Need help designing cafe kitchen

EssentialParadox

I'm currently designing the kitchen for a cafe I'm opening with my sister. We have a location but it doesn't currently have a kitchen so we have to fit it in from scratch. I'm hoping some of you guys might be more experienced than us regarding cafes or restaurants and can add their input into the design.

Our menu is simple and will generally include:
- Sandwiches (chicken & roasted tomato, morroccan lamb sausage, cheese & caramelized onion, and some veggie options).
- Some simple snacks, like crisps.
- Cakes and other small treats.
- Drinks will include the usuals of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, soft drinks, but we'll also serve alcoholic drinks.

The sandwich ingredients will be prepared and cooked on site a few times per day. The alcoholic drinks will be bottled to keep it simple.



The pictures below are what I've come up with so far. The kitchen is cosy but we're trying to be efficient with space so we don't have to give up too much seating. As it is, we have around 35 seats.





One area we're currently trying to figure out is whether we have enough fridge space with just one fridge - I know we'd need to refrigerate meats and a few obvious items, but what about fruits and vegetables? Are there less obvious items we might be overlooking? If we're going to have less fridge space than expected we might put in a second dedicated fridge for drinks.

pleasedelete

I assume that this is an area in which you have extensive experience-what were the kitchens you have worked in like? what worked well? what could have been better? what are the legal requirements?

How often will your suppliers deliver? That will influence fridge capacity.

gardengull

I don't have commercial kitchen experience, but if you have the Dishwasher open to fill it (I assume that's what it is on the left in the first picture), you won't be able to get in or out of the kitchen?

flea72

A double sink is invaluable in a kitchen for food prep, but a drainer isnt neccesary as you have the dishwasher.

Fridge size would depend on how much produce you go through and how much you plan to store. A few sandwich fillings, wont take up that much space. A cake display fridge in the front of house, would be better as it doubles up as storage and is visible temptation to customers


Again, coffee machine out of kitchen frees up space and the aroma tempts customers to buy more (unless you are using a premixed machine, then hide that in the kitchen)

Menu seems a but limited tho, to make a decent living from

Errata

Where will kitchen staff wash their hands? Store their coats and bags?Where will the chiller cabinet for the bottled drinks go?

phill99

You will be better with open shelving instead of wall cupboards. You get much more storage space, it is easier to clean and you don't want to be having to open doors every 5 seconds to access the contents. Plus you will have less chance of injury with people walking into open doors. Having open shelves is a time saver and when you are busy, every second counts.

Get s commercial dishwasher. They take less than 10 minutes to do a cycle. A domestic one takes an hour. Also, commercial use of a domestic dishwasher will invalidate its guarantee.

You also really need to ask if you need to offer alcohol. You need to remember that the 'sandwich and coffee' market is far different from the lunch time drinking market. If you were doing an evening meal selection, people may well expect to buy beer or wine with, but your menu suggests breakfast and lunch. Alcohol also ties up much needed working capital, has low margins, takes up valuable storage space and has legal ramifications ie you need to get and pay for an on-licence which again eats into your margins.

You'll need a hand washing sink in the kitchen.

Do you need a male and female toilet? In many smaller premises, its common to have a unisex wc. This will free up a big chunk of floor space that you could use for non kitchen based prep, eg making tea and coffees (a barrista machine us essential now in any decent cafe -can be rented), putting stuff on trays, storage of cutlery, chilled display if cakes and gateaux (encourages people to buy them if they are appetising and nicely displayed).

You have a lot to think about! Most businesses fail within the first two years so you need to up the ante and think like a cafe owner and not base your decisions on how you serve food at home!

Good luck.

paddyrg

The kitchen looks domestic as opposed to commercial - I'd expect to see more stainless steel pull-out surfaces, non-slip lino going a few inches up the wall and rubber mating by the sinks/commercial dishwasher so you don't break your neck if the floor is wet, and can bleach surfaces easily etc. Commercial, coloured chopping boards and knives will help. You'll need an area to keep invoices, coshh, employment etc paperwork. The cooker looks domestic and small - maybe you don't need it at all or maybe you can make do with a couple of commercial microwaves plus an urn!

Basically, domestic kit is going to be slow and rubbish - it's meant for use once a day and looking pretty. Commercial kit looks utilitarian but is designed to be easy to clean and manage, and that means public health inspections are going to be easier to satisfy than domestic lino with dirt-trap cupboards etc. Try visiting a free commercial kitchens and seeing how they're different, might save you a lot of refitting in the medium term

paddyrg

PS, as the property is laid out, punters well be looking in your kitchen every time they go to the loo - an added pressure to keep it prim at busy times.

Waste - what are you planning to do with it? That's boxes from the wholesaler, plastic wrap, food waste, coffee dregs etc. You need to consider this, as a domestic pedal bin will frustrate you a few hours into your first service, even if it has a space to go in the kitchen. Especially if the kitchen needs to look prim as it's on display.

BritishBibliophile

Your coffee machine looks tiny, my housemate owns a cafe and has one of those proper "industrial size" (i.e. not much smaller than Starbucks/Cafe Nero/Costa Coffe etc) ones, it's pretty essential as you can then have several drinks being made at once, rather than just one.

I think you need to settle on whether you're a cafe or a restaurant, in cafe's people tend to choose where they sit and then go to the counter, whereas the small counter set-up in your pictures suggests a restaurant setting with staff walking people to available tables. If that's the case then you're going to need to staff to go to tables and collect/write down orders, which is time consuming, instead of having people walk to you. Also how to people that just want a takeaway coffee order? Any orders for hot food will need to be walked to the kitchen, if you've got a queue then that wastes time and leads to longer waiting.

As the others said above, you've got no real visibility or display, in cafes a lot of people will go in just for a drink and then buy a cake because they can see it and they think it looks tasty, same with sandwiches.

Just because you're a cafe doesn't mean you can't do hot meals like a restaurant does, my housemate's place has a set of standard hot food options (i.e. omlettes) which are easy to knock up, and then has some daily specials that are a bit more involved.

I think you're going to need to lose 2 or 3 customer tables (or shuffle them around) and move the counter back towards the kitchen where that green mark is, invert the "L" shape that's along those 2 walls (so it's sticking out) and make that your counter area with a cake display.

I also agree that I think alcohol is going to be a pain to deal with, there's laws around times that you can sell it and you WILL get under age "mystery shoppers" sent in by the police to ensure that you're not selling to anyone under 18.

firefox1956

Before you do absolutely anything else or spend any money on your kitchen get your local Environmental Health Officer out for a site visit.
There is no point AT ALL going on with your design until you have had a site visit.
Plus.......
Disabled toilet in your design with 3 steps up to it ?? !!!!
That is a domestic kitchen you have designed.........
For commercial use it will all have to be stainless steel = treble the cost.
You are going to have to do a lot lot more work on this.........

phill99

firefox1956 wrote: »

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For commercial use it will all have to be stainless steel = treble the cost.

This is wrong. My regulsr cafe has a domestic kitchen and a 5 star hygiene rating. There are thousands of cafes with domestic units that work perfectly well.