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Cafe Equipment
A cafe is built around two machines: the espresso machine that sets your service speed, and the refrigeration that keeps milk and cabinet food at temperature all day. Commercial Kitchen Appliances stocks both, plus the grinders, cake display and warewashing that sit around them, ex-GST with Australia-wide delivery.
- Australia-wide delivery
- SilverChef finance available
- Manufacturer-backed warranty
- Granville showroom
Popular in this range
A selection from 187 products, priced ex-GST.
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Who this range is for
Cafes, espresso bars, roasteries with a retail front, and any venue where coffee is the main reason people walk in. If you are sizing your first machine, replacing a group head that can no longer keep up, or working out what refrigeration a cabinet menu needs, start here.
Speccing a cafe by throughput, not by floor area
Almost every cafe equipment mistake traces back to sizing on room size instead of peak-hour throughput. Work out your busiest sixty minutes first, then size each stage to clear it. The stages below run in the order a coffee actually gets made.
1
Espresso and grinding
Your grinder limits your machine, not the other way around.
| Espresso machines | Group count sets how many shots you can pull at once, which is your real ceiling at peak. |
| Coffee grinders | Run one grinder per bean you offer. Switching a single grinder between blend and decaf costs time on every order. |
| Machine accessories | Tampers, knock boxes and filter baskets. Budget for spare baskets, which wear faster than people expect. |
2
Milk and cold storage
The stage that fails inspections and slows baristas at the same time.
| Underbench fridges | Sited within arm's reach of the group head. Every step to a back fridge repeats hundreds of times a day. |
| Undercounter glass door fridges | Lets staff see stock levels without opening the door and dumping cold air. |
| Drink fridges | Self-serve cold drinks lift average spend without adding labour. |
3
Cabinet and food display
Display is what converts a coffee-only customer into a food sale.
| Cake display fridges | Refrigerated display for anything with dairy or cream - ambient display will not meet the temperature rules. |
| Countertop display fridges | For counters with no room for a full upright. Sits at eye level where it sells hardest. |
| Ambient displays | Only for shelf-stable items such as biscuits and slices with no dairy filling. |
4
Hot food and toasting
Most cafes need a small hot offer, not a full cookline.
| Conveyor toasters | Consistent output without a staff member watching it. Worth it once toast volume is steady. |
| Benchtop grills | Toasted sandwiches and paninis from a single benchtop unit. |
| Sandwich and salad prep fridges | Refrigerated prep surface so fillings stay under temperature during service. |
5
Ice, blending and warewashing
The stage most often deferred, and the one that limits your summer menu.
| Ice makers | Iced drinks consume far more ice than operators estimate. Size on summer peak, not annual average. |
| Bar blenders | Frappes and smoothies. Commercial motors survive back-to-back use where domestic units burn out. |
| Glasswashers | Fast cycles for cups and glassware. See the comparison below before defaulting to a dishwasher. |
Two-group vs three-group espresso machine
This is the decision that most affects both your capital spend and your queue length, and it is difficult to change later without re-plumbing and re-wiring the bench. Group count determines how many shots can be pulled at the same time.
| Two-group | Three-group | |
|---|---|---|
| Shots at once | Two extractions running simultaneously | Three extractions running simultaneously |
| Baristas it supports | One barista comfortably; two at a squeeze | Two baristas working side by side without clashing |
| Bench space needed | Shorter footprint, suits tight counters and kiosks | Noticeably wider - confirm your bench run before ordering |
| Boiler recovery | Smaller boiler can lag during a long unbroken rush | Larger boiler holds temperature through extended peaks |
| Electrical supply | Dedicated circuit; confirm rating against the model | Higher draw again - often a larger circuit or three-phase |
| Choose it when | Suburban cafe or kiosk, or coffee is secondary to food | Hard, sustained morning peak - CBD or transport-adjacent |
What drives the cost of fitting out a cafe
We have deliberately not published dollar ranges, because a believable figure depends on your site, menu and machine choice - and a generic number would mislead more than it helps. What we can tell you is what moves the total, so you can scope a budget you trust.
