Starting a coffee shop means settling four things: format, lease, permits and equipment, and the coffee. Most guides on how to start a coffee shop cover the first three and leave the fourth blank. This one costs the coffee, gives you six questions to ask a roaster, and names the purchases you shouldn't make yet.
Key takeaways
- Coffee is the only line in a cafe budget that repeats every day the doors are open, and most startup guides leave it blank.
- Inheritance publishes its retail price at $117 for a 5lb bag, about $1.17 per 12-ounce cup, and retail is the ceiling a wholesale account sits below.
- Six questions settle whether a roaster fits your bar: minimums, delivery, roast day, grinding, training, and what the price depends on.
- You don't need to buy a roaster to open a coffee shop, and you may not need a consultant either.
The line nobody puts in the spreadsheet
Every other cost in a coffee shop is one-time or slow-moving. The espresso machine gets bought once. The lease resets once a year. Coffee gets bought again every week for as long as the doors are open.
Here is a number to build against. Our office coffee page publishes the retail price on this site: $117 for a 5lb bag, which is $23.40 a pound, or about $1.17 per 12-ounce cup. A pound is 454 grams and yields about 20 cups. Retail is your ceiling, and a wholesale account sits below it.
We won't print what below means, because wholesale pricing is set per account and shows up after approval. A ceiling is still enough to model with. Take your own drink count, say 200 a day, and at $1.17 that's about $234 a day, or $85,000 a year at the worst price you'd ever pay. If the model doesn't close at the ceiling, it doesn't close.
That's the whole menu at one number. Costing a single drink, with milk and syrup and the coffee you lose to dial-in, is its own job, and we work it through in coffee shop menu pricing.
Six questions to ask a roaster before you sign anything
"Choose a quality roaster" is not advice. These six are. Ask them of everyone you talk to and compare the answers.
- What is your minimum order? Ours is none. A minimum isn't a bad sign by itself, but it sets how much cash you tie up in inventory in month one.
- Do you deliver, or do I ship? We deliver free inside forty miles of Pensacola and ship beyond it, and whether you sit inside that radius moves your price. That's more useful to know than anything on a roaster's About page.
- Which day do you roast? We roast to order every Wednesday in Pensacola. A named roast day is checkable in a way that "always fresh" is not.
- Is grinding included, and should I use it? We grind free to any brewer. For espresso, buy whole bean anyway: coffee ground on Wednesday forty minutes away is worse on your bar than coffee ground on your own burrs thirty seconds before the shot.
- Does training come with the account? Ours isn't bundled into every wholesale account. It's part of what we do for shops we consult on, so it's a fair thing to ask for, and better agreed out loud than assumed.
- What does the price depend on? Four things shape ours: monthly volume, formats, whether you sit inside the forty mile delivery radius or ship, and how predictable your order rhythm is. A roaster who can't name the variables is quoting rather than building an account.
If coffee on the bar is all you want, our page on wholesale coffee for cafes is where that starts.
Rehearse the operation before you sign the lease
A business plan won't teach you throughput. The first fifty drinks of a real service window will. They tell you whether your menu is too long and whether one person can hold the bar, which is the whole subject of bar workflow.
The cheapest version is one day of serving real coffee to real people under time pressure. The Ritz-Carlton, lululemon, Sony, Ubisoft, Target, Awaken Church and Jason Mraz have all hired our coffee cart, and every one of those bookings is the test you are about to run: a menu, a queue, a service window, and no second chance at the first fifty drinks.
That's the argument of our guide to starting a church coffee shop: a cart in the lobby before a room with a counter in it. Churches take that advice more readily than cafe owners do, and we've costed their version of the test to the dollar in what a church coffee shop costs.
The purchases you shouldn't make yet
Most advice about opening a cafe is written by companies that sell something in it, so it runs toward buying. Two of the earliest purchases can wait.
You don't need to roast to open a coffee shop, and if you eventually want your own coffee in your own bag, you still don't need to own a roaster. We run Pensacola's only co-roasting space, where you can rent time on a 15 kilo production roaster, and our page on starting a coffee brand without buying a roaster lays out the three routes. Two things stall first projects on that path, and neither is the machine: green bought in quantity is capital sitting on a pallet losing quality monthly, and what federal law requires on the bag is a question most people meet after the artwork is finished.
You may also not need a consultant. Our consulting page says it plainly: "We do not publish tiers. Some conversations end with us saying you do not need consulting, and that is a fine outcome." We consult on cafes as well as churches, and the business grew out of a church coffee project. It's still not one every owner needs to pay for.
Where the published cost estimates stop being useful
Startup cost estimates for a cafe are widely published and vary by format, because a cart, a kiosk and a full room with seating are three different businesses. They stop at the point the coffee begins.
Permits are the other place a national figure misleads. Licensing is set by your city, county and state, so a number printed for a reader in Pensacola is wrong for a reader in Portland. Start with the Small Business Administration's guide to licenses and permits, and open the health department conversation before you finalize a build-out.
Questions we get about starting a coffee shop
How much does it cost to start a coffee shop?
There is no single honest number, because format decides it: a cart, a kiosk and a full cafe with seating are three different builds. The figure you can pin down first is the coffee, at about $1.17 a 12-ounce cup at our retail ceiling.
How do I choose a coffee roaster for my coffee shop?
Ask six questions and compare answers rather than adjectives: minimum order, delivery or shipping, roast day, grinding, training, and what the price depends on. Ours are none, free inside forty miles, Wednesday, yes and free, not bundled, and four variables including delivery radius.
How much does coffee cost a coffee shop per cup?
Less than retail, and retail is the only per-cup figure a roaster can honestly publish. Ours is about $1.17 per 12-ounce cup, from $117 for a 5lb bag at $23.40 a pound. A wholesale account sits below that, and how far below depends on volume and delivery radius.
Is a coffee shop profitable?
It can be, and the coffee is rarely the line that decides it. At a ceiling of about $1.17 per 12-ounce cup, the beans are a small share of a drink next to the people making it and the room you make it in.
What licenses and permits do I need to open a coffee shop?
Licensing is set by your city, county and state rather than nationally, so any list printed for one reader is wrong for most others. Expect a business license, a food service or health permit, and building permits if you are altering the space.
How long does it take to open a coffee shop?
Your landlord and your health department set that clock, not your roaster. Lease negotiation, build-out and inspections are the long poles, and they run on local schedules no national guide can predict. The coffee side is short: a conversation, an approved account, and a Wednesday roast.
Do I need to roast my own coffee to open a coffee shop?
No. Most coffee shops buy from a roaster rather than roasting on site. If you want your own coffee in your own bag later, you still do not need to own a roaster: private label, contract roasting and renting licensed equipment all get you there.
Can I start with a coffee cart instead of a coffee shop?
Yes, and a cart is both a real format and a cheap rehearsal. It gives you a menu, a queue and a service window without a lease, which is where you learn whether your drink list and staffing plan survive a line of customers.
Where to start, if you want help
The rest of how to start a coffee shop is well covered by people who have never sourced a bean. The coffee is the part we can help with, and the service is cafe consulting. The next step is to write in through our contact page with the shop you're planning and where you are. Pricing is set per project, we don't publish tiers, and some of those conversations end with us saying you don't need consulting.
If all you want is coffee on the bar, that's a shorter conversation. ASCENT is what we'd put on a cafe bar: roasted to order every Wednesday in Pensacola and ground free to whatever machine you have, or left whole for your burrs.
