, and it always cost me twice as much as I planned.
:-D
coffee, roasters, syrups, equipment, leases, contractors, paper supples, advertising, signage, licenses, etc. etc..
each of these has 5 - 200 options/decisions you need to decide on.
the list is endless...just make yourself a good plan, and do lots of research.
bottom line- the La Marzocco is a great choice, and really helps eliminate a lot of variables in making great coffee.
If I could suggest you looking into the same grinder we are using....it is awesome. (not well known....but awesome)
http://www.espresso.com/capriccio.html
good luck!
cafemakers
Member
Everydaygourmet makes an extremely important point: we find that all many new shop owners place all of their focus on the espresso equipment, and overlook many of the most basic important aspects of starting and running their new coffee business: 1) the coffee and 2) the business.
The challenges in running a coffee shop are the same as running any other retail business: selecting a good location, dealing with landlords, contractors and red tape, developing solid operational procedures, selecting good employees and managing them effectively, marketing that business, dealing with competition... and the list can go on and on.
The specialty coffee business faces one added challenge, in that the far majority of people who start a coffee shop have never even tasted good coffee. Although helpful for ideas in shop design and location selection, the danger in using Star$ as a model is that many shop owners do not realize how awful a product they serve. This would be like trying to start a gourmet restaurant without ever having tasted food other than McDonald's.
Save the equipment selection for later. If you really want to help your new business now, buy a plane ticket to Italy and hop from cafe to cafe to see what the USA is really missing in product quality. You'll see a number of different machine names, and all of them will serve great coffee.
The challenges in running a coffee shop are the same as running any other retail business: selecting a good location, dealing with landlords, contractors and red tape, developing solid operational procedures, selecting good employees and managing them effectively, marketing that business, dealing with competition... and the list can go on and on.
The specialty coffee business faces one added challenge, in that the far majority of people who start a coffee shop have never even tasted good coffee. Although helpful for ideas in shop design and location selection, the danger in using Star$ as a model is that many shop owners do not realize how awful a product they serve. This would be like trying to start a gourmet restaurant without ever having tasted food other than McDonald's.
Save the equipment selection for later. If you really want to help your new business now, buy a plane ticket to Italy and hop from cafe to cafe to see what the USA is really missing in product quality. You'll see a number of different machine names, and all of them will serve great coffee.
everydaygourmet
New member
cafemakers said:
Great McDonald's analogy - well said on all points Cafemakers!
Barb,
The one of the other things I would do, is utilize a consultant for more than a few hours of consultation. I believe cafemakers offers this service, and they are not pushy about it in the forums - they have my respect just for that reason alone.
If you ahve never opened and/or operated a business (I have done both several times....and it is still a somewhat overwhelming process) then I would most definately budget for some professional advice from a consultant.
You'll get an idea pretty quick of the 3,000 other decisions besides your espresso machine that I mentioned earlier.
Again, Good Luck
- Thread Starter
- Thread starter
- #7
Great Startup!
Tks, I started with the "equipment" just to plan a part of finances for the 1st year and figure good equipment is one less problem to deal with in the 1st year - have the location and considered the "challenge" issues of running a business - but for sure have not researched much of "different kinds of coffee" which is very important and I'm open to suggestions in the US - can't travel at this point and I reside in Illinois - I appreciate your comments and suggestions! The business plan is set with a clear understanding of "will be overwhelm - overworked - long days, weeks -months - underpaid - but hey, I'm doing for myself this time! and that puts the smile on my face.
Tks, I started with the "equipment" just to plan a part of finances for the 1st year and figure good equipment is one less problem to deal with in the 1st year - have the location and considered the "challenge" issues of running a business - but for sure have not researched much of "different kinds of coffee" which is very important and I'm open to suggestions in the US - can't travel at this point and I reside in Illinois - I appreciate your comments and suggestions! The business plan is set with a clear understanding of "will be overwhelm - overworked - long days, weeks -months - underpaid - but hey, I'm doing for myself this time! and that puts the smile
on my face.kcbirdog
New member
Be carefull of the LaMarzocco's on ebay that come from starbucks.(tagex) They are mostly crap, and require thousands more dumped into them before being a good LaMarzocco!barb said:
CCafe
Active member
I have bought from Tagex too, 2 Fetco's. 1 CBS 52H and 61H. They both required about $250 worth of parts and the 61 looks almost like it was dropped. The pictures he posted showed it in perfect condition. But then again I believe he reuses his old pictures.
The last brewer they shipped me took almost a month to get. They came up with some of the stupidest excuses why it was never shipped. They told me it was shipped one day and a week later they said it hadn't shipped yet.
The last brewer they shipped me took almost a month to get. They came up with some of the stupidest excuses why it was never shipped. They told me it was shipped one day and a week later they said it hadn't shipped yet.
deferio
New member
Although Cafemakers has a point to mention Italy for culture value...just because they use a certain machine in Italy does NOT mean it makes good coffee....you need to do ALOT of research into the machine. It is one of the Four Ms in italian espresso. If you want to be gourmet....serve the best...not just good enough. If you don't research your equipment you will never know which one you are serving.
Check out alt.coffee on the google search engine...and search for machines by name etc...lots of good discussions and details.
Also go to SCAAs forums under the Retailer forum and the Barista Guild forums...these are people who study there machines anf are glad to discuss beyond the basics.
-Chris Deferio
Check out alt.coffee on the google search engine...and search for machines by name etc...lots of good discussions and details.
Also go to SCAAs forums under the Retailer forum and the Barista Guild forums...these are people who study there machines anf are glad to discuss beyond the basics.
-Chris Deferio
everydaygourmet How do you adjust this grinder? And is it easy to get to the burrs?
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