Anyone planning to open a café gets a hundred different recommendations from every equipment vendor — all 'optimal', all significantly oversized for the actual need. Here is an honest equipment guide based on ten openings we've advised on over the past years.
Step 1: What kind of café?
Before you buy anything: what does your café day look like? Three models determine the equipment choice:
- Neighbourhood café: 60–120 cups a day, mostly mornings and weekends. Medium bar stress.
- Coffee-to-go: 150–300 cups, high peak-hour pressure (7–10 am, 12–2 pm).
- Specialty café with filter: 80–150 cups, lower espresso pressure but several brewing methods in parallel.
Espresso machine
The most expensive single item. Three realistic categories:
Entry (4,000–7,000 €)
Dual-circuit machines like Quick Mill Aquila, Rancilio Classe 5, Astoria Pratic Avant. Enough for a neighbourhood café up to 120 cups a day. Serviceable by many workshops.
Professional (8,000–15,000 €)
Industry standard: La Marzocco Linea, Nuova Simonelli Aurelia, Victoria Arduino Eagle One. For 200+ cups daily, very stable temperature control. Used from 5,000 €.
Premium (15,000–30,000 €)
La Marzocco Strada, Slayer V3, Modbar. For specialty cafés with an experimental edge (pressure profiles). Beautiful design. Hard to justify if you're not doing 300+ cups a day.
Our recommendation for most neighbourhood cafés: La Marzocco Linea Mini (2 brew groups, around 7,500 € new) or a used Linea Classic. They've proven themselves over 30 years, spare parts are everywhere, and the resale value after 10 years is still acceptable.
Grinders — often underestimated
Most café openers cut corners on grinders — and regret it for years. A good espresso grinder is more important than a good machine. Realistic budget: 1,500–3,500 € per grinder.
Recommendations: Mahlkönig E65S GbW (3,500 €, on-demand with scale), Mythos One (3,000 €), Anfim Pratica (1,800 €). Important: conical or flat burrs at least 65 mm. Home grinders under 1,000 € are overwhelmed in café service within months.
If you also do filter coffee: an additional filter grinder (e.g. Mahlkönig EK43, 3,500 €). Espresso and filter grinding on one grinder is unrealistic in professional service.
Water treatment
Berlin water destroys machines in two to three years. Water treatment is mandatory. Realistic budget: 600–1,500 € one-off plus filters every three to six months.
Recommendations: BWT Bestmax or Brita Purity for standard needs. For precise tuning: permeate/bypass systems with on-site water analysis.
Other bar equipment
- Knock box (espresso puck waste): 50–150 €
- Tamper (calibrated, 58.4 mm): 80–200 €
- Distribution tool: 60–150 €
- Milk pitchers (3–5 pieces, 350–600 ml): 80–150 €
- Cup set (espresso 60 ml + cappuccino 150 ml + latte 300 ml, 50 of each): 800–1,500 €
- Brew scale (Acaia Pearl or similar): 200–250 € each, three pieces.
- Cleaning chemicals (Cafiza, Rinza, Pulycaff): around 30 € a month
Till system
Cloud-based systems like SumUp, Vectron, Lightspeed K-Series are the café standard. Cost: 60–200 € per month plus 1.5–2.5 % transaction fee. Initial hardware (printer, tablet, receipt printer): 800–1,500 €.
Furniture, counter, flooring
Highly variable. Realistic budget for a 60 m² neighbourhood café: 15,000–35,000 €. If you take over an existing café: often considerably less.
Realistic total budget
Neighbourhood café (60–80 m², 80–120 cups/day), turnkey:
| Item | Budget |
|---|---|
| Espresso machine (used Linea Mini) | 5,000 € |
| 2x grinders (1 espresso, 1 filter) | 5,000 € |
| Water treatment | 1,000 € |
| Small bar items (tamper, pitchers, cups) | 1,500 € |
| Till system initial | 1,000 € |
| Furniture + bar (used) | 15,000 € |
| Renovation | 10,000 € |
| First coffee delivery + consumables | 2,000 € |
| Registrations, insurance, consulting | 3,000 € |
| Total | 43,500 € |
On top come rent and staff costs as ongoing expenses — we don't count those here because they depend on the neighbourhood.
Anyone planning a serious café opening should consider our Professional Training — the fifth day is explicitly a café-opening workshop, with equipment advice from Nicola (own roastery for decades) and Rami (knows every Berlin café machine workshop).