Setting Up a Café? Here's Everything You Need Behind the Bar

Opening a café means a long list of decisions, and a big one is choosing what gear to use that needs to work every single shift, without excuses. While the espresso machine and grinder get most of the attention, it's the smaller tools that determine how smooth service actually runs. To take something off your plate, this is the equipment list we'd hand any new café owner.

Every barista needs a pitcher that pours clean and holds up to being knocked around all day. Rhino's range covers four profiles, so you can match the pitcher to the job rather than making do with one style for everything:

Classic — the standard café workhorse. Lightweight and dependable, with a refined spout for consistent pours. A solid starting point for training new staff and for general bar use.

Pro — built for baristas who want more control. The 1mm stainless steel body transfers heat more slowly, giving more time to texture milk, and it includes etched internal volume markings to help standardise pour volume and cut down on waste.

Stealth — a coated, non-stick finish that rinses clean faster in busy service, on the same 1mm stainless steel frame as the Pro.

Pro Stealth — combines the Pro's control and volume markings with the Stealth's coated finish, useful for multi-site cafés standardising pour volume or for colour-coded milk workflows.

Painted colour options are available across the range, which makes it easy to colour-code by milk type. A simple system that cuts down on mistakes during a rush.

A pitcher rinser keeps the counter clean and speeds up the reset between drinks. Rhino's SpinJet nozzle is built to hit more surface area per rinse, meaning cleaner jugs with less water and less time spent standing at the sink and all rinsers are NSF certified.

For a new fit-out, the main decision is installation type:

In-bench (300mm or 600mm) — the standard for integrated setups with maximum drainage, ideal if you're starting the fitout from scratch.

On-bench (Mini Sink) — a compact option for mobile setups or tight spaces.

Vertical drain — for installations where under-bench space or plumbing access is limited.

If you're also running smoothies, frappes, or other high-residue drinks, the 300mm or 600mm models pair with blender attachments designed to handle the extra waste matter.

This is worth deciding before the bench is built, retrofitting drainage after the fact is far more work than including it in the original plan

Consistency is the difference between a good coffee and a good coffee every time. A dedicated coffee scale takes the guesswork out of dosing and ratios, whether you're dialling in espresso or setting a stand out batch brew. It's a small piece of gear that has an outsized effect on quality control across a team of baristas.

Ideally you'll need at least one scale per station so no part of service falls behind while waiting for a scale

Rhino knock boxes and knock tubes are built to take repeated impact without prematurely cracking or loosening. This is one of the most physically used pieces of equipment behind any bar, so it needs to be genuinely solid.

There are options for all kinds of fit outs. Mini knock boxes and drawers that can sit on the bench, or for larger spaces, a knock tube that can last the whole day without needing to be emptied.

Tamping technique affects extraction, and a mat gives baristas a stable, non-slip surface to tamp on without damaging the bench or the tamper itself. Pairing a solid tamper with a proper mat is a basic but super easy way to avoid damage and encourage consistent tamping.

Cleaning tools don't get much attention until they're missing. Steam wand cloths, group head brushes, and general cleaning brushes are part of the daily maintenance routine that keeps machines running properly and keeps service hygienic. It's best to have enough cloths and brushes to keep each station properly maintained through service, as well as a few spares on hand.

Milk temperature affects texture, taste, and consistency, and it's one of the easiest things to get wrong when you're relying on guesswork. A dedicated thermometer takes that variable out of the equation and helps new staff get up to speed faster, ideally one thermometer per steam wand.

Rhino Coffee Gear is built specifically for commercial coffee environments, so every product on this list is designed to handle daily, high-volume use rather than occasional home use. Instead of sourcing pitchers from one supplier, scales from another, and knock boxes from a third, a new café can equip an entire bar through a single, purpose-built range.

If you're setting up a new site or restocking an existing one, reach out to us to chat through exactly what you may need.