The espresso machine and grinder are the largest single block in most cafe fit-outs, and group count is the biggest lever within it. Refrigeration is next, then display.
The decision that changes the budget most sharply is your food offer. Toasting and sandwich pressing are usually straightforward, but adding grilling or frying can trigger an extraction canopy requirement - a step change in cost rather than an incremental one. Settle the menu before you finalise the counter layout.
For a real figure on your own site, send us your counter layout and menu and we will quote it. Finance is available through SilverChef, with approvals up to around $65,000 in about five minutes - worth considering for the machine specifically, since it is the item you least want to under-buy to fit a cash budget.
What a cafe has to get right in Australia
Plumbing. A plumbed espresso machine requires a backflow prevention device under the AS/NZS 3500 plumbing standards, installed by a licensed plumber. Water filtration or softening is not a legal requirement but is strongly advised - scale is a leading cause of premature boiler and valve failure.
Electrical. Commercial machines need a dedicated circuit, and the rating rises with group count. Have a licensed electrician confirm both the circuit and your switchboard capacity against the specific model before purchase - a machine that cannot be powered is an expensive lesson.
Milk and cabinet food. Milk and any cream- or dairy-filled cabinet item are potentially hazardous foods and must be held at 5°C or below under Food Standards Code 3.2.2. That is why cream-filled display needs refrigerated cabinets rather than ambient ones. If you cool anything cooked on site, the same standard requires cooling from 60°C to 21°C within two hours and 21°C to 5°C within a further four.
Surfaces and extraction. Food-handling surfaces must be smooth, impervious and cleanable under Food Standards Code 3.2.3, and a dedicated handwash basin is required. If your menu needs a canopy, sizing falls under AS 1668.2. Confirm fit-out details with your local council, which administers food-premises approval.
Cafe equipment FAQs
How many groups do I need on my espresso machine?
Size on your peak hour, not your daily total. Each group lets you pull one more extraction at the same time, so count the most coffees you need to produce in your busiest sixty minutes and work back from there. Two groups suits one barista; three lets two work side by side. If your volume sits on the boundary, buy the larger machine - adding a group later means re-plumbing and often re-wiring the bench.
Does the grinder matter as much as the machine?
Arguably more. Grind consistency has a greater effect on the cup than most machine differences, and a slow grinder will bottleneck even an excellent three-group. Run a separate grinder for each bean you offer - switching one grinder between blend and decaf costs seconds on every order, which compounds badly during a rush.
Do I need a backflow prevention device for a coffee machine?
Yes, for any plumbed-in commercial machine. It stops water from the machine flowing back into the mains supply and is required under the AS/NZS 3500 plumbing standards. It must be fitted by a licensed plumber, and in many jurisdictions requires periodic testing - factor both into your fit-out.
Should I use a glasswasher or a dishwasher in a cafe?
For cups, glassware and saucers a glasswasher is better suited - shorter cycles and gentler handling keep pace with table turnover. If you also serve plated food you need a dishwasher for plates and cookware, since a glasswasher lacks the rack height and wash intensity. Many cafes with a food menu run both.
How much ice-making capacity does a cafe need?
More than most operators estimate. Iced coffee, frappes and cold drinks consume ice quickly and demand is heavily seasonal, so size against your summer peak rather than an annual average. Running short mid-shift means either capping your cold menu or buying bagged ice, both of which cost more than the right machine would have.
Can I put cream cakes in an ambient display cabinet?
No. Anything containing dairy, cream or custard is a potentially hazardous food and must be held at 5°C or below under Food Standards Code 3.2.2, which means a refrigerated display cabinet. Ambient display is only appropriate for shelf-stable items such as plain biscuits and slices with no dairy filling.
Do I need an exhaust canopy for a cafe?
It depends on your food offer. Toasting and sandwich pressing often do not require one, but grilling and frying usually do, and canopy requirements are assessed under AS 1668.2. Because extraction is a significant cost step rather than an incremental one, decide your food menu before finalising the counter layout, and confirm with your council early.
Supplying another kind of venue? We stock commercial kitchen equipment for every trade in Australian food service.
